Goodbye, buddy

A recent event has left me completely shaken. A friend of mine met with a train accident and gave in to his injuries.

People knew him for his cheerfulness. Was the life of any discussion. Loved cricket. Was a big fan of Sachin. I never saw a hint of evil in any of his intentions. Was dedicated to his work.

More than anything else, I remember him for his 'chill' attitude. I cant imagine him trying to rush for a train. Yesterday, a common friend was narrating how he had scolded her for crossing railway tracks instead of using the bridge.

It's been less than a year since he got married. I remember very well because his marriage reception and mine were held on the same evening.

He is survived by his parents, wife and soon to be born child.

Let's all try to be a little extra safe in our activities.  Let the extra crowded train go. Do not catch a running bus/train. Do not alight a running bus/train. Let's place our priorities right. It's not worth the risk.There's someone waiting for you.

Goodbye Apurva Nahata. The world needed people like you. It will miss you.

A Small Tribute To Heath Ledger

Relishing a dahi papdi chaat at Balaji, I told my wife, "I'm quite excited that we are going to watch Batman tonight".

Innocently, she replied, "Oh so the movie is about Batman? I didn't know that".

"But dear, you have seen The Dark Knight, right?"

"Well yeah, I have seen The Dark Knight" she said trying to exercise her grey cells, "But I just remember the character Joker. Ummm...now that you mention it, I think there was Batman in that movie"

... a simple yet beautiful tribute to Heath Ledger.

Dabbawalas, 3.3 Sigma

The dabbawalas have done it again. They have failed to deliver my dabba - for the fifth time since I started subscribing to their service in July.

Here are a few calculations based on a few assumptions:

Assumptions first :
1. The dabbawalas define their motto as 'delivering home cooked food to people'. Hence, if my dabba is not delivered, it is a defect.

2. The number of days when the dabba should have been delivered is approximately :  (number of months of subscription)  * 25 - ( 2 months for when my parents were in the US and for when I was on leave for my marriage) * 25 + 10 days of february. So that's 7*25 - 2*25 + 10 = 135 days.

I wasn't able to have my dabba on 5 days for the following reasons stated by the dabbawala :
1. It was raining heavily.
2. The dabba was kept in a different place and I wasn't informed
3. The dabbawala had gone to his native place.
4. There was no dabbawala available to deliver the dabba.
5. Trains were running late.

(On four of these five occasions, food was already cooked before we were intimated about the absence of their service.)

So that's 5 defects in 135 deliveries (DPU = 0.037). Considering 1 opportunity for defect, DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunities) = 37037,corresponding to a sigma level of 3.3.

Of course, I haven't considered several service aspects such as late deliveries, handling and spillage. Although my dabba has been delivered late only 2-3 times, there has been spillage on several occasions. One one occasion, my empty dabba was delivered home two days late because one of the dabbawalas in the chain had gone to his native place.

My dabba started getting worn out within weeks of first use because of careless handling. When my mom asked them about handling and spillage, she got their standard reply, "Aisa hi hoga, hum kutch kar nahi sakte" (That's how it is going to be.  We can't do anything about it). So much for their 'vinamrata' (courtesy) that they are so proud of.

So much for their 6 sigma hype.


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P.S. : So it finally did happen! I got someone else's food inside my dabba. Go Six Sigma!!!!!!

Chai, anyone?

Chai. The orangish liquid most of us are addicted to. Some of us have been drinking it since childhood and some of us have developed a taste for it over time.

Now think about this. If you were to go to some strange country and you were Now put yourself if this hypothetical situation. You have never had chai, never seen chai, never seen a pic of chai, never heard of chai. You are in a far off country and the hosts place this hot orangish liquid in front of u, maybe with a little malai floating in it. Would you feel like having it? Point to ponder.

Poka Yoke - Mummy Style

It was 7:30 am. I woke up and groggily went for breakfast. As I headed towards the sofa, I couldn't help but notice that my mummy had perfectly implemented Poka Yoke (mistake proofing).

On the teapoy where I usually have my breakfast was my bottle of medicine(tonic I was supposed to have before breakfast). My breakfast was on a chair which was at a distance from the sofa where I usually sit. I couldn't have had my breakfast without having my medicine.

For the record, my mummy has no background in Operations, has not read The Toyota Way and am quite sure she doesn't know who Shigeo Shingo(the one who popularized Poka Yoke) is. Is she a natural at Operations Management? I wonder.

My First Rawa Dosa

My parents have gone to South Africa for a month long vacation. A maid usually cooks food for me. However a few days ago, I had specifically asked her not to cook dinner. I had plans to go out with friends; the plans tanked & I was left with no food at home.

Inspired by watching MasterChef Australia, I decided to give a shot at cooking. Since I didn't have many ingredients to begin with, a friend of mine suggested that I make Rawa Dosa. So off I went to youtube and found this video that explains the process quite elaborately.

Trust me, it felt as if Rava Dosa was one of the easiest dishes to cook. Just mix the right ingredients in the right quantities, sprinkle the batter over a hot tava, pour some oil and you are done.

Twenty mins later, I found myself dumping something that felt like a mutated offspring of a cross between a Rawa Sheera and Sada Dosa into the dustbin. In short, my first Rawa Dosa was inedible.

The second one though, turned out quite all right. It tasted quite good too. I guess I just had to sprinkle the batter in the right manner for it to look edible.

So around half an hour after I first set out to make the dosa, I had the first edible dosa ready. Ironically, in less than one minute after that, the entire dosa lay in my stomach. I had a little batter left for another dosa, which too turned out quite fine. Not having enough patience to make the batter all over again, I called it a day in the kitchen.

All in all, it was a good experiment. The dosa was good, my hunger was appeased (for only a while, ofc ;) ), and I learnt how to make a new dish and most importantly, I had fun!

Until the next experiment. Adios.

Strategic Baniyagiri

Strategy Formulation and Strategy Planning can be two different ball games all together. This difference was taught to us by Dr. Girish Jakhotiya at a guest session in NMIMS with the help of this simple, but extremely effective story.

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Vipul Mittal and Sameer Deshmukh were two grocers in a small village in India. Mittal had a very shrewd business sense. Jealous of Mittal's success, Deshmukh one day decided to beat Mittal at his own game.

The price of sugar in the market was Rs. 16 per kg. Deshmukh started a price war, hoping to drive Mittal out of business. He lowered the price of his sugar to Rs. 15 and kept a large board outside his grocery shop announcing the drop in price. But before he could utilize the drop in revenue to pump up sales, Mittal responded. Mittal cut down his price to Rs. 14 and put up a similar board in front of his shop. Deshmukh, of course, didn't like it a bit. He continued the price war even more aggressively.

The cost price of sugar was Rs. 10. Having known Mittal for years, Deshmukh knew that it was beyond Mittal's 'baniya' tendency to sell sugar without a profit. Deshmukh dropped the price of sugar to Rs. 11 and kept an even larger board outside his shop. Customers started coming to his shop in large numbers. But to his utter shock, Mittal dropped the price of sugar to Rs. 10.

It was a question of pride for Deshmukh. He reduced the price even further. He sold sugar at a loss. But every single time he reduced his price, Mittal would undercut him. Customers poured in to Deshmukh's shop for sugar, and his financial condition was deteriorated. However, Mittal was doing surprisingly well. His grocery shop did not show any signs of lack of funds.

Ultimately, Deshmukh's business went bankrupt. Mittal gladly purchased Deshmukh's entire business.

When the deal was done, Deshmukh went to Mittal and confided in him, "Mittal, I have known you since years. I know that you would never sell anything even at breakeven, forget a loss. Still, how did you sell the sugar at such low prices? And to add to it, how is your shop doing so well that you had the financial muscle to buy me out?"

Mittal replied, "Oh my friend Deshmukh, it was very simple. I never sold sugar below the cost price. Whenever a customer came to my shop for sugar, I asked him what other items he wanted and sold him those. When he asked for sugar, I asked him to wait for a day and then go to your shop as I was sure that you would reduce your price even further. My customers were only too glad to wait for another day to get a better deal. Thus, I sold everything except sugar."

Vipul Mittal only formulated the strategy. Sameer Deshmukh executed it.