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Ford uses digital imaging in warranty system

By Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News / March 11, 2002

DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. is preparing to introduce a rapid-response warranty claim system to its dealers worldwide. System developers are touting it as a way to cut customer delays on warranty questions from days - or even weeks in some cases - to a few minutes.

The program was developed through the digital imaging operations of Ford's advanced research subsidiary, Ford Global Technologies Inc.

The concept works like this: Service department personnel will be equipped with digital cameras to take pictures of vehicle problems. The camera is also fitted with a bar-code reader that scans the vehicle identification number to correctly identify it.

Using a computer docking station, the service department will then transmit the images to warranty decision-makers in Dearborn, Mich. Ford already has a bank of 15 "reviewers" in Dearborn examining photos as they arrive from retailers who are participating in the pilot. The reviewers scan the photos and accept or deny the warranty claim in 30 seconds.

At the same time, the reviewers pass along the photos to a quality-control data bank. That will allow the factory to spot recurring problems. If the issue is component-related, Ford will transmit the warranty photos to suppliers, who will participate in the system.

The photos also will go to the vehicle's assembly plant, where manufacturing quality teams will identify the problems and develop solutions.

"This might help us to catch a problem on the assembly line," said William Rowse, president of MediaMagic Corp. of Belford, N.J., which is developing the system with Ford. "It might mean the difference between making 10,000 cars with a problem and making a million of them."

Ford has had the concept in a pilot program for the past three years. Two hundred eighty-five U.S. retailers are working with the technology, plus 13 in Canada, Germany and Saudi Arabia. This week Ford will bring retailers in Puerto Rico into the test program. According to its developers, Ford intends to roll it out to all dealers in North America and Europe. Volvo and Jaguar retailers will convert to the technology this year.

Ford dealers initially resisted the new approach to warranty review, Rowse said. Some told the technology developers that it smacked of factory interference in retailer-customer relations. But most of them have been won over, he said, and asked to continue using it after the pilot program ended.

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-- Dave Park, Ford Customer Service Division