The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Managers learn a thing or two from these true workers

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Friday, Jan 18, 2008
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Managers learn a thing or two from these true workers

Staff Reporter

Dabbawalas say their system can work only in Mumbai

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

WORK IS WORSHIP: Raghunath D. Medge (right), president, Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers (Dabbawallas) Charity Trust, and Gangaram L. Talekar (second from right), secretary of the trust, interacting with members of IIMB’s Executive Education Alumni Association in Bangalore.

Bangalore: They have zero investment, zero fuel expenditure, zero dependence on modern technology and no boardroom battles. They hold a world record for time management, work with 99.99 per cent accuracy and have a turnover of approximately Rs. 50 crore annually.

They are Mumbai’s famous dabbawallas.

The error rate of the dabbawallas is one in 16 million deliveries, which made the Forbes Global Magazine award them with its Six Sigma certification in 2001.

This is what prompted the Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore’s Executive Education Alumni Association to invite two dabbawallas to give a talk about their business at IIMB recently.

Raghunath D. Medge, a third generation dabbawalla and president of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust, and Gangaram L. Talekar, secretary of the trust, held the audience enraptured with their talk.

“Our job is small; all we do is ‘pett puja’. Our services were recognised only after Prince Charles evinced interest in meeting us. However, this business was started way back in 1890, when the concept of fast food did not exist,” said Mr. Talekar.

Speaking about the error rate, he said, “Error… we do not know what that means! We deliver about two lakh tiffin boxes every day and work from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. We depend extensively on the local train system.”

“We hail from the soldier community and believe that work is worship. We cannot afford to go on strike. We will be responsible for two lakh people going hungry, and it also means suicide for us,” he added.

Mr. Medge said that every day, the dabbawallas wage a war against time.

“We have been able to sustain our business for so long only because of the train system and cycles. Mumbai has 70 local stations. We are only thinking of delivering the tiffin boxes on time, which forces us to flout certain norms at times,” he said candidly.

He spoke of the unique coding system, which also uses colours, that helps them deliver the right tiffin box to the right person. Each tiffin box has a code that includes the name of the station — residential and destination — building and floor number.

“The code helps us sort out the boxes quickly at the station. What is more is that we did not face Y2K problem and all our customers are satisfied,” he said, which had the audience in splits.

Mr. Medge said that of the Six Sigma that had been awarded to them, dabbawallas would have to dedicate two Sigmas to the over 5,000 manpower that the trust has, two to the cycle and two Sigmas to the local train system.

“The delivery of dabbas has been perfected over the years. Such a system cannot be implemented in any city other than Mumbai. If it were to be implemented in Bangalore, we will probably be able to deliver the dabba only at 4 p.m. after being stuck in traffic for hours,” he said.

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