Many parts such as batteries, starters, and alternators come with a warranty. Taking advantage of these warranties can save your fleet hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, but in order to do so you must have a good system for tracking all the warranties. Manually tracking the parts that have warranties, the vehicles on which they are installed, when they were installed, and so forth is a tedious task that's nearly impossible to keep straight.
That's where the Warranty Tracking feature in the RTA Fleet Management Software comes in. This feature is extremely easy to set up and use, and it will save your fleet money! Once a warranty is set up, the RTA system handles the rest-there's no need for you to ever have to research whether a part is covered under warranty; if it's covered, the RTA system will let you know.
Benefits of Tracking Part Warranties:
The Setup:
The only thing that needs to be done in order to start tracking part warranties is to set up part records with the warranty information (VMRS code and warranty coverage period). Easy!
The Procedure:
To track warranties for a part, do the following:
To change a part warranty, do the following:
To delete a part warranty, do the following:
NOTE: This feature is only available through the Work Order module and Paperless Shop add-on option (WW, WB, WP); the Misc WOs option does not check warranty coverage (WM).
After warranty records have been set up, the RTA system does the rest. Every time a part is posted to a work order, the system checks to see if warranties are tracked for that part. If so, the system checks to see if the same type of part has previously been installed on the vehicle (this is determined by the part VMRS code and not the actual part number). If so, the warranty is checked and various messages are displayed depending on the warranty status.
The first time a warranted part is installed on a vehicle (i.e., posted to a work order), the message shown to the right pops up as a courtesy reminding you that since the new part installed is covered under warranty, the replaced part may also be covered under warranty.
Once a warranted part is installed and tracked by the system, the next time it's replaced the system will display one or two messages stating that the part is either within or out of warranty coverage, based on the miles and/or months tracked for that part.
If the part VMRS code indicates that a vehicle may have more than one of this component installed, you will be prompted for the part location. The part location is a two character field. If one of the previously installed components is being replaced, highlight that item and then click OK. If a new part is going to be tracked, then type a new part location code and click OK.
The actual part number is insignificant when it comes to tracking part warranties; the system uses the VMRS code from the part record and the position code to determine if a warranted part is being replaced. For example, if part number 7231, a three-year battery was installed on a vehicle and two years later a different type of battery was installed, part number 2472P, the system would know the first battery failed as long as the VMRS code in both part records are identical. This method allows you to track failure statistics for different parts to see which has a better performance record.
The warranty claims tracking module allows you to print claim submission forms for your vendors. Warranty claims assist in monitoring what happens after the system notifies you that a part is still covered by warranty. You can track when the part was returned to the vendor, when the vendor issued you a credit or reimbursement check, and post the credit back to the vehicle.
To enable automatic warranty claims creation, it must enabled in the Main System Parameters (SSM), option 41.
When the system determines that an item is covered under warranty, a claim record will be automatically created for you. If the item being replaced is a warrantable item, but the system doesn't have sufficient information to determine if it's still covered under warranty or not, the action performed will be determined by the second setting in the Main System Parameters (SSM), option 41. You may configure it to create a claim anyway, not create a claim, or prompt the user to decide if a claim should be created.
Normally, warranty claims will be automatically created by warranty notifications in the work order module. However, in some cases you may want to submit a claim for an item not being automatically tracked by the system.
Once a warranty claim has been created, there are three steps to completely processing that claim. You need to submit the claim, receive settlement for the claim, and post the claim. The claim process may take weeks or even months. The warranty claims screen will help you monitor the current status of each outstanding claim and displays color-coded aging information for each claim.
Warranty Reports
The Warranty Parts report prints a listing of all warranted parts currently installed on vehicles. When sorted by part number, it's easy to find out which vehicles have a particular part installed on them—this can be handy for recall purposes or when testing out a new part and you want to find out how it's performing. When sorted by vehicle number, this report can be helpful in preventing breakdowns caused by part failure. Work order information is included on the report making it easy to see when parts were installed and the accumulated time they've been on the vehicles. To generate the Warranty Parts report, do the following:
Enter the starting and ending vehicle number(s) AND the starting and ending VMRS code(s) or press F1 to select the vehicle number(s) and VMRS code(s) from the lookup list.
The Part Failure Analysis report provides failure statistics for warranted parts and is great for determining the quality of specific parts, brands, manufacturers, etc. Be patient! It will take some time before good, valid statistics are available for your fleet, especially if parts last for months or years. However, once enough statistics are available, this report can provide useful information that will help in making wise purchasing decisions for your fleet.
Each column will list how many parts have failed within a certain mileage or length of time. By reviewing this report, you'll be able to see money-saving trends on part performance such as parts from Manufacturer A have a tendency to fail about six months before parts made by Manufacturer B OR Brand Regular doesn't last quite as long as Brand Supreme, but cost-wise it has a lower cost per mile even with the more frequent replacements required. To analyze part failures, do the following:
Notice that between the mileages of 41,140 and 51,425, two batteries have failed in the current period, six have failed this year, and nine have failed since tracking warranties for this part. This report continues to track the failure statistics even after the warranty has expired. Notice in the example that the warranty coverage is 36,000 miles or 36 months. The actual warranty always falls between the fourth and fifth column, but the failures are still tracked for the life of all warranty parts. When reviewed on a regular basis, this report may show a pattern that will help determine when or if a component should be replaced before failure. For example, if the statistics on a water pump for a Caterpillar 3406B engine consistently show that failures tend to happen around 300,000 miles, you might want to add a PM every 250,000 miles to replace the water pump. This could possibly eliminate a future road call and critical down time.
NOTE: Failure statistics may also be viewed by calling up and viewing a part record (MPM) and then selecting View > Warranty Stats from the menu or by clicking on Warranty Stats icon in the toolbar.
The Warranty Part Transactions report shows each warranty part installed for a part number or date range. This report can be printed on a daily or weekly basis to determine if the replaced parts are still covered under warranty. The messages located on the right side of the report makes it easy to see which parts were within warranty. To generate the Warranty Part Transactions report, do the following:
Enter the starting and ending date(s) or press F1 to select the date(s) from the calendar.