BearingPoint’s Automotive Practice recently teamed with the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA), Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) and Warranty Week magazine to study warranty-management challenges in the auto industry. Via an international survey, we sought to find out how OEMs and suppliers at all tiers perceive the warranty challenge and what solutions they are using or investigating to improve warranty programs and reduce costs.

The survey examined how automotive OEMs and suppliers are working together to deliver a higher quality experience for the consumer, and how they might improve their collective abilities to:

• Increase consumer satisfaction and loyalty
• Raise levels of collaboration
• Reduce incident rates and improve part and vehicle quality
• Reduce detection-to-correction times
• Reduce overall warranty costs

More than 200 quality and warranty-management professionals weighed in, the great majority representing suppliers. The picture emerging from our research is both positive and negative. On the plus side, OEMs and suppliers have made measurable warranty-related improvements over the past three years. The not-unexpected downside is continued operational shortcomings: Respondents’ own assessments point to a warranty management process with room for significant and ongoing improvement.

We also expected survey input from OEMs and suppliers to stimulate new discussions about, and insights into, how these groups can expand their working relationship to increase value for consumers, raise returns for stakeholders, and deliver lower costs and profitable growth for themselves. That feedback—enriched by insights from BearingPoint, OESA, AIAG, CLEPA and key industry executives—is interwoven throughout this report’s six sections.