Optimizing extended warranty options with preventive maintenance service under multinomial logit model

Abstract

Extended warranty (EW) services have become the primary source of profit for manufacturers. How to design the appropriate EW service to balance customer user experience with the manufacturer’s profit issues has received great attention. Implementing preventive maintenance (PM) actions can not only reduce the customer’s lifecycle cost but also enhance the manufacturer’s brand image. Therefore, EW bundled with PM service has emerged in the after-sales market today. To enrich customers’ choice, we investigate the design of EW menus bundled with PM service options, and then we jointly determine EW prices and the frequency of PM actions for the provided menus. In the proposed model, we combine the multinomial logit model with prospect theory to characterize customer choice behavior when presented with different EW menu options. Based on that, with the aim of maximizing the manufacturer’s profit, we can derive sets of offers, the corresponding EW service prices, and the number of included PM actions. We also introduce two additional models that account for different customer purchase scenarios. Numerical results reveal that when the manufacturer chooses to offer a unified EW menu to all customers, it is consistently more profitable to present the menu at the point of product sales. Another interesting finding is that customized EW menus designed for various customer segments do not always outperform unified ones. Overall, this study will provide a foundation for manufacturers to make informed decisions regarding the selection and design of EW menus in various scenarios.