Key Points

• Dabbawalas are succeeding where sophisticated supply chains can’t.
• Dabbawalas keep an eye on the sum of its parts.
• Simplicity might be the key to making your supply chain flourish.

When you think of the world’s most efficient and successful performance and supply chains, what comes to mind?

For many, large corporate giants like Dell, Wal-Mart, and Coca-Cola instantly pop into our heads. But few, if any, would think a cultural structure and meal delivery system in Mumbai, India, would be among the world’s most successful performance chains.

And yet, a system based on barefoot men, public trains, and simple, reusable containers in a city of some 12.5 million people is widely regarded as one of the top performance chains in the world.

In fact, the 125-year-old industry using dabbawalas was recognized at the Six Sigma level by Forbes in 2002. More than 175,000 lunches are moved and delivered each day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas across Mumbai. What’s more impressive is that according to a recent survey, dabbawalas make less than one mistake in every 6 million deliveries. Now that’s efficiency.

Low-Tech Success

So, what are these dabbawalas doing so right? What can larger organizations with many more resources learn from this simplistic system? A few things stand out for me:

• No over-reliance on technology. Sure, the dabbawalas are now using Web technology and SMS for orders, but for the most part, this is a fairly low-tech operation. It relies on trains and barefoot men. No computer chips. No social networks. Just guys busting their humps and reliable train service. The lesson for organizations? Don’t expect technology to solve your issues — usually, the issue has more to do with process, execution, and expectations than it does bits and bytes.
• Create an integrated performance chain. In other words, the dabbawala system keeps its eye on the sum — not the individual parts. When you boil it down to simple terms, a performance chain is just a system of moving pieces. Focus too much on those individual pieces and you get hung up in the details and, as a result, are less efficient. Concentrate on the entire system and flow of products and information and you have a much better chance of success.
• Acute visibility. The beauty of the dabbawala-based system is that all of the dabbawalas understand exactly what is happening and when — to the minute. If certain deadlines and hand-offs are missed, people don’t eat. It’s as simple as that. Make sure everyone within your chain understands what he or she needs to do, where they need to be, and what needs to happen for the chain to be successful.
• Keep it simple. Real simple. One of the key lessons any organization can learn from the dabbawalas is the simplicity with which this system works. The dabbawalas are intimately aware of what their customers value (food delivered on time, every day). And, just as importantly, they don’t try to do anything other than that. They don’t overcomplicate things. They don’t add extraneous value. They simply understand what their customers want, and they focus 100 percent of their time and energy on meeting that need.

What Can Be Learned?

You can’t integrate the dabbawala method for your shipping methods, which is a shame. Modern production and the like are too complex. However, we can glean some information from this method, and apply it to your own. One key thing is visibility, you want to be aware of each step in your production line. This helps the dabbawala approach succeed, and it might be the key for your organization too.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Ready to read a little more from our resident experts? You’re in the right place then. You might want to read over what Anthony Tarantino has to say about the age of smart manufacturing. This illuminating blog post might be a portent of things to come.

Additionally, learning how to use 5S is a great thing for anyone involved in LSS. Mohit Sharma’s post on the subject is one of the most comprehensive you’ll find on the internet today.

Conclusion

As you look at your performance chain, how can you simplify your system? Can you take pieces that are not meeting the single customer need out of the chain? And, do you really know what your single customer needs are? That is always a good place to start.

What do you think? What can corporate giants learn from this behemoth network of barefoot men?

Sue Gillman, Aveus partner and co-owner, has led development, planning, operations, and supply chain improvement efforts for 25 years. Known for incisive operating model strategy, holistic problem solving, and collaborative change coaching, Sue has held progressive leadership positions at Seagate Technology, where she founded and led the Lean Enterprise practice, which redefined global supply chain disciplines and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, capacity and speed-to-market benefits for the company and its suppliers. Also at Seagate, Sue started, transferred, and led Materials and Planning for global operations in Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and Singapore, led Technical Program Development for customers, and led architecture development and improvement across every link in Seagate’s global supply chain.

Sue has a master in business administration degree from the University of St. Thomas, where she has taught operations for 15 years. She also has a bachelor of business administration in finance degree from the University of Minnesota. For more information, visit www.aveus.com. You can reach Sue at [email protected].

The image featured at the top of this post is ©"Dabbawala" by Joe Zachs from Pune, India is licensed under BY 2.0..