A California-based mobile app company has incorporated Lean Six Sigma into every aspect of their business – including innovation.

Innovation is often an area that Lean Six Sigma critics claim the methodology stifles. But nothing could be further from the truth for FutureDial, which provides mobile device processing solutions for wireless carriers’ supply chains.

The company’s solutions have been used for more than 108 million Android and iOS-based mobile devices worldwide with a total value of more than $2.9 billion. FutureDial specializes in providing its services for wireless carriers, mobile device buyback and trade-in companies, recyclers and third-party logistics providers.

In addition to the United States, the company has offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, and China. Lean Six Sigma is part of everything the company does. FutureDial proclaims on its website that “embracing Lean Six-Sigma philosophies allows us to help businesses run more efficiently. “

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the company’s latest product, the Lean One-Touch Solution.

Improved Efficiency

The Lean One-Touch is an “all-in-one” processing solution that offers advantages over old, multi-step systems.

Reading FutureDial’s description of the product is like reading about the advantages of Lean Six Sigma: It can “reduce waste, improve quality, capacity and productivity.”

That’s no accident. FutureDial is 100% committed to Lean Six Sigma. It’s not something they have talked about doing, it’s something incorporated into the business every day. The company describes a process in which Lean Six Sigma philosophy and process steps allowed for the innovations in the development of Lean One-Touch.

Customer-Focused

The product is designed with a customer focus, a major tenet of Lean, which proposes that anything in an operation that does not create value for a customer should be eliminated.

Those customer-focused features in Lean One-Touch include:

  • An easy-to-use interface
  • A single-station solution rather than multiple steps
  • A customizable system
  • Universal platform support
  • A reduction of the hardware needed in relation to older systems

Those are the types of things that customers want in every innovative technology (hopefully Netflix has read about the “easy-to-use interface”). FutureDial, by incorporating Lean principles, delivered them.

The Results

The Lean One-Touch has helped solidify FutureDial position in the market, so much so that now they are teaming with OptoFidelity to incorporate robotics into the software platform.

The two companies will combine the integrated software capabilities offered by FutureDial with the test automation technologies from OptoFidelity. This integration of software and hardware is expected to reduce costs associated with mobile devices in the reverse logistics supply chain.

Reverse logistics refers to a supply chain strategy in which companies collect and reuse parts of their distributed products, with a goal of reducing waste and the size of the company’s environmental footprint.

The company provides a great example of leveraging Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques for innovation. Innovation doesn’t always have to involve something new. It can create different approaches for creating better outcomes.

The key components of Lean Six Sigma, as shown by FutureDial, transfer smoothly into tech innovation. They include, in addition to the focus on the customer, areas such as:

  • Making improvements in a systematic way
  • Identifying and understanding value streams
  • Improving process flows
  • Educating and equipping teams with the right knowledge

All this works well not only in streamlining operations, but in making innovation a part of the culture.