Arrow Electronics Wins “Innovation of the Year” Award for Second Consecutive Year at Lean & Six Sigma World Conference

For the second year in a row, Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW) walked away with “Innovation of the Year” honors in March at the Lean & Six Sigma World Conference, the leading conference on business process improvement.

Arrow won for its Lean Sigma Drones project, which combines drone technology, proprietary video technology and a rapid-improvement methodology to observe Arrow’s extensive warehouse operations from a birds-eye view and more effectively identify areas for continuous improvement. The project has already increased the efficiency of targeted processes by 82 percent and eliminated more than 6.5 million walking steps in warehouse processes since Arrow launched it in late 2016.

Employee feedback spurred the innovative drone project—Arrow warehouse employees reported it was much easier to observe processes and identify areas for improvement from a higher vantage point. Using drones, they can now see more than they ever could before, and all in 4K resolution.

“Arrow Electronics is always on the lookout for innovative new ways to improve its logistics services and better meet the needs of our customers and suppliers around the world,” said Mary Beth Edwards, vice president of Arrow’s global business operations. “We are honored to once again be recognized by the Lean & Six Sigma Conference for guiding innovation forward.”

Arrow won the award last year for its Lean Sigma Global Logistics Olympics. Both projects are creating a fun, competitive, continuous process-improvement environment across Arrow’s growing global logistics network and were conceived of by Arrow’s Top 25 Lean Sigma Practitioner Thomas Van Eimeren, who accepted the award last night on Arrow’s behalf.

The annual Lean & Six Sigma Conference attracts international and national experts on topics including innovation, process improvement and value creation that play a major role in improving efficiencies, increasing profitability and improving customer experience across a variety of industries.

Learn more about how Arrow Electronics is innovating tomorrow