Search

Statistical monitoring of warranty claims data using dynamic probability control limits has been shown to be effective in early detection of unforeseen reliability problems that emerge at the design and manufacturing phases. As the discrepancy between abnormal patterns and the normal pattern in aggregate warranty claims is usually small (especially at the early stage), we develop two new dynamic monitoring schemes that adopt CUSUM-type and EWMA-type statistics, named DyCUSUM and DyEWMA, respectively, to better address the warranty claims monitoring problem. Three effective algorithms – that is, the Monte Carlo simulation, Markov chain, and near-enumeration algorithms – are proposed to progressively determine control limits for the two schemes. In particular, comparison studies show that the near-enumeration algorithm can attain a higher approximation accuracy with a lower computational burden and is thus recommended. In-depth simulation experiments are then conducted to assess the performance of the schemes. We find that the DyEWMA scheme has superior and robust detection performance in various situations, whereas the DyCUSUM scheme is less effective and could even be ineffective in certain cases, compared with a Shewhart-type counterpart. Some specific suggestions are also provided to facilitate implementation of the proposed monitoring schemes. Improved schemes by combining the moving window approach to mitigate the 'inertia' problem is further discussed. Finally, a real case study is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As manufacturers continue to provide new and unique products and services for their customers, we argue that warranty menus with differentiated options are an often-overlooked unique selling point. Meanwhile, there is a huge swathe of customers who own durable products which are still in use even after the expiration of a warranty. It is in this area that we develop a research perspective which urges customers to consider warranty plans and post-warranty maintenance strategies simultaneously when making a purchasing decision. In this paper, through the lens of a consumer, we propose an integrated model of warranty and post-warranty maintenance under a flexible renewable warranty. This model takes into account repair limits and multiple failure types with time-varying probabilities. As part of this, a new post-warranty maintenance strategy is designed, in which the repair time-based corrective replacement and the age-based preventive replacement are combined. The life cycle cost rate of the product is minimised by a synthetic decision-making about the consumer's warranty purchase and post-warranty maintenance strategy. Numerical studies show that there exists a joint optimal solution, which can help the customer to develop an optimal overall warranty-maintenance strategy under the warranty menu with minimised cost rate. An integrated model of warranty and post-warranty maintenance is developed. The warranty product has minor and catastrophic failures with time-varying probabilities. A flexible renewable warranty is considered for the consumer. A post-warranty maintenance strategy with the repair time limit is proposed. The optimal warranty-maintenance strategy is derived to minimise the Life cycle cost rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we derive a condition-based maintenance strategy for a degradation-shock dependence system subject to two causes of failure, degradation and random shocks. We develop a reliability model for a system under warranty for failure in which we consider the dependence between the degradation process and random shocks and do a warranty cost analysis based on the suggested model. We consider a degradation-shock dependence system that is under warranty with three separate services: repair, replacement, and preventive maintenance. These are triggered when a product degradation crosses one of three predetermined degradation thresholds. We also investigate the dependence between random shocks and degradation modelled by a time-scaled covariate factor. We study the random shock considering fatal shocks that require replacement and nonfatal shocks that require only repair and the degradation caused by nonfatal shocks. The condition-based maintenance strategy for a degradation-shock dependence system is a novel approach to analysing system degradation, with a goal of optimising warranty costs; we also minimise the expected total system cost to find an optimal warranty length. We present several numeric examples and real-world applications to illustrate our proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extended warranties are widely adopted and accepted in the marketplace by manufacturers and retailers as it helps to enhance the customers' post-sale satisfaction. In closed-loop supply chains, the extended warranty not only generates profit for the manufacturer, but also provides warranty returns of the new products for remanufacturing. In this paper, a two-period model is developed and optimal pricing strategies for the extended warranties are derived. We compare the optimal pricing and retailing strategies of the extended warranties for remanufactured and new products offered by the manufacturer with and without the retailer's own extended warranty while considering the competition between the manufacturer and the retailer for the extended warranty of new products. We find that the introduction of the retailer's extended warranty does not always hurt the manufacturer's profit. Numerical analyses also show that there exists an optimal extended warranty length for the manufacturer that maximises its profit. Moreover, we show that the retailer cannot extract more profit by increasing the length of its own extended warranty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of integrated sustainable product design has recently emerged, aiming to incorporate downstream life cycle performance into the initial product design to enhance sustainability. Various sustainable product design tools based on life cycle assessment or quality function deployment have been established while the impact of reliability on circular practices has received limited attention. Recognizing the critical role of product reliability in post-design performance, this paper develops a product design optimization model that considers the warranty performance and the effect of end-of-use options. The model takes into account the effect of uncertain operating conditions on product reliability. Two optimization goals including the minimization of expected unit life cycle cost and environmental impact are achieved by the model. To demonstrate the benefits of the integrated approach, the model is applied to an electric motor design problem. The results highlight that integrating end-of-use options in the early design phase leads to adjustments in component selection and reliability design. Moreover, the circular utilization of used products enables cost savings throughout the product's life cycle and contributes to environmental impact reduction. Lastly, the study analyzes the effects of operating conditions, warranty policies, and take-back prices for used products on design decisions, providing valuable insights for product designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates optimal warranty length for a new type of smart wearable device to maximize manufacturer's profit in a competitive market. Most studies explore optimal warranty length based on product performance without considering customer complaints. In this study, unlike existing models, the optimal warranty length is obtained by maximizing an expected profit function comprising essential factors such as customer complaints, early and late warranty periods, product reliability, and reduced profit, using Bayesian analysis. Managers can effectively integrate these factors, and can be more confident about the accuracy of estimated optimal warranty length. This study's contribution is to propose a methodology to develop new types of smart wearable devices considering their long-term commercial prospects. Sensitivity analyses indicate that in the early warranty period, managers should be more concerned about average reduced profit due to customer complaints and reduced profit percentage due to complaint handling costs. In the late warranty period, improved profit percentage due to good response to complaints is essential in smart wearable device sales. Consequently, managers should adequately deal with customer complaints about smart wearable devices, whether in the early or late warranty period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate information asymmetry in acquisitions, the seller makes contractual representations and warranties (referred to as "R&W" or "reps") about the state of the target, such as attesting to the accuracy of the target's financial statements. While seller indemnities allow buyers to impose costs due to breaches in the reps discovered after the deal's close, these indemnities involve significant contracting costs. To mitigate these costs, the acquisition parties have increasingly turned to purchasing representations and warranties insurance. Using a proprietary and novel sample of R&W insurance policies issued worldwide for acquisitions of non-public targets, we find that the demand for R&W insurance, the premium charged for it, and the likelihood of a claim being filed are correlated with industry metrics for valuation uncertainty, the type of acquirer and seller, and the target's legal regime. In particular, we find higher demand for R&W insurance and a higher R&W insurance premium charged when the target belongs to an industry with weaker internal controls. We also find that a higher premium is charged when the target is in an industry with relatively high levels of R&D to sales, indicating that the insurance company expects unrecognized intangible assets to have a greater risk of future claims. Our study adds to our understanding of how parties reduce target valuation uncertainty and the role of disclosures and R&W insurance policies in private mergers and acquisitions transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the sequential patterns of maintenance activities (replacement or repair) with the needed spare parts for faulty products becomes the main challenge to maintenance engineers. This research, therefore, develops a data mining framework for predicting the integrated sequential patterns of maintenance activities and identifying the classification of the frequent components' spare parts for faulty products under warranty. In this framework, a large data set was mined for products under warranty including product attributes, maintenance activities, and spare parts. Then, data mining techniques were performed to determine the frequent sequence pattern of maintenance activities, involving: the selection of monthly maintenance activities, generalized sequential patterns (GSP), generation of association rules, and rule-based classification with/without considering product attributes. The frequent sequential patterns were validated using testing data. Further, the GSP was applied to determine the frequent sequential patterns of spare parts. Finally, integrated sequential patterns were generated for maintenance activities and spare parts. A case study of water-cooled chiller products was deployed to illustrate the developed framework. The effectiveness of the framework was illustrated with the warranty data mining for a water-cooled chiller. In conclusion, the proposed framework allows maintenance engineers to extract hidden knowledge regarding sequential patterns of maintenance planning and provides valuable information for maintenance prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In determining the durability of its product a firm faces a trade off. Performing a policy of planned obsolescence by making their products less durable implies that the consumer needs to replace them earlier, which thus enhances demand. However, a lower quality of the product will result in a lower reputation, which in turn will affect demand negatively. In many cases, the government protects the consumer by implementing a warranty period. Our paper studies how a firm should optimally deal with this trade off and react to government policy. We obtain the following results. First, we find that the length of the warranty period has an inverted U-shaped effect on the product life time. Second, if more consumers are aware of the existence of a warranty period and ask for a free product replacement, this will increase the product life time. Third, increasing uncertainty about the breakdown of the product also has an inverted U-shaped effect on the product lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider an equipment leased with a warranty contract with the possibility to extend the warranty at a given price that depends on its duration. During the warranty period, the lessor (who possesses the equipment) performs and pays for repairs at failure and for preventive maintenance (PM) actions whenever the equipment reliability reaches a specific limit. After the warranty ends, repairs and PM actions are still performed by the lessor, but they are billed to the lessee (who rents the equipment). Furthermore, in case the total average equipment downtime due to repair and PM actions during the lease period surpasses a certain pre-specified limit agreed on in the lease contract, a penalty is supported by the lessor. A mathematical model and numerical procedure are proposed to determine the PM intervals durations that maximise the lessor's expected total profit during the lease period. The optimal solution is obtained by determining the combination between the optimal equipment reliability threshold that triggers a PM action and the optimal extended warranty period. A numerical example is given to illustrate the use of the proposed model and a sensitivity analysis is performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warranty is a standard and essential policy for today's products. The period and cost of warranty are majorly affected by the reliability of products. Therefore, validation and verification of product reliability are required to control warranty costs and sustain the brand reputation. In this paper, we propose a modified reliability acceptance sampling plan (MRASP) for product reliability validation. The operating characteristic function of the MRASP is derived by considering the accelerated time‐to‐failure data with Type‐II censoring, which follows a Weibull distribution. To minimize the number of failures required for the accelerated life test and consider the sampling risk constraints, we constructed an optimization model to determine the optimal plan design of the proposed MRASP. Following the optimal plan design, practitioners can set the number of failures required in the accelerated life test to estimate the lifetime capability of the submitted lot and decide the lot disposition using the acceptance benchmark. In addition, the lifetime capability estimation can be used to infer the warranty return rate and warranty cost of the lot, which is valuable for practitioners to formulate the warranty budget. Finally, we illustrate a real‐world case to demonstrate the practicality and applicability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ, and build on, neo-institutional theory and strategic entrepreneurship thinking to explain the growing use of representations and warranty ("reps") insurance (RWI), an innovative product that mitigates the risks (costs) of legal disputes when private equity is involved on both the buy side and sell side of strategic transactions. Our analysis suggests that transaction risks and uncertainties motivate managers of private equity-sponsored leveraged buyouts and liability insurers to cooperate and change the "rules of the game" using creative customized contracts. The transformation of embedded institutional logics enables contracting parties not only to realize gains from collaboration but also from concessions that radically alter custom and practice. Our analysis suggests that the use of RWI in private equity transactions is both a determinant and consequence of institutional change in financial markets. We conclude that the private equity–RWI relation is a classic case of experimental institutionalism in action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Study surveyed vehicle owners who have had their crash avoidance features repaired. • Features of interest were front crash prevention, blind spot detection, and cameras. • Although repairs often improved feature performance, post-repair issues were common. • Calibration problems may have contributed to many of these post-repair issues. • The repair process needs to be simplified and repair solutions made more accessible. Introduction : Popularity of crash avoidance features is growing, but so too is confusion around how to repair them, how much repairs should cost, and who should pay for those repairs. This study's purpose was to capture how these issues are affecting consumers. Method : A total of 496 vehicle owners in the United States were surveyed online and by phone about their experiences repairing front crash prevention (n = 359), blind spot detection (n = 317), and/or driver assistance cameras (n = 348) equipped on their personal vehicles. Results : Owners tended to have multiple reasons for repairs. Repairs due to vehicle (i.e., crash or windshield) damage corresponded with the greatest likelihood of post-repair issues, especially if calibration was performed, and higher out-of-pocket costs (possibly because of deductibles or other repair work). About half of respondents who had calibrations performed on features repaired because of vehicle damage reported persisting issues with the features after repair. Post-repair issues were more common for repairs performed at independent repairers than dealership service centers, yet similar feature calibration rates were reported for both types of repairers. More people went to dealership service centers than independent repairers, and these respondents were more likely to say they would return to this type of facility for a similar repair in the future. Although most repairers explained why repairs occurred, less than half of respondents said they completely understood the reasons given. Conclusions : There are new complications in the repair cycle affecting consumers. Post-repair issues are more prevalent than previously assumed, regardless of the crash avoidance feature repaired. Practical applications : Post-repair issues risk undermining consumer acceptance and the safety potential of critical features. Simplifying the repair process and establishing affordable and accessible centralized databases with repair specifications and instructions from the manufacturers would be a start to addressing industry-wide challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a supply chain where multiple suppliers and a manufacturer contribute to the assembly of a product (through providing components or labor). The product fails if any of its components (or elements of work) fails, but finding the faulty component can be prohibitively difficult. We study group warranty contracts for the manufacturer to induce suppliers to improve their quality levels. When information is symmetric and the manufacturer can contract on his own quality level, we show that a group warranty contract can achieve the first-best outcome. When the manufacturer's quality level is not contractible, we show that the manufacturer and all the suppliers under-invest in qualities. We then extend our model to the asymmetric information case where suppliers have private quality cost information. Further, we consider whether the manufacturer benefits from sourcing multiple components from a single supplier, that is, supply consolidation. We find that supply consolidation benefits the manufacturer when his quality level is not contractible, but hurts him in the presence of asymmetric quality cost information of the suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law (WFDL) and the differing interpretations of the law by Wisconsin state courts and federal courts. The WFDL is designed to protect small businesses from the power of larger corporations. State courts take a broader approach, considering factors such as the length of the relationship and financial investment, while federal courts focus on revenue percentages. This divide has created uncertainty for litigants and makes it challenging to negotiate fair settlements. Parties should be aware of these differences and carefully consider the choice of forum. [Extracted from the article]

The article examines the liability for defective products sold on the e-marketplace of online retailer Amazon and shifting trends in state liability laws. Topics discussed include historical context regarding product liability evolution and product liability in e-commerce, court opinions on e-marketplace cases related to defective products, extension of tort liability, negligence and warranty, statutory information requirements and compensation for injury or property damage claims.

Venture debt is an attractive alternative for startups that need to raise funds to expand their growth. Moving away from venture capital and traditional loan lending, venture debt is composed of different terms and standard provisions that allow it to work in the venture ecosystem. So how do these terms work and what are the items that a loan agreement will include as standards of the industry? This article will first consider structural terms, without which a venture debt agreement would not exist. These are the parties involved (lender and borrower), the amount lent (which varies depending on the lender), the term of the loan (usually 36 to 48 months) and the interest rate (which is both a structural term and a pricing term). Secondly, the article looks at pricing terms, which include all elements of payment from the company to the venture lender. These include interest rates, additional fees such as commitment fees, prepayment fees and other kinds of fees, collateral (mainly intellectual property and/or an all-asset lien) and warrants (an equity interest on the company). Finally, the article looks at legal terms, which include additional obligations and provisions to avoid or engage the borrower in actions that benefit the loan. These include standard provisions such as closing conditions, representations and warranties, and covenants (either positive, negative and, less commonly, financial covenants), as well as other provisions, such as the material adverse change (MAC) clause, the investor abandonment clause and the event of default provision. These terms are particularly a matter of negotiation in a venture debt deal, and in any case each agreement will find a balance for the lender and borrower for venture debt to work in the specific context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the optimal maintenance strategy for the warranty product subject to multiple failure modes and repair time limit is studied from the customer's perspective. When the product fails, a minimal repair based on the failure type is conducted. If the product can not be repaired within a given time limit, it will be replaced with a new one by the manufacturer during the warranty period. Different from the traditional renewing warranty policy, a geometric warranty policy is adopted in this work, under which once the warranty product is replaced; the length of warranty period is geometrically renewed. After the warranty expires, the product undergoes preventive maintenance (PM) periodically and the PM effect is modeled by reducing the virtual age of different failure modes by different degree. The objective is to determine the optimal interval time for PM and the optimal number of PMs by minimizing the expected life cycle cost rate of product. The existence and uniqueness of the optimal PM policy are proved theoretically, and the optimal bivariate policy can be obtained by using a recursive seeking algorithm. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of geometric warranty policy and the proposed PM model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the differences between the common law and the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), the two sources of law that govern contracts in the U.S. Topics discussed include contract disputes between parties based on a hypothetical fact scenario involving several contracts, the formation, modification, warranties and breach of contract, and ethical frameworks that can guide in making ethical business decisions which include formalism, rights theory and utilitarianism.

This article presents a pricing, warranty, and shelf-space-size decision problem associated with a two-echelon supply chain composed of one retailer and two competing manufacturers. The products (belonging to two distinct manufacturers) come through a non-symmetric market. Demand for them is price sensitive and depends on the warranty period. As the sole leader, the retailer specifies the size of the available shelf space and the retail price for each product. At the same time, the manufacturers determine wholesale prices and warranty periods for their respective products. Mathematical models are developed to derive optimal solutions. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis for the models is performed to analyze how differences in market potential, production cost, warranty service cost, warranty-competition factors, and cross-price sensitivity parameters of products influence optimal solutions. Experimental results show that manufacturers can offset increased warranty service costs by decreasing the warranty competition factor. They can also adopt mixed strategies to reach a pre-specified target profit by considering their capability to either drop the warranty service cost or increase the warranty-competition factor. In addition, the retailer can modify the impact of reduced market potential or increased production cost (the warranty service cost) by using shelf-space cost management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Meezan for Law & Islamic Studies is the property of World Islamic Sciences & Education University (WISE) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

High-quality product support is vital for production, because utility can only be generated by working equipment and system downtime can cause serious consequences. Thus, the suppliers are often required to provide efficient product maintenance and repair services for customers. Component obsolescence is a challenging factor for spare parts management which affects the overall system performance. In this paper, we build a game-theoretic model to study joint contracting on product order quantity and after-sales service in a B2B supply chain, where spare part availability is affected by obsolescence risk, and the after-sales service is operated under the warranty and transaction-based contracts (W&T) and the performance-based contracts (PBC). Our model provides advice for practitioners on how to choose a service contract type: Given a low (high) cost of lifetime-buy of parts, W&T can lead to a higher (lower) supply chain profit than PBC when the warranty period is sufficiently long. Furthermore, we find that PBC can result in higher product availability; however, this may be achieved by overinvestment in spare parts when the supplier is penalised on the buyer's lost revenue, and in such a setting the buyer may order fewer products, which leads to lower profits for the supplier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Durable goods often come bundled with limited-time and sometimes generous factory/base warranties. Yet, for many durable goods, customers purchase extended warranties against which they rarely make claims. This study offers a reference-dependent-preferences-based theoretical explanation for why consumers purchase extended warranties even if their purchased good is already covered by a base warranty. The authors show that consumers treat base warranties as a reference point, thereby creating a qualitative difference in the valuation of an extended warranty on the purchased product. The proposed theory model is validated using observational data from the automobile industry and shows how the reference-dependent-preferences-based effect varies with vehicle quality and macroeconomic conditions. The analyses reveal auto buyers' elevated loss-aversion motivations and higher price sensitivity during weaker macroeconomic conditions than during more robust macroeconomic conditions. Finally, the authors use the empirical model to identify opportunities for auto dealers to engage in targeted price promotions as a function of prevailing macroeconomic conditions. These findings have important implications for marketing managers, as they provide valuable guidance on when an extended warranty should be promoted, to whom it should be promoted, and which extended warranty should be marketed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by a product warranty claims dataset, we propose clustered coefficient regression models in a nonhomogeneous Poisson process for recurrent event data. The proposed method, referred as CLUPP, can estimate the group structure and parameters simultaneously. In our proposed method, a penalized regression approach is used to identify the group structure. Numerical studies show that the proposed approach can identify the group structure well, and outperforms traditional methods such as hierarchical clustering and K-means. We also establish theoretical properties, which show that the proposed estimators can converge to true parameters in high probability. In the end, we apply our proposed methods to the product warranty claims dataset, which achieve better prediction than the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closed-Loop Supply Chain procedures provide manufacturers with a competitive advantage over their competitors. Also, the supply chain involves a manufacturer and customers, in which the manufacturer produces and sells products from the manufacturing market. Interestingly, combining forward and reversal strategies presents, challenges on both the on-demand and supply sides of the market. When customers purchase products, they are uncertain about the quality of the product, and the manufacturer offers a non-renewing extended warranty (EW) to assure the customers about the reliability and quality of the products. This paper presents a two-phase News-Vendor framework for warranted and non-warranted products with inventory carryover to describe the best manufacturing and re(manufacturing) procedures. The demand is modeled in stochastic nature with one-dimensional EW for both new and reman products. This study aims to demonstrate the importance of providing an EW with a relationship between manufacturing and inventory strategy. Also, the numerical analysis carried out on the expected total profit affects the manufacturer's influence when providing an EW, and graphical results reveal that offering an EW and lowering holding expenditure enhances the manufacturer's expected total profit over two phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with warranty cost analysis for a warranted product protected by lemon laws during the warranty period. The product is declared a lemon if either of two conditions are met: (i) the product has been returned to the dealer k (e.g. k = 4) times to have the failed product fixed, and the manufacturer was unable to repair the problem satisfactorily, or (ii) the product has been out of service more than the prespecified threshold (e.g. 30 days) due to one or more failures. We study two cases – (i) refund and (ii) replacement cases. For (i), if the product turns out to be a lemon then the manufacturer refund the purchase price, and replace with a new one for (ii). Since the complexity involved in the formulation of the expected warranty cost (EWC), a simulation approach is used to evaluate the EWC for the two cases considered. We give numerical examples to illustrate the EWC for refunding and replacement cases and discuss the impact of a reliability and/or quality improvement to reduce the EWC for the two cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the contractual risks associated with intellectual property certificate invalidation in industrial property. To enjoy legal protection, intellectual property, including inventions, trademarks, and industrial designs, must be evaluated by the registration authority, and a certificate must be obtained. The certificate, issued based on the principles of authenticity and validity, becomes susceptible to uncertainty as beneficiaries can request its cancellation from the court, posing a significant risk to contracts related to intellectual property. The declaration of invalidity and its retroactive effect alter the legal status of transactions grounded in intellectual property, introducing complexities and challenges. This article explores the challenges posed by intellectual property certificate invalidation, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the risks and offer preventive measures to mitigate potential contractual accidents. This research addresses the contractual risk associated with the invalidation of intellectual property certificates in industrial property. The legal principle of authenticity and validity of these certificates, a prerequisite for legal protection, introduces uncertainty. Concerns arise about the legal status of transactions based on the related intellectual property, given the potential for any beneficiary to challenge the certificate's validity in court. The main issue is the retroactive effect of a judgment that declares the certificate invalid, which affects the legal status of previous transactions. Invalidating the certificate presents a significant contractual risk because parties unaware of this possibility during contract drafting may lose privileges, such as compensation for damages. This study aims to clarify the intricacies of invalidating intellectual property certificates and offer practical solutions for managing this contractual risk effectively. This study adopts a descriptive-analytical method, leveraging a comprehensive library review to investigate the contractual risks of intellectual property certificate invalidation. The analytical approach allows for exploring legal principles, previous research, and risk management strategies within industrial property contracts. In examining the retroactive effect of certificate invalidation, the study dives into the legal intricacies and establishes a conceptual foundation for understanding the associated contractual risks. The research aligns with a risk management approach, aiming to identify proactive measures to address these risks effectively. The primary question is identifying legal solutions to mitigate the risks associated with intellectual property certificate invalidation in industrial property contracts. The hypothesis posits that implementing preventive measures, such as warranty conditions and non-challenge clauses, can effectively manage these risks. The research comprehensively understands the legal landscape surrounding intellectual property certificate validity, offering practical insights into risk allocation and cost reduction through contractual safeguards. The theoretical framework of this research is grounded in the principles of intellectual property law, particularly in industrial property. Authenticity and validity serve as a foundational element, forming the basis for legal protection. The theoretical framework also considers the retroactive effect of judgments declaring certificate invalidity, acknowledging the profound impact such judgments can have on the legal landscape of intellectual property transactions. By delving into the intersection of legal risk and contractual risk, the research establishes a theoretical foundation for understanding the complexities associated with the invalidation of intellectual property certificates. Research Questions include: what are the legal implications of declaring intellectual property certificates invalid in industrial property contracts? How does the retroactive effect of judgments declaring certificate invalidity impact prior transactions? What legal solutions can be identified to mitigate the contractual risks associated with intellectual property certificate invalidation? Hypotheses include the retroactive effect of intellectual property certificate invalidation significantly alters the legal status of prior transactions. Proactive measures, such as warranty conditions, non-challenge clauses, and credit extension guarantees, can effectively mitigate the contractual risks associated with intellectual property certificate invalidation. The research comprehensively explains the contractual risk introduced by intellectual property certificate invalidation. It identifies the theoretical underpinnings of the problem, emphasizing the importance of the authenticity and validity principles in industrial property contracts. The retroactive effect of judgments declaring certificate invalidity is analyzed, revealing its potential to impact the legal standing of past transactions. The research suggests preventive measures, including warranty conditions, nonchallenge clauses, and credit extension guarantees, as practical strategies to allocate risk and reduce the costs of contractual accidents associated with intellectual property certificate invalidation. In conclusion, this research sheds light on the contractual risks arising from the invalidation of intellectual property certificates in industrial property. The theoretical framework, rooted in the principles of authenticity and validity, provides a solid foundation for understanding the complexities of legal protection in intellectual property transactions. The retroactive effect of judgments declaring certificate invalidity emerges as a critical factor, potentially altering the legal landscape of prior transactions. By addressing research questions and hypotheses, the study underscores the importance of proactive measures, such as warranty conditions and non-challenge clauses, to effectively mitigate the identified contractual risks. The achievements of this research contribute to the existing body of knowledge by offering a comprehensive analysis of the legal implications and risks associated with intellectual property certificate invalidation. The suggested preventive measures serve as valuable insights for legal practitioners, policymakers, and stakeholders in industrial property. Ultimately, this research enhances our understanding of the intricate relationship between legal and contractual risks, paving the way for more informed and resilient approaches to managing intellectual property risks in contractual agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since all production processes are not perfect, all products produced by a company may not meet the quality standards desired by its customers. Moreover, equipment breakdowns and failures during the production cycle can delay the production process. Consequently, it is necessary to integrate statistical process monitoring and maintenance decisions in conjunction with inventory control. Additionally, to remain competitive and maintain market share, successful manufacturers should be able to offer warranty services for their products, which impose additional costs during the post-sale period of the product. The goal of this study is to minimize the total costs incurred in both the pre-sale and the post-sale periods. To that end, an integrated model of inventory control, maintenance scheduling, and statistical process monitoring is proposed for products sold under the free minimal repair warranty policy. Three comparative analyses are conducted to evaluate the impact of incorporating warranty, accounting for process failure and statistical process monitoring as part of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extended warranty is an additional service in the market that manufacturers and retailers provide for their customers. In this study, we investigate the optimal extended warranty strategies in a supply chain with a single manufacturer and a single retailer, and consider two single-channel models (the retailer solely provides the service, and the manufacturer solely provides the service) and a dual-channel model (both the retailer and the manufacturer provide the service). Using an analytical model, we demonstrate the optimal pricing decisions for the manufacturer and the retailer under these models and compare the profits of the manufacturer, retailer and supply chain. We find that among the models, customers enjoy a lower extended warranty price with a mild condition when the manufacturer provides the extended warranty service. However, the total profits of the supply chain are usually larger when the retailer sells the extended warranty. Through numerical experiments, we further investigate the influence of customer preferences, and find that the total profits of the supply chain increase if more customers purchase extended warranties from the retailer in the dual-channel model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using monitored job cycles to design and model random maintenance strategies for ensuring life-cycle reliability has been extensively researched. The reliability heterogeneity over the life cycle has been ignored universally in this type of strategy. In this paper, using two different areas of regions that can screen reliability, two random maintenance strategies were customized for the life-cycle reliabilities of warrantied products with monitored job cycles to be ensured based on reliability heterogeneity. In the case of using minimal repair, the first one was flexibly customized depending on whether the first failure occurs in the region consisting of limited job cycles or a period of warranty service, whichever occurs first. Such a strategy is called flexible repair warranty first (FRWF) and can be used to ensure warranty-stage reliability during a product's life cycle. The FRWF strategy is modeled from the perspectives of cost and time measures. Based on whether the first failure of the product through its FRWF occurs in another region, random periodic replacement (RPR) and classic periodic replacement (CPR) are triggered to customize the second one, which is named bivariate customized random maintenance (BCRM) because two decision variables are considered. The BCRM and its variants are modeled from the perspectives of the average cost rates. Finally, numerical analysis of some of the customized strategies was performed from the numerical perspective. Numerical analysis showed that the presented FRWF is superior to the classic free repair warranty (FRW) strategy because the servicing time of the presented FRWF strategy is longer than the servicing time of the classic FRW strategy at the same cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study carries out a research on judicial decisions, from a perspective of the constitutional process as an institute of democratic decidability. To develop the theme, the phenomenon of the constitutionalization of law is approached, followed by a specific study on the constitutionalization of the process, highlighting the research of the Brazilian professor José Alfredo de Oliveira Baracho who conceived a new general theory of the process to be from its approach to the Constitution. A study was then carried out on some of the democratic procedural guarantees provided for in the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil of 1988, approaching a synthesis of the implications of each of them. Afterwards, it was discussed the constitutionalized jurisdiction and its connection with the exercise of a democratic decision, concluding that the judicial decision that is consistent with the paradigm of the Democratic State of Law is the one that is attentive to the limits disciplined by the Constitutional Process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we study the design and pricing of customized two-dimensional extended warranty menus from the provider's perspective, where each consumer is presented with a tailored warranty menu based on her usage rate. We propose to design such usage-driven customized menus in two steps. First, for a fixed usage rate, we design the corresponding menu by seeking optimal prices for given warranty limits. Then, the menu for any other usage rate is designed by fixing the optimal prices and determining the associated warranty limits. We prove that under the multinomial logit choice framework, if the product failure probabilities for respective options in two customized menus are the same, then the menus will have identical expected profits and attach rates. A case study on commercial vehicles is presented to demonstrate the customization methodology. We find that customized menus can generate a higher profit and attach rate than a uniform menu without customization, indicating the benefit of customization. In addition, we extend the original model to incorporate ancillary preventive maintenance programs. Our analysis reveals that the optimal preventive maintenance policy for each option is independent of those for other options; moreover, bundling preventive maintenance programs can increase profit and attach rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between Economic Value Added (EVA) and Total Quality Management (TQM) in the context of improving productivity, customer relationships, and shareholder wealth. It explores the potential conflicts between EVA, which focuses on shareholder value, and TQM, which aims to address conflicts with various stakeholders.

Production systems are subject to imperfect processes among other factors that may produce items of imperfect quality. To avoid further losses, regular preventive maintenance, and system breakdowns, firms can make changes in their production planning decisions or invest in a green inventory management. Every manufacturing system generates some harmful by-products which are the causes of environmental pollution, and it is increasing day by day. As a result, one of the goals of this research is to develop a sustainable smart manufacturing model with less waste and controlled pollution. Moreover, permissible delay in payment is a popular payment method and important proportion of company finance. This research proposes a manufacturing plan for products by controlling pollution through sustainable and smart production under warranty and preventive maintenance performed with trade credits. Two different sustainable production models are presented here by considering pollution control costs. A sustainable production model with variable pollution costs is examined under the influence of three pollution control mechanisms to improve the model's applicability. The paper's novelty lies in introducing pollution control costs and pollution control mechanisms together in a flexible, sustainable production system. In comparison with the other models, the model with a variable pollution cost appears to be more sustainable as, in this case, there is a 27.76% reduction in the pollution level compared to the other models. Implementing three pollution-controlling strategies, such as pollution cap, pollution cap & trade, and pollution tax, resulted in reductions of 32.52%, 1.72%, and 0.84% in pollution levels, respectively. A sensitivity analysis of the obtained results is also carried out to show the model's strength and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines a temporal factor's influence—showing an extended warranty before versus after consumers purchase a product—on consumers' likelihood of purchasing the warranties. Our results show that consumers are more likely to purchase a warranty before committing to a product rather than after doing so. These results appear to result from differing mental construals. Before committing to purchase, mental construals conditioned on product failures are more accessible; accordingly, consumers are more likely to consider buying a warranty. However, consumers who have already committed to purchase the product have mental construals that over‐represent positive features of the product; thus, these consumers are not compelled to buy a warranty. Four studies provide converging evidence via scenarios and behavioral measures. Our research suggests that offering extended warranties before the product purchase decision can be an effective strategy to increase warranty sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with non-renewing warranty, renewing warranty is more attractive to the customers. To reduce the possible cost pressure of the manufacturers, this study proposes a novel two-stage renewing warranty model with a threshold of maintenance times. Based on a preset allocation ratio, the warranty period is divided into two stages, i.e. the renewing warranty stage and the minimal repair warranty stage. In the first stage, when the number of maintenance actions exceeds the given threshold, the failed item will be replaced with a new one and attached with a new warranty period; otherwise, the product will enter the second stage when its operating time exceeds the time span of the renewing warranty stage. When the product fails in the second stage, only minimal repair is performed. On this basis, four types of maintenance schemes are proposed, and the corresponding warranty cost and profit models are developed to optimise the warranty policy. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model, and sensitivity analysis is conducted. The results show that by considering the threshold of maintenance times, the warranty cost can be reduced and the manufacturer's expected profit can be improved simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]