Sitting by the confines of my desk, peering into MSSolve, i was contemplating which one of my customers should I call next; A reminder popped up on my calendar that read "The Mumbai Dabbawaala Story - by Dr. Pawan Agarwal". The event was due to start in 15 minutes. Ever since my days in school, their stories have been an occasional recess conversation amongst friends, and we chatted about how a city as huge as Mumbai has a unique system of delivering lunchboxes by the most unconventional means. Every time i'd hear dabbawaalas, i'd imagine a group of mustached men in white topis scourging the streets of mumbai and delivering steel dabbas to the remotest of corners in the vast city of Mumbai. It seemed pretty chaotic to me back then, and i never imagined this concept would be so popular. Then came stories of how the Dabbawaalas would conduct seminars in various top universities in the globe, along with how a case study was also made on their work. It was obviously unheard of, and you can imagine my astonishment wondering how such a business came to make such an impact all over the world.
That Outlook reminder blinked back on my screen: Meeting starts now. It took less than a second for me to make my way to the conference room just in time, and i quickly saved myself a seat. In a few minutes, we were introduced to Dr. Pawan Agarwal, a short statured man in a suit, donning the Gandhi topi, who introduced himself with a radiant smile on his face. He kept a steel tiffinbox by his side, and he paced around explaining how he was convinced to give a lecture at GTSC, and how excited he was to impart some of his knowledge to us. "60 minutes" is all he asked from us, and he sent a few chuckles across by admitting "if i'm called here to talk for 60 minutes, then I must be good at what i do".
That Outlook reminder blinked back on my screen: Meeting starts now. It took less than a second for me to make my way to the conference room just in time, and i quickly saved myself a seat. In a few minutes, we were introduced to Dr. Pawan Agarwal, a short statured man in a suit, donning the Gandhi topi, who introduced himself with a radiant smile on his face. He kept a steel tiffinbox by his side, and he paced around explaining how he was convinced to give a lecture at GTSC, and how excited he was to impart some of his knowledge to us. "60 minutes" is all he asked from us, and he sent a few chuckles across by admitting "if i'm called here to talk for 60 minutes, then I must be good at what i do".
He took his time to settle in before delving into the
intricates of looking over five thousand dabbawaalas. He flashed his steel dabba around,
and kept pacing up and down with that broad smile. Almost instantly, he bridged
the gap in between us, as we grew fond of his antics. He began unravelling his
work ethics by asking us to put our faith in our work, just as we put our faith
in God. "Work is worship, and customer is God" His ethics stand by a belief
that this World works solely on customer relationships, and Life is all about pleasing
customers. For example- at work, we work and provide services to people at the other end of the phone line: These
people are our customers. At home, our parents
work towards giving us the best of food, clothing and education: We are their customers. Love your customers. This is the philosophy that motivates each dabbawaala
to travel long journeys in packed local trains, endure floods and rains, fight
all odds in an unpredictable Mumbai to see that the lunch is delivered to the
rightful customer, at the right time.
Then came the most staggering piece of information that caught my attention:
A small idea that began in 1890, surged its way to being a full fledged business comprising a team of 5000 dabbawaalas, who operate from 8AM to 5PM every day. Relying heavily on the lifeline of Mumbai’s transport- the local train, each dabba waala covers a distance of 60km on average, daily. With almost 800,000 transactions per day (these transactions comprise of collecting the dabba from home, delivering the dabba to the office, and returning the empty dabba back home) their error rate is 1 from 16 million transactions, with a "No Strike/No Police Case" record ever since its inception back in 1980! With over 200000 tiffins being dispatched every day, how does one keep track of which tiffin is to be delivered where, and that too on a consistent note? These dabbawaalas have developed their own unique way to tag each dabba with the starting station, destination address, and other such parameters that would easily allow any dabbawaala to take up the task to deliver the dabba to where it's intended to reach. The picture below represents the manner in which the top of the dabba is tagged.
Then came the most staggering piece of information that caught my attention:
A small idea that began in 1890, surged its way to being a full fledged business comprising a team of 5000 dabbawaalas, who operate from 8AM to 5PM every day. Relying heavily on the lifeline of Mumbai’s transport- the local train, each dabba waala covers a distance of 60km on average, daily. With almost 800,000 transactions per day (these transactions comprise of collecting the dabba from home, delivering the dabba to the office, and returning the empty dabba back home) their error rate is 1 from 16 million transactions, with a "No Strike/No Police Case" record ever since its inception back in 1980! With over 200000 tiffins being dispatched every day, how does one keep track of which tiffin is to be delivered where, and that too on a consistent note? These dabbawaalas have developed their own unique way to tag each dabba with the starting station, destination address, and other such parameters that would easily allow any dabbawaala to take up the task to deliver the dabba to where it's intended to reach. The picture below represents the manner in which the top of the dabba is tagged.
A dabbawaala's monthly wage sums to around Rs. 10000. In this competitive World, the upcoming question is obvious- is this salary enough to keep him happy? Dr. Pawan answered that it's not the money that drives the dabbawaala to perform what he does everyday, it's his values and his work itself. During the course of this event, I saw that humility in their work was extremely evident. Celebrities and dignatories from all over the world have come visit the dabbawaala's, just to gain an insight about their work and culture. A Six Sigma was awarded to them at a time when the Dabbawaala's weren't even aware of what that meant! The Dabbawaalas have accomplished so much with such little use of technology, and are driven by simplistic principles that any one can be taught.
After the 60 minutes, Dr. Pawan was grateful enough to accommodate everyone's questions, who were also capped with the dabbawaala topi at the end of the event.
All in all, this was one reminder that i'm glad i did not miss!
After the 60 minutes, Dr. Pawan was grateful enough to accommodate everyone's questions, who were also capped with the dabbawaala topi at the end of the event.
All in all, this was one reminder that i'm glad i did not miss!
