Customized Preventive Maintenance Strategies for Products Sold with Two-Dimensional Warranty

Two-dimensional warranty has played a significant role in improving product quality and competitiveness. However, two-dimensional basic warranty (BW) and extended warranty (EW) have not yet been combined effectively, and the customized maintenance strategies based on the consumers' heterogeneity have been quite limited, which result in high maintenance costs. In this paper, the possibility of reducing warranty cost over BW and EW is explored by classifying customers based on their usage rates and then offering them with customized preventive maintenance (PM) strategies. By considering the purchasing ratio of EW contracts, the PM strategies for BW and EW are closely combined by the bi-level programming model. Numerical analysis is given to show the application of the proposed warranty strategy, and the significant findings and sensitivity of the main parameters are analyzed in the end. The findings demonstrate that the customized PM strategies combining BW and EW can effectively reduce warranty costs within the warranty period and provide a scientific guidance for manufacturers to design a more reasonable PM strategy.