When
I wrote about minimum wages and productivity, I could not help but recall a
news reporting that I had stumbled across. The Dabbawallas story, was, still is
a chronicle of achievement, and I was utterly impressed by their commitment, discipline
and teamwork. They received a Six Sigma Performance rating of 99.9999%, or
having only one error in 6 millions deliveries.
Six Sigma is a performance measurement
strategy. It is an methodology that works on elimination of errors for better
efficiency.
From
the suburban homes, where the food is being prepared and delivered to the
offices of Mumbai (Bombay) Dabbawallas work together as a team to bring food to
the masses of office workers. Dabba meaning lunch box, and Walla meaning man.
What
started out as a simple delivery service for catered food more than 100 years
ago, is now a world renowned.
These
very special, Dabbawallas, or lunchbox man started the day filling up their
Tiffin carriers with the food ordered in the suburbs, identifying each customer
by simple colour and codes. These tiffin
carriers are then transported by bikes, rail, motocycles and finally delivered
to the lunch recipients in their offices.
Each
working day, 5000 Dabbawallas deliver 200,000 home make meals for less than $10
a month. They first leave the homes where these lunch meals are prepared
heading toward the first railway station. They were then sorted at the railway
station and boarded onto the luggage carriage. The 3rd Dabbawalla
will travel with these lunches to their nearest destination. These lunches were
then picked up and delivered by another Dabbawalla and delivered to their
various destinations. The empty lunch boxes are then returned to their original
location in the evening in a reversal of the earlier journey. Each Dabbawallas
travel approximately 70 miles each day.
Food
for lunch anyone? Food for thought too for Malaysians to get ‘unstuck in the
middle,’ and strive to become a high income economy.
Watch a Business Lesson by cbsnews.com on Dabbswallas, the
Indian Lunch Carriers on youtube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxfHB5wPWeQ
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