sidchakra76
sidchakra76
|
 |
mumbai tiffinwalas in forbes global
«on:
11/01/03 at 21:05:59 » |
|
this is a cut & paste. just wanted to share this amazing story about which many of u know already.
The Mumbai tiffinwallas are international figures now thanks to Forbes
>Global. The Forbes story details the efficiency, which with they deliver the
>tiffins of their customers. Around 5000 tiffinwallas deliver 175,000 lunches
>everyday and take the empty tiffin back. 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 that has made
>companies like Motorola and GE world famous for their quality. Here is the
>complete story ... Mumbai' s "tiffinwallas" have achieved a level of service
>to which Western businesses can only aspire. "Efficient organization" is not
>the first thought that comes to mind in India, but when the profit motive is
>given free rein, anything is possible. To appreciate Indian efficiency at
>its best, watch the tiffinwallas at work. These are the men who deliver
>175,000 lunches (or "tiffin") each day to offices and schools throughout
>Mumbai, the business capital of India.
>
>Lunch is in a tin container consisting of a number of bowls, each containing
>a separate dish, held together in a frame. The meals are prepared in the
>homes of the people who commute into Mumbai each morning and delivered in
>their own tiffin carriers. After lunch, the process is reversed. And what a
>process - in it's complexity, the 5,000 tiffinwallas make a mistake only
>about once every two months, according to Ragunath Medge, 42, president of
>the Mumbai Tiffin men's Association. That's one error in every 8 million
>deliveries, or 16 million if you include the return trip. "If we made 10
>mistakes a month, no one would use our service," says the craggily handsome
>Medge.
>
>How do they do it? 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 tiffinwallas' 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.
>
>The charge for this extraordinary service is just 150 rupees ($3.33) 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 Western Railway for transport, the average tiffinwalas clears about
>Rs.3, 250. Of that sum, Rs. 10 goes to the Tiffin men'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. Superb service and
>charity too. Can anyone ask for more?
>
>What is wonderful about this system is that it extends the 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 an 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 people who run this, most of whom are
>illiterate. Amazing isn't it? |
| | |
Rupam Das.
Guest
|
|
Re: mumbai tiffinwalas in forbes global
«on:
11/02/03 at 08:55:30 » |
|
yes man indeed
you need to see those stockpiles to believe it...
and yes they are amazing...have not heard of a single mistake...atleast the office I was in while in Bombay...six standard deviations on the normal curve? forget it...they do much much better than that...even motorola's process capabilities would be put to shame...
a perfect synchronization between the voice of customers and voice of processes. |
| | |
shaan
shaan
|
|
Re: mumbai tiffinwalas in forbes global
«on:
11/02/03 at 09:14:19 » |
|
faultless six sigma application by an unplanned sector as weired as tiffiwalas.....that's great story indeed.....sidchakra....hmmm....nice post....
an eyeopener case for even ge and amex...leave our psus... |
| | |
haroon
Guest
|
|
Re: mumbai tiffinwalas in forbes global
«on:
11/04/03 at 14:03:27 » |
|
good info, very interesting. |
| | |
haroon
Guest
|
|
Re: mumbai tiffinwalas in forbes global
«on:
11/04/03 at 14:04:01 » |
|
good info, very interesting. |
| | |
Shankar_Chakravarti
Shankar_Chakravart
|
|
Re: mumbai tiffinwalas in forbes global
«on:
11/05/03 at 05:10:07 » |
|
http://www.hindu.com/2003/11/04/stories/2003110402082200.htm
A picture( Prince Charles speaking to dabbawallas ) also published in The Hyderabad edition but I couldn't locate it in the On line edition. Sidchakra76, thanks for the thread. |
| | |
rimpi
Guest
|
|
Re: mumbai tiffinwalas in forbes global
«on:
11/07/03 at 07:55:50 » |
|
yes....prince Charles met mumbai tiffinwalas along with aamir khan...all dailies carried the news.
|
| | |
|
Author