“We have two lakh princes to take care of”
Expert talk: Raghunath D Medge, Mumbai Dabbawala,
addresses a gathering in Erode on Friday on the success story of their
organisation.
—Photo: M Govarthan
ERODE: Gangaram Lakshman Talekar, an unlettered person
from Mumbai, delivered a lecture on management to professors and students in
Erode on Friday.
Speaking extempore in Hindi he said 3,500 people like
him and another 1,500 with an average Standard VIII education had won Six Sigma
certification for the company they are shareholders of: the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin
Box Suppliers’ Association.
The certification means an error margin of one in
a million and the association supplies tiffin boxes to office-goers in the
metropolis.
He said the Association members, popularly Dabbawalas,
could not afford to commit a mistake because a mistake meant a stomach went
empty without food. Not only that a mistake had four consequences.
“The person for whom the food was meant wastes time and
money going to the nearest eatery and in the process invites his or her boss’
wrath and the food from home goes waste,” he said and added that that’s the
reason the Dabbawalas had been successful in the business for over a century.
Five thousand of them deliver two lakh [lakh=hundred-thousand] tiffin boxes a day that too in time. And they return the
tiffin boxes home, meaning there are four lakh transactions a day. Not one
mistake, though. Such is their precision and dedication to work that they did
not have time for even Prince Charles, says Raghunath D Medge, another
Dabbawala.
“When the yuvaraj [prince] said he was interested to meet
us, we welcomed him but made it clear that we could not afford to spare time to
meet him because we had two lakh princes [customers] to take care of,” he said
and added the the former agreed and met them for 20 min at the Chathrapathi
Shivaji Terminus railway station when they were working. He said the
association has a turnover of $ 10 million and maintains a strict discipline,
which is also a reason for success.
The success has been so well recognised that Mr Medge
says that Dabbawalas are also engaged in vidyā
dān apart from anna dān.
“Our success has taken us to various management
institutions within and outside the country and has also brought many more to
us.”
And in all humility the two Dabbawalas say they want to
dedicate two of the Six Sigmas to the Mumbai suburban train service, another
two to the bicycles they rely on for timely delivery and retain the rest.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/10/stories/2010011054870600.htm
A flotilla display of Mumbai Dabbawala at