I believe that this is a good undertaking and MIGHT well lead to better quality control, but I am also a bit of a skeptic.
I would think Heartland already has years of data accumulated through warranty claims and service reports that have come in. In those reports there is certainly a write-up of the problem, a bill of materials, and a list of labor charge from the dealer or approved service center. A good bit of the major repairs are even done at the factory. A bit of data entry and statistical analysis could yield them much of the same information as their new random inspection process will, and with less costs as the inspection process still will have to be documented and analyzed.
Another great and underutilized source of feedback to the factory is on the Heartland Owners Forum and in their presence at the Heartland Rallies. We all know that the factory monitors this site, and Jim Belletti has represented the owners collectively to the factory for issues, facilitation of repairs, and marketing/design feedback. But we all have seen design and construction issues that have have not been changed despite this information being available year after year, like refrigerators in slides that operate poorly, A/C airflow and noise, tires, axle and spring problems, the mess behind the wall, and list continues.
Granted, many of us owners have performed our minor cosmetic warranty repairs, or even major repairs on our own, outside of the warranty claims process. These could not be tabulated in that manner, but are probably are as representative of the manufacturing problems as a random inspection could be.
I would like to see Heartland take a more involved role in warranty issues with the third-party components of their products. Aside from the structure, probably 3/4's or more of our rigs are not of Heartland's manufacture. A/C's, furnaces, toilets, refrigerators, axles, (on and on) are purchased by Heartland and assembled. The warranty for these items are referred directly to the manufacturers like Lippert, Sealand, Suburban, Atwood, Flair and Dometic that are not currently tracked. I understand that this can add costs to Heartlands current business model, but the value is that Heartland can choose their suppliers and leverage them in the interest of the consumer. When there are issues with these components, Heartland gets a share of the reputation. Other than tires, vehicle manufacturers have full warranty liability for the vehicles that they sell. That would provide us with one face for the brand, instead of a list of 800 numbers.
Please don't misunderstand me, I think Heartland builds a great value rig that is competitive in all aspects of design, quality,and workmanship with any comparable rigs in the marketspace and similar pricepoints. I would even venture to say that they fare better than the higher-end rigs. I do not have any complaints with Heartland or their (my) product. My rig has never given us any major heartaches or had any warranty service. That says a lot after four and half years (very low miles) of full-time use.
Hopefully, this will be one more proactive step in gathering data to improve both their design and manufacturing processes. The 'teeth' in it isn't in gathering the data, but what changes are affected by it.
I appreciate having the Owner's Forum as a place to express this opinion. Thanks for listening.
