Keith Shirley

I don’t agree with the title of Techcentral’s recent article which gave the impression that you should not buy extended warranties. Here’s my advice and comments on extended warranties and service contracts:

• If it’s mission critical then you need to have it running. You can’t afford the downtime while you try to find someone to fix it. Review the downtime costs versus the warranty and repair costs.
• The manufacturer should be able to give you MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) and MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) values. MTBF gives you an idea of how long the system is likely to run before things start to break and need replacing. MTTR gives you an idea of how long it will be out of action.
• The MTBF and MTTR values are handy but ask candid questions about the kinds of things that can break and how long the individual jobs need to repair.
• A single component might be able to be replaced on site but there mat be a shipping time. Should you keep spares on site?
• The whole equipment may need to be sent back to the supplier. How long would that take?
• What happens during non business hours or the holidays?
• Does any regular maintenance work need to be done?
• Does the equipment need to be taken off line to do maintenance?
• Does the MTBF number assume all maintenance is done?
• Does a specialist need to do the maintenance?
• How long before someone is physically there to fix the equipment? Some contracts give a 1 hour response time but that only means an engineer has been assigned.

THE MTBF is based on best case conditions. I suggest having an informal chat with your supplier to ask how the real world scenario is and what you can do to ensure the equipment is working at its best.
Remember: If the equipment is old – no one might know how to maintain it – even if you have a contract. Check yearly with the supplier how the supply of spare parts is, the engineers technical knowledge. Trust me – They’ll tell you if it’s time to buy new equipment.