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SAP Warranty Product Registration Process

 1 year ago
source link: https://blogs.sap.com/2022/06/20/sap-warranty-product-registration-process/
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SAP Warranty Product Registration Process

Purpose:

This blog post details the process scenarios for the warranty registration process and mapping the possible SAP solutions. The current SAP product focuses on warranty solutions for Vehicles. This blog describes how you can build your product registration solution for any discrete product.

Process Flow:

Product Registration Flow

Product%20Registration

Product Registration

Product Registration Business Process:

The product needs to be registered to claim a warranty. Once the Manufacturer produces the products, each product will have a unique identifier(Serial number) and then be shipped out to distributors/branches or direct customers. This serialized product is called equipment in SAP. They will not have any installed address when they are on distributor or dealer premises. However, the warranty applies once the equipment is installed at end-user premises. Product registration functionality is used to capture the Installation address and the customer’s address (One customer may have multiple pieces of equipment installed, and each may have a different installation address). Registration can happen in different ways.

  • End customer registering the product through self-registration through the company’s public site.
  • Dealer / Distributor registering the product with end customer’s information based on the sale on their premise.
  • Mass Registration by dealer/distributor by sharing customer details through a file to warranty admin.
  • Auto registration while the dealer/distributor raises the claim.
  • Auto registration of the product when the product is shipped to a direct customer.
  • Auto registration of the product when the customer buys an extended warranty.
  • Suppose the product is manufactured by another 3rd party and is being sold. In that case, the third-party interface will provide all the data required to perform the Registration (i.e., they will give the equipment serial number and other details).

At the end of the successful Registration, the User should be able to print out a Standard warranty certificate showing the equipment-serial number, different warranty items and their warranty period,  exclusions, inclusions, etc. If the Registration is unsuccessful, it should give the person’s contact details with whom the User should be in touch. Usually, they have to get their dealer details in the end-user case. If Dealers are registering, it should give Distributor details. If distributors/branches register the product, it should provide warranty admin details. If maintained, these details should also flow in the customer’s email, or we can also capture emails in the last step before printing the certificate.

Requirement Vs. Possible SAP solutions

Requirement Requirement details SAP solution
Serial- Equipment master data. To claim a warranty, the equipment details should be available. See equipment creation options below
Parts Bill of material It is needed to enable warranty at serialized parts and non-serialized parts warranty data capture. You can build BOM based on production/sales order/engineering BOM involving only those parts for which customers can claim claims.
Installation location You need an equipment installation location for basing warranty claims. Equipment location could be used to store Installation location.
Customer location In the case of residential customers, the customer location and installation location could be the same, but in the case of commercial, one commercial location could have multiple installation locations. Use functional location to store a customer address. You also have the option to use the Installed base object to manage customer location and other customer attributes.
Warranty master data Which types of warranty, how long are they applicable, when is its start, when is its end, what is the extended contract number, etc. Use SAP’s measurement point and document functionality.
Front-end application to register warranty data Depending on the volume of equipment data, customers and validations, you have to decide the platform for registering

-Internal SAP Gui, if registrations are minimal

– Fiori app with odata service linking SAP master data

Equipment creation options in SAP.

  • Creation of equipment when product is goods issued during sap delivery transaction. (We can capture a few attributes from sales order and delivery in this stage, like customer address, distributor partner data, serial number, Manufacturer, product brand, master warranty, etc.)
  • The creation of equipment could be through a batch job too. Based on production and shipping data, the background job will pick all the shipped products and create equipment and its equipment BOM.
  • Based on the product type (Sales order /material has the information), you may also create an equipment BOM (Say if a CAR is a finished product being manufactured, we can create equipment BOM like Car – Battery – Tire, etc. Each can have its warranty information based on the master warranty of the Car or independent warranty data. This BOM could be created by utilizing the current BOM of the product (say, use only those components marked as spare parts).

Sap Key Configurations:

  • Equipment type
  •    Equipment user status (To track equipment registration statuses)
  •    Serialization
  •    Master warranty
  •    Equipment partner functions
  •    Equipment measuring points
  •    Functional location configurations
  •    Ibase configurations
  •    Number ranges
  •   Unique warranty determination logic in custom table

SAP solution front end (Fiori):

If the pieces of equipment to be registered are considerable in number and the registration process is complex, including complex warranty determination, it is suggested to go for a customized Fiori application.

Self-registration/Dealer or Distributor registering the product :

When the customer uses the registration application, he can search his equipment based on the serial number and register his address and other warranty data. The system can then determine standard warranty start and end dates based on the shipping date/Sold date. If the equipment attributes allow using special warranty assignments, this data would be derived based on custom logic, and the product would get registered. A registered product would have an identifiable status and be installed under a functional location (Location address where the equipment is located). The functional location would reside under an Ibase (Ibase represents the customer location). We can use Ibase functionality to store many other data related to the equipment and customer.

Auto registration during claim creation or an extended warranty purchase: Many customers don’t register their product when purchasing. However, auto registration can be triggered when they raise their claim based on the serial number and address data in the claim or during the extended warranty contract.

Mass Registration by Dealer/distributor/Branch: A custom program to upload the data and then custom logic to check the product registration data. This scenario usually happens when multiple pieces of equipment (Say, Air conditioners) are installed in a residential complex or in an office complex.

Possible unique Requirements / Validations:

  • User registering wrong serial number equipment ( Warranty admin should be able to correct it)
  • Transfer of wrongly created equipment from the wrong location to the correct location (Warranty admin should be able to do this through a Fiori app)
  • Correcting the incorrectly applied warranty programs/end dates due to master data issues
  • Transfer of equipment from one address to another.
  • Warranty calculations might differ when the product is shipped outside the Manufacturer’s country (International warranty)
  • Custom logic to calculate warranty begin/end date (For, e.g., the relationship of warranty dates with the shipping date, sold date, registration date)
  • Warranty calculation logic might differ based on many parameters.
    • Model-based: For, e.g., Toyota Camry 2016 may have a unique warranty.
    • Special warranty programs- Thanksgiving Warranty, applicable for specific brands, and warranty include free labor for the next two years for vehicles brought during the Thanksgiving period of that particular year.
    • Price-Group based: For,e.g., Cars with a price range between 25000USD to 50000USD may have some unique warranty policy.
  • Master warranty differs when the unit is still not sold, is in dealer/distributor/Branch premise, and changes when sold.
  • Be ready to enhance SAP equipment master to accommodate different dates  (You may use Classification; however, reporting is not easy to use when using Classification.)
  • One would need a solution to accommodate external serial numbers sent by the third party for equipment not manufactured in-house. Serial numbers are always associated with a material number in SAP. For these scenarios, since you won’t have material numbers (Since they are from a third party), you would need to decide how to design equipment for them. We suggest keeping a dummy material number for every 3rd party material, accommodating their serial number, and creating equipment. You may create different equipment types to have reports targeting such 3rd party equipment.
  • Product registration might not be successful initially; hence, product registration status management needs to be managed. Possible reasons for failed Registration could be,
    • Master data issues (E.g., missing shipping/sold date, Installed date before production date.)
    • Late Registration (Registration happens after many days of buying the product. Warranty admin needs to intervene, check documents, and approve/reject).
  • So depending on the scenarios, product registrations could be in various statuses, like “Submitted for registration,” “Master Data issues,” “Pending verification,” “Document pending,” “Warranty Rejected,” etc.
    • In all such situations, the warranty admin should be able to identify and validate them.
  • You need a separate Fiori app for warranty admins to do different product registration edits. For example, he should be able to change equipment status, modify addresses, transfer serial numbers, print warranty certificates, and change Dealer/distributor ID. In addition, through this App, he should be able to search equipment based on various parameters like the range of registration dates, status, etc.

Special Notes :

  •  Always create a robust oData service for product registration that could get exposed to multiple systems other than Fiori.
  •   Use Ibase functionalities fully to build customer service BOM. Few functionalities like the history of equipment (Installed date, transfer date), who installed them (Dealer, distributor, branch), startup details as a document, parts replacement history, and claim history. This will help you query a single object through sap standard transaction to know what is happening with the end customer and his equipment and claims. Ensure every transaction updates/creates records in the required Ibase.
  •  Use Equipment BOM functions to include warranty parts (SAP equipment object has many functionalities to handle complex warranty parameters like measurement points, master warranty, vendor warranty, etc.)

Useful references:

Automotive Dealer portal (IS-A-DP)

Dealer Portal,

SAP Help

Summary:/Feedback request:

To create your warranty registration application, you must be aware of all possible business scenarios and SAP options. This blog post would help consolidate the business requirements on warranty product registration. Please share your feedback on adding any more scenario to the above list.


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