The Impact of Reliability Guarantees and Warranties on Electronics Subsystem Design and Development Programs.

摘要

This study report presents findings and conclusions resulting from a one-year study of the impact of reliability guarantees and warranties on the design and development process of selected candidate electronics subsystems. Eleven electronics subsystems, representing the three major Services and involving seventeen industrial contractors, are investigated. The objectives of the study are to identify and document the actual impacts observed for the candidate development programs, areas of potential warranty impact, barriers to achieving increased beneficial impacts, problem areas associated with warranty application, and actions that OSD and the Services should consider to improve the application and implementation of equipment warranties. The analysis consists of combining the results of many Government and contractor management interviews with contractor responses to a standard research questionnaire that was developed to provide a common structure for recording information describing contractor experience with warranties.