A Study in the Difference of Warranty Failures of Common Platform Different Brand Name Dishwashing Appliances

Abstract

There is a significant resource cost in the development of products. To minimize the resource cost and maximize the return on investment many companies develop several new products from one common platform. Common platforms spread across several separate brands. Different branding has different customers that have different perceptions of quality. Customers view quality as a mix of utility and reliability, and expect high reliability during the warranty period. It is often assumed by the developer the quality cost will be equal among each brand. Using the warranty data of a common platform dishwashing appliance the hypothesis was derived there is non-similar warranty costing between common platforms, but different brands. The factors and variables that affect the different warranty rates are also studied. This study focus is on two home appliance brands manufactured and marketed in North America. Both brands are produced in the same factories, and were designed concurrently to utilize as many common components and manufacturing techniques as possible. The study variables include: part replacement, service type, and type of failure. The assessment methods are hypothesis testing based on the company provided parametric and non-parametric variable data. Based on the results of this study it will be known if there is a warranty cost percentage associated with a product based purely on brand name or other variables.