Wipro Technologies, the number four IT Indian IT services firm, said it has been granted a US ‘business process’ patent for innovation in warranty management and insights into product quality in the automotive manufacturing sector.
Wipro’s product helps manufacturers to gain insights on product design and resolve problems by analyzing data such as the number of warranty claims made on a particular product by customers. The data is then used to analyze the quality of a product and increase or decrease the cost of warranty.
According to IDC, warranty claims represent a USD 23 billion dollar market in the United States and ‘warranty warrior’ companies are utilizing warranty data to make better products and lower costs.
The patent is for a unique methodology that helps gain insights from product breakdowns, which help in improving product design and manufacturing processes, in the automotive manufacturing sector, Wipro said.
The method is part of Wipro’s ‘Solution for Quality Transformation’ (WiQTr) framework.
Indian companies have long been criticized for coming up short on both innovation and on non-technical, or business strategy consulting. India’s IT companies started out as ‘material and labour’ cost based outsourcing partners and have evolved into technological companies over the past 10-15 years.
