Dabbawallahs mesmerise IIMK students

The Mumbai Dabbawallahs stole the hearts of the students at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK), with their inspiring talk at OPUS 2006, the annual operations seminar of the institute.

The theme for the event, which saw a great mix of speakers ranging from the Dabbawallahs to supply chain experts, was 'India Inc: From Sustenance to Operational Excellence'.

"Management gurus say that our logistics is perfect but we really don't know all that. All we know is that consequences of errors are adverse for our customers and we strive to minimise them," said Gangaram Talekar, secretary of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association, a body representing the Dabbawallahs.

He said the 5,000-strong Dabbawallahs, who deliver over two lakh tiffin boxes everyday in Mumbai city, achieved Six Sigma certification in 2001.

Everyday, in a span of just three hours "� from morning 9 am to 12 noon, the Dabbawallahs make sure that they pick up all the lunch boxes from homes and deliver them to the rightful owners in their offices.

Each tiffin box is coded in such a way that in spite of changing hands 4 to 6 times a day, it doesn't get lost on the way or end up in the wrong hands.

"Our quality, customer care and supply chain is excellent. We have 99.99 per cent performance and 100 per cent customer satisfaction," said Raghunath Megde, president of the Dabbawallahs.

The veterans guide the new entrants to the field. For every 20 Dabbawallahs, there are three substitutes to take care of exigencies and support the novices. Caps and ID cards are used to identify each one and to reduce the waiting time at offices while checking in and checking out.

"For us work is worship and customer is our god," said Talekar. Pradeep Jadav, manager of Chainalytics, Samir Shukla, senior manager, Bristlecone, and Syed Haq, senior project manager, Miebach Logistics, also spoke at the seminar.