Guideline

Possible warranty claim

 Legal information and document details

Publisher ENERCON Service Deutschland GmbH ▪ Dornumer Straße 20 ▪ 26607 Au-

rich ▪ Germany
Phone: +49 4941 976-0 ▪ Fax: +49 4941 976-109
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Area of application
This document applies to : GS, international

Document details

Document ID SEKO_Guideline_possible_warranty_claim_Rev001_de-en

Confidentiality INTERNAL

Date Language DCC Plant/Department

2023-06-29 de QA Service Deutschland GmbH/Service Performance

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 Legal information and document details

Additional details

Original document details Translation details

Created/Date: Kenny Hardt/2023-05-16 Translated/Date: --/---
Checked/Date: Sebastian Löhr/2023-05-16 Checked/Date: --/---
Approved/Date: Henryk Paul/2023-06-29 Approved/Date: --/---
Revision: 001 Revision: ---

Revision table
Revision Date chapter Change
000 2023-03-13 - Document created
001 2023-06-29 2.1 Added 2.1.2 to the chapter

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 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
1 General information............................................................................................................ 6
1.1 Purpose and objective.................................................................................................... 6
1.2 Target groups ................................................................................................................ 6
1.3 Contact person .............................................................................................................. 6
1.4 Definition of terms .......................................................................................................... 6
2 Conditions for a possible complaint.................................................................................. 7
2.1 Time of discovery........................................................................................................... 7
2.1.1 Phase of the WEC .................................................................................................. 7
2.1.2 Phase of the Material .............................................................................................. 7
2.2 Warranty period ............................................................................................................. 7
2.3 Suppliers right to rework................................................................................................. 7
2.4 Content of the notification............................................................................................... 7
3 Declare a possible warranty complaint............................................................................ 10
3.1 As Field Service staff ................................................................................................... 10
3.1.1 Creation of an NC ................................................................................................. 10

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3.2 As technical Indoor Service.......................................................................................... 11
4 Further processing of the NCs......................................................................................... 12

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 List of abbreviations

List of abbreviations
Abbreviation Meaning
CM Construction manager
EMC ENERCON Mobile Client
GS Global Service
GPM General project manager
NC Non-conformity (defect report)
PM Project Management
QI IW Quality Inspector, Installation Works
RC Complaint
SQA Supplier Quality & Development
SV IW Supervisor, Installation Works
WEC Wind energy converter

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 Guideline_Possible_warranty_claim

1 General information

1.1 Purpose and objective

This guideline provides orientation for creating and processing NCs (defect reports) in SAP/EMC if
there is the possibility to create a warranty claim.
The classification ‘Service complaint process – Clarification with Quality Management’ primarily
serves the purpose of complaining about defective material to suppliers.
It can also be used to address quality issues for ENERCON’s in-house work sections.
This guideline is intended to improve ENERCON internal communication in order to minimize ex-
cessive work due to unnecessary follow-up questions and to efficiently create complaints about de-
fective material during the warranty period.
This guideline applies exclusively to WECs that are currently in the service phase.
It does not apply to notifications that are created during commissioning or 300h mainte-
nance.

1.2 Target groups

Service technicians and indoor employees.

1.3 Contact person

Should you have any questions or requests to change contact GS Quality Management at the e-

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mail address GS-Performance-Quality <GS-Performance-Quality@enercon.de>.

1.4 Definition of terms

Defect report (NC): If a non-conformity is recorded in SAP/EMC, this is done in a defect report.
This is also known as a CS notification (CS stands for Customer Service), NC notification or Ser-
vice notification. In SAP these are notifications that begin with the sequence of 9200xxx.
QA notification: QA notifications are created if the origin of the non-conformity is not at ENER-
CON. In SAP these are notifications that begin with the sequence 960xxxxx. In this context, a QA
notification is directed to an external supplier. The information specified in QA is used to contact
external suppliers of material and to obtain replacements for costs or materials as needed, but also
to ensure the quality of the supplier.
QE notification: QE notifications are created if the origin of the non-conformity is not the responsi-
bility of ENERCON Service but if the affected material was produced by ENERCON itself. In SAP
these are notifications that begin with the sequence 961xxxxx. The information provided in a QE
notification is used to improve the quality of ENERCON products.
RC notifications: RC notifications are the older version of QE notifications. In SAP these are notifi-
cations that begin with the sequence 940xxxxxx.
Service phase: A WEC is in the service phase when the commissioning and 300 h maintenance
has been completed and the WEC has been officially handed over to a customer. If it is unclear
whether a WEC is already in the Service phase, the technical indoor Service can be contacted.

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2 Conditions for a possible complaint

This section explains the cases in which ‘Service complaint process – clarification by Quality Man-
agement’ must be selected and what needs to be considered when creating these notifications.
The success of a complaint is linked to several conditions.

2.1 Time of discovery

2.1.1 Phase of the WEC
In order for the NC to be correctly addressed, the WEC must be in the service phase.
If a defect is detected during commissioning or 300h maintenance, the complaint process is differ-
ent because PM is responsible for this phase. In these cases either PM-Installationworks or Pro-
duction must be selected.

2.1.2 Phase of the Material

The process described in this guide only applies to material that has already been installed in the
WEC and, if applicable, has been maintained in the master data.
If damage is already discovered during the incoming goods inspection or during the installation of
the material, the complaint is made via the material manager of the respective planner group and
therefore, a different process applies.

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2.2 Warranty period
The defect must be discovered and reported within the warranty period. The majority of the materi-
als have a warranty period of two years. Large components (e.g. transformers, rotor blades, tow-
ers, etc.) usually have a warranty period of five years. The defect must also not be caused by EN-
ERCON Service.
If a WEC has not yet been in operation for 2 years, or if the defective material has been newly in-
stalled within the last 2 years (5 years for larger components) the Service complaint process must
be initiated.

2.3 Suppliers right to rework

Suppliers have the right to rework. This means they have the right to carry out repairs before EN-
ERCON can obtain spare material or similar compensations. If repairs were already performed in-
dependently by ENERCON, the warranty claim is forfeited. In individual cases, it may make sense
to forfeit the warranty claim, e.g. to avoid a longer WEC shutdown. In order to make this decision,
the respective specialist department must be contacted before repairs are carried out.

2.4 Content of the notification

When a defect report is created it is necessary to select the affected equipment so that important
information can be automatically added to a Q notification.

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 Guideline_Possible_warranty_claim

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Fig. 1

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Fig 2

The material number and serial number of the defective material must be stated or must be
clearly recognizable in an attached photo. If this is not possible, then at least the installation unit
must be specified. For support the technical Indoor Service or the respective Material Managers of
the planner group can be contacted.
Without this information, it is not possible to track where the material came from and, accordingly,
no complaint can be made.
The defect must be detailed with photos and a description. In addition, it can be helpful to describe
the circumstances under which the defect occurred or how it was discovered. The more infor-
mation is available, the less likely will be the occurrence of follow-up questions or rejections of
complaints. The description must be available in English. If the description and photos are insuffi-
cient, a request for information will be sent to the creator of the notification, or the notification can-
not be further processed.
If new material is defective and delivered, it may make sense to include a photo of the delivery
note in notification. In particular if, the affected material does not have a serial number.

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3 Declare a possible warranty complaint

3.1 As Field Service staff

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Fig 3 Classification in EMC
To declare a possible warranty complaint in EMC, ‘Service complaint process – clarification by
Quality Management’ must be selected under ‘Complaint to’.

3.1.1 Creation of an NC
How to create NC/defect reports in EMC can be seen in the user documentation under the follow-
ing link. Link to EMC user documentation
In addition, the ENERCON Teaching Center has EMC training courses that can be conducted in-
dependently or assigned by a supervisor.
08-XX-0005 ENERCON Mobile Client
https://etc.enercon.de/sui/itemDetail/24144?context=1&catId=16699&asId=0&tpId=0&tpeId=0
08 – XX-0011 Defect reporting
https://etc.enercon.de/sui/itemDetail/23505
Before creating said findings reports it is necessary to check whether a notification has already
been generated in the system in this regard. In the event of missing parts in particular, a status no-
tification may have been created in production.

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3.2 As technical Indoor Service

Since it is possible that Field Service staff cannot recognize a possible warranty complaint and that
the Indoor Service can often create notifications themselves, this section refers to the declaration
of a possible warranty complaint in SAP.
To declare a possible warranty complaint an existing notification must be opened in change or cre-
ation mode. Then the “cause” field needs to be changed to SRVAD01 0001. This cause code can
be selected in the catalog.

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Fig 4 Classification in SAP
This error code causes the notification appear in the GS Performance-Quality department’s work
list, and the further complaint process is checked and initiated.

Note:
The standard processes for inspection of non-conformities (second level support process and tech-
nical evaluation measure) are not affected by this.
This means that, if there is no technical solution, the 2nd level process must be initiated via the
ticket system, as only the respective specialist department of Service Engineering can provide the
technical solution. In these cases, the specialist department initiates the complaint process.

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4 Further processing of the NCs

If a Service technician creates a notification that is classified as ‘Service complaint process – clari-
fication by Quality Management’ it first ends up with a technician from Operative Indoor Service.
They can now confirm or disprove the possibility of a warranty complaint by checking the available
data in the system. If the employee noticed that the information provided is not sufficient, he/she
may try to add it. If necessary, he/she will also create an order to solve any problems that arise.
If the possibility of a complaint has been declared, the Quality Management will check the notifica-
tion. With the information provided through the NC the goods receipt has to be identified. In the
next step this goods receipt document is used as the basis to create a Q notification.
If the material was delivered to ENERCON Service internally from another ENERCON department,
a QE or RC notification is created and the responsible previous department can check precisely
where the material originates. Among other things, the production location and production date
play an important role in uncovering and preventing possible quality problems in production.
If the material is from an external supplier, a QA notification is created. When the QA notification is
created, the supplier is informed of the defect via e-mail and requested to comment. In this step,
the SQD is involved and arranges the agreement with the supplier. If the information specified in
the notification is not sufficient (e.g. a defect is not clearly recognizable), the supplier can reject a
complaint and ENERCON has to pay for all related damages itself.
In some cases it can be possible that costs that are only indirectly related to the defect can be
complaint about to the supplier. (E.g., downtimes or repair costs for other affected components).
This can result in high costs if a cost-effective material is defective. For this reason, all associated

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costs are collected in the QA notification.

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