Blog · Board and management reporting · Industrial manufacturers
How an industrial manufacturer reads its warranty claims against the installed base register and the ledger: claims per unit per model, claim cost per customer against the revenue the customer brings, the customers whose claim rate is well above the model's norm, the models whose rate rose with a production batch, and the two findings, a product problem by batch and a customer application problem, that the same claims file separates.
A manufacturer's warranty cost is a line in the accounts and a source of argument between engineering and sales. The claims file, joined to the installed base register and the ledger, ends the argument by separating the batch problem from the customer problem, with names on each. This guide sets out claim rate per model and batch, claim cost per customer against revenue, and the two findings.
Per model, per age band, per batch:
Claim rate = claims per unit per year Claim cost per unit
Per customer:
Claim cost ÷ revenue, trailing year Claim rate on each model against the model's norm at the customer's fleet age
Customer identifiers only.
every claim joins to a unit in the register
A claim on a serial not in the register is listed; it is a register gap or a grey-market unit, and both are worth knowing.
| Model | Batch | Units | Claims per unit per year | Model norm | Customers affected | Top failure code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-104 | B-2207 | 380 | 0.31 | 0.09 | 41 | Seal failure |
| M-104 | B-2210 | 410 | 0.08 | 0.09 | 44 | |
| M-104 | B-2214 | 395 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 39 |
One batch, three times the rate, forty-one customers, one failure code. That is engineering's finding, and the forty-one customers should hear about it from the manufacturer before they call.
| Customer | Revenue | Claim cost | Cost ÷ revenue | Models | Claim rate vs norm | Batch-adjusted | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2207 | $1.9m | $310,000 | 16% | M-104, M-109 | 3.4× | 3.1× | Application: across models and batches |
| 4471 | $2.4m | $190,000 | 8% | M-104 | 2.8× | 1.0× | Batch B-2207: owed a fix |
| 9034 | $0.8m | $12,000 | 1.5% | M-109 | 0.6× | 0.6× | Fine |
Customer 4471's claims are all batch B-2207 and, adjusted for it, the customer is at norm. Customer 2207's claims are high on every model and every batch, which is how the equipment is being run. Two conversations, opposite in tone, that the claims total would have merged.
Claims not joined to the register. No batch, no model age; every claim is a customer complaint.
Customer rate not batch-adjusted. The customer with the bad batch is treated as the problem.
Norm without age band. Old fleets look unreliable; new ones look fine.
Engineering and sales given the same list. Each needs its half.
Mapped once, the claims file, the register and the ledger produce claim rates by model, batch and customer, the norms, the batch-adjusted customer view and both findings every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The industrial manufacturers page describes the setup, and the aftermarket attach guide covers the other measure built on the same register.
Per model and age band, the median claims per unit per year across the installed base, from the manufacturer's own claims and register. A customer against the norm for the models it runs, at the ages it runs them, is the fair comparison.
By claim rate per production batch or serial range, from the register's serial numbers joined to the claims. A batch at three times the model's rate, across many customers, is the product. A single customer at three times the rate, across batches, is the application.
The report says who and why; the commercial team decides. A customer running equipment outside its rated duty cycle is a training conversation and possibly a contract one. A customer with a bad batch is owed a fix. Charging the second for the first is how customers are lost.