CLEPA Automotive Warranty Conference 2008CLEPA Automotive Warranty Conference – 16 April 2008, Brussels
The fourth Conference on Automotive Warranty for CLEPA members, which was held in Brussels on 16 April 2008, was designed to keep members up to date with the developments in warranty practices and to fully benefit from the work which is being carried out by the Warranty Working Group (WG). The conference included keynote speakers from BMW and BearingPoint and also gave members the opportunity to ask questions, give feedback and to draw on experience of the members of the group. The conference was informative and well attended with more than 80 participants, representing some 40 companies attending the event. Many functions, in addition to Warranty, were represented including Legal, Commercial and Quality.The Chairman of the Warranty WG, John Guy, opened the event and introduced the morning session.
Lars Holmqvist (CEO, CLEPA) began the morning session with an overview of the latest EU automotive industry position. This identified ‘further extensions in warranty periods’ as one of the key current challenges facing the EU automotive industry especially in terms of the impact felt in the supply industry.
The morning session continued with a presentation from James Rodger (Vice President, Global Automotive Leader, BearingPoint) and Bob Baxendale (Senior Manager, Automotive, BearingPoint). This covered the key findings of the recent Global Automotive Warranty Survey and showed how OEMs and Suppliers, at all tiers and across all regions, perceive the warranty challenge and the solutions being used to improve warranty and reduce costs. The presentation also included a ‘CLEPA Specific Analysis’ focussing on responses from European Suppliers.
The Warranty Survey Report, including detailed findings and observations from industry bodies and top warranty executives, can be found at www.bearingpoint.com/warrantyreport.
The morning session concluded with a presentation from Hans-Peter Lange (Vice President, Warranty and Customer Care, BMW Group) on opportunities towards improvement of ‘No Trouble Found (NTF)’. This included a review of warranty and problem solving processes, the supportive BMW processes and BMW’s expectations from Suppliers.
There was a change of format for the closed afternoon session with presentations from the members of the CLEPA Warranty WG followed by a Q/A session. The afternoon presentations covered the following topics:
- An overview of the Warranty WG activities – presented by John Guy
- A review of the updated comparison of VM Warranty Terms matrix including a summary of European warranty trends – presented by Oliver Jones, GKN Driveline
- The background and status of the Warranty Information Standards project – presented by
Jules Rosheuvel, DENSO.
- A review of a number of Awareness Points – presented by Bettina Hermann, Federal Mogul
The Conference concluded with representatives of the Warranty WG (presenters together with Ezio Marcelli, Mark IV DAYCO; Charles Aronica, FIEV; Gerhard Heilmann, Robert Bosch; Wolfgang Deissenroth, Continental and Thomas Buda, ZF Lemforde) forming a panel for Questions and Feedback. The questions from the floor covered a wide range of warranty topics. This, together with analysis of ‘Feedback Forms’, will enable the Warranty WG to ensure members’ issues are being addressed.
