Dabbawalas (Tiffin Carriers of Mumbai)

[iyervijay]

Hi,

For people who do not understand DABBAWALA, it means Tiffin Carriers. The Dabbawalas are ones to carry lunch to people working in Mumbai city. They cater to working population and school children of Mumbai who deliver 175,000 lunches each day, day after day. Lunch is in a tin container consisting of number of bowls, each containing a separate dish, held together in a frame. The meals are prepared in the homes of people who commute into Mumbai each morning and delivered in their own carriers. After the lunch the entire process is reversed.

Around 5000 tiffinwallas deliver 175,000 lunches everyday and take the empty tiffin back. The world renowned Forbes magazine has selected them as a colossal example of six sigma’s success.....reason:

They make one Error on every 16 million transactions (including return journeys).

They make one mistake in 2 months. This means there is one error on every 16 million transactions.

This is thus a six sigma performance (a term used in quality assurance if the percentage of correctness is 99.999999) - the performance which has made companies like Motorola and GE world famous for their quality.

This is how the process works:

The meals are picked up from commuters’ homes in suburbs around central Mumbai long after the commuters have left for work, delivered to them on time, then picked up and delivered home before the commuters return. Each tiffin carrier has, painted on its top, a number of symbols which identify where the carrier was picked up, the originating and destination stations and the address to which it is to be delivered.

After the tiffin carriers are picked up, they are taken to the nearest railway station, where they are sorted according to the destination station.

Between 10:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. they are loaded in crates onto the baggage cars of trains. At the destination station they are unloaded by other tiffinwallas and re-sorted, this time according to street address and floor. The 100-kilogram crates of carriers, carried on tiffinwallahs’ heads, hand-wagons and cycles are delivered at 12:30 p.m., picked up at 1:30 p.m., and returned where they came from.

Charges:

The charge for this extraordinary service is just 150 rupees per month, enough for the tiffinwallahs, who are mostly self-employed, to make a good living. After paying Rs. 60 per crate and Rs.120 per man per month to the Railway for transport, the average tiffinwallas clears about Rs.3, 250. Of that sum, Rs. 10 goes to the Tiffinmen’s Association. After minimal expenses, the rest of the Rs. 50,000 a month that the Association collects go to a charitable trust that feeds the poor.


What is wonderful about this system is that it extendsthe design and uses the tiffinwallas, the end user and their cognitive and memory structure as well. Since one tiffinwalla is not going to pick more than 10-20 tiffins, he can easily sort recognize at the originating station and deliver it to the owner. Also within a building, the tiffinwala knows which floor to deliver. Within a floor a owner can recognize his tiffin amongst others.

These tiffins carry only

* A symbol (not name) of the originating station

* A symbol for the destination station

* A symbol for the building where the addressee is.

And what is more amazing is that this is run by people, most of whom are illiterate (oopss!!!!!!).

No doubt Price Charles also made it a point to meet the Dabbawalas during his visit to India.

Any comments?


Regards
Vijay

[Editor]

The efficiency of the dabbawalas of Mumbai is truely astonishing. No wonder their process results in six-sigma quality performance. The process as pointed out in detail by Vijay is highly capable and meets the customer needs almost without fail. This capability of the process results in consistent performance and customer delight. The customer feels very certain as his needs are being met without fail. The time factor is very crucial to the customer (they need their tiffin boxes before lunch time) which is duely taken care of. All this extraordinary service at a very reasonable price. What more does a customer want?

The important question that arises from all this is that this performance is provided by people who are illiterate as Vijay said....thus why achieving six-sigma or let us say customer satisfaction or delight in a layman's language is so diffucult for established business houses be it any industry. Where are the loopholes...Are people not motivated enough....what is your gutfeel?

[harsha]

I think more than the process capabilities or six sigma orientation, the most important thing is rigour and zeal to achieve perfection.

As we all know six sigma was invented by Motorola, but mastered by GE. Why? Simple, they have the people who have the zeal and right attitude towards perfection.

Well this example from Mumbai should be taken as learning by all of us, that how we can streamline and make our daily life more systematic.

Can we apply these techniques in our daily life?

Regards,

Harsha