Sub-function
Warranty & Returns
Owns claim work end to end inside Customer Service. Runs 3 lines across 18 stations, drains the repeatable share into the O2C tower, and holds 1 human gates.
Estate rating
A
77 / 100
Warranty validation and return authorization are rule-driven with strong fraud signals. High-value or repeat-pattern claims route to a human reviewer.
Agents
10
Lines
3
Units / wk
5,298
Timetable vs actual
16.1h → 19.1h
Cost / unit
$6.86
was $22
Run-rate saving
$4.2M
annualized at this volume
The 10 agents running this sub-function
Grouped by what they are for, not by where they sit. The agent org is process-shaped.
Warranty & Returns Orchestrator
Owns the warranty & returns lane end to end. Sequences the other agents, holds the timetable, and decides what surfaces to a human.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Warranty & Returns when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Warranty Validation Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of warranty & returns inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Warranty & Returns when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Disposition Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of warranty & returns inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Warranty & Returns when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Credit Issuance Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of warranty & returns inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Warranty & Returns when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Return Authorization Agent
Executes the warranty & returns step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Warranty & Returns when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Repair vs Replace Agent
Executes the warranty & returns step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Warranty & Returns when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Supplier Recovery Agent
Executes the warranty & returns step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Warranty & Returns when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Fraud Pattern Agent
Holds the rules that bind every other agent in warranty & returns. Versions them, tests them against live decisions, and blocks work that breaches them.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates on any decision that would breach a live policy version, with the clause cited.
Returns Policy Agent
Holds the rules that bind every other agent in warranty & returns. Versions them, tests them against live decisions, and blocks work that breaches them.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates on any decision that would breach a live policy version, with the clause cited.
Warranty & Returns Challenger Agent
Adversarial reviewer for warranty & returns. Argues the opposite case on every position and flags where the evidence does not carry the claim.
ceiling A4 · escalates to Escalates when a ratified position is still running against a break condition it flagged.
Estate rating breakdown
Seven control dimensions. Judgment readiness runs against autonomy on purpose.
People
What the humans stopped doing, and what they do now.
Redeployed into control design and independent testing.
Lines running in this sub-function
Each line is a workflow. Click a line to walk it station by station.
Strategy positions this sub-function holds
An agent that only executes is a robot. These are the calls it made, the argument against each one, and what would prove it wrong.
Repair vs Replace Position
Draftv2Where should the autonomy ceiling for warranty & returns sit over the next four quarters, and what evidence would justify moving it?
Hold the ceiling at A4 for warranty & returns. Warranty validation and return authorization are rule-driven with strong fraud signals. High-value or repeat-pattern claims route to a human reviewer. Raise it only after two consecutive quarters where the override rate stays under five percent and every override has a written cause.
confidence
87%
The challenge — Warranty & Returns Challenger Agent
Warranty & Returns Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 5 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 10 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per claim stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No external comparator on a like-for-like unit definition
- ·Exception cases under $43k are sampled, not fully measured
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $877k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | live |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $476k to build controls | Override rate is 5 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $292k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | under review |
Policy register
The rules the agents above are bound by. Version, owner, approver, and the agents each rule constrains.
| Ref | Rule | Scope | Owner agent | Approved by | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS7-POL-200 | Warranty & Returns Decision Envelope Agents in this lane may act without a human when the claim sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. Outside it, the unit holds at a gate with a named approver and a running clock. binds 6 agents · Global | envelope | Fraud Pattern Agent | Director, Warranty & Returns | v1.3 | Superseded |
| CS7-POL-201 | Warranty & Returns Evidence Standard Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. An action with no evidence record is treated as a control failure, not a fast decision. binds 6 agents · EU · UK | evidence | Fraud Pattern Agent | Director, Warranty & Returns | v4.5 | Active |