Our manufacturing and field installation business is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to warranty claims, scrap, and rework, but neither Operations, Sales, nor Field Service will take accountability for the Warranty and Claims seat. How do we place and staff a seat that nobody wants on the Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A seat that nobody wants usually points to an operational no-man's-land filled with conflict, customer frustration, and finger-pointing. When neither Sales, Operations, nor Service wants to own warranty and rework claims, the issue is not personal. It is structural.

First, isolate the seat on your Accountability Chart and define its five core roles. Those roles typically include:
- Triage and root-cause logging
- Vendor and subcontractor chargebacks
- Rework scheduling coordination
- Policy enforcement and customer resolution
- Defect prevention reporting

Next, place the seat where the economic leverage exists. Warranty claims almost always sit under Operations or Quality because that department controls fabrication standards and field installation crews. If you leave it under Sales, they will approve costly repairs to protect customer feelings. If you leave it floating, unassigned claims will quietly drain your cash flow.

Until a permanent owner is selected, your Integrator must temporarily hold the seat or assign it as an interim Rock. Do not allow your department heads to negotiate out of taking responsibility. If no existing manager has the GWC to run the seat without hostility, recruit an external claims and quality manager whose sole Scorecard measurables are rework cycle time, root-cause resolution, and recovery of vendor costs.