Mumbai's Dabbawalla's- A Six Sigma Approach

The "Dabbawalla" system that operates in Mumbai is unique and incredible in the complexity of its task, simplicity of its operation, and surprisingly low error rates for a system of its size. It is a daily service in which thousands of men carry and deliver over 200,000 lunches every day, within a three hour block of time, across the city’s 70-kilometre stretch, with each lunch box (dabba) changing hands at least four times. Yet, for all its complexity and size, it is run and managed by a group of largely illiterate rural workers using nothing more than three or four symbols crudely painted on the lunch-boxes — that, and their own remarkable intuition, teamwork, and values.