STATISTICAL-ANALYSIS OF PRODUCT WARRANTY DATA

Data bases regarding warranty claims for manufactured products record claims experience and information about concomitant factors. If constr ucted and maintained properly, warranty data bases may be used for a v ariety of purposes that include the prediction of future claims, the c omparison of claims experience for different groups of products, the e stimation of field reliability, and the identification of opportunitie s for quality and reliability improvement. This paper reviews some met hods of analyzing warranty data and of addressing these objectives. So me extensions of previous work and suggestions for future development are included. Examples involving warranty claims for automobiles and r efrigerators are considered.