[FRIAM] CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

[Tom Johnson]

Good point.  Hmmm.  But, frankly, I doubt that a system of this size and
seeming complexity could evolve and exist with any planning done 125 years
ago.  Just ask, "How many corporations or governments exist exactly as they
did in 1875?"

Of related interest:

* British "design"?  Here's another view: "Recognizing the need, a migrant
from the Indian state of Maharashtra called Mahadeo started the lunch
delivery service with about 100 men, and the rest is history." Source:
http://www.physorg.com/news70641995.html

* http://www.indianmba.com/Newsflash/News299/news299.html

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

* And, of course, we couldn't forget the "official" Dabbawala web site at
http://www.mydabbawala.com/

-tj


On 5/30/07, Robert Cordingley <robert at cirrillian.com> wrote:
>
>  I noted too that the article said "The British introduced the service 125
> years ago after the city was flooded by workers from different regions."So what qualifies it as a CAS if there was intelligent design behind it?
>
> Robert Cordingley
>
> Tom Johnson wrote:
>
> Yes, it is a feature story, but the content -- and context -- is also a
> wonderful, almost-perfect example of humans developing/evolving  Complex
> Adaptive Systems.
>
> Rai, Saritha. "In India, Grandma Cooks, They Deliver." *The New York Times
> * 29 May 2007. 29 May 2007 <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/worldbusiness/29lunch.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>.
>
>
>  "...In India, where many traditions are being rapidly overturned as a
> result of globalization, the practice of eating a home-cooked meal for lunch
> lives on. To achieve that in this sprawling urban amalgamation of an
> estimated 25 million people, where long commutes by train and bus are
> routine, Mumbai residents rely on an intricately organized, labor-intensive
> operation that puts some automated high-tech systems to shame. It manages to
> deliver tens of thousands of meals to workplaces all over the city with
> near-clockwork precision. At the heart of this unusual network is a chain of
> delivery men called dabbawallas...."
>
> "The service is at once simple and complex. A network of wallas picks up
> the boxes from customers' homes or from people who cook lunches to order,
> then delivers the meals to a local railway station. The boxes are
> hand-sorted for delivery to different stations in central Mumbai, and then
> re-sorted and carried to their destinations. After lunch, the service
> reverses, and the empty boxes are delivered back home.
>
> The secret of the system is in the colored codes painted on the side of
> the boxes, which tell the dabbawallas where the food comes from and which
> railway stations it must pass through on its way to a specific office in a
> specific building in downtown Mumbai."
>
>
> -tj
> --
> ==========================================
> J. T. Johnson
> Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
> www.analyticjournalism.com
> 505.577.6482(c)                                 505.473.9646(h)
> http://www.jtjohnson.com                 tom at jtjohnson.us
>
> "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
> To change something, build a new model that makes the
> existing model obsolete."
>                                                    -- Buckminster Fuller
> ==========================================
>
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-- 
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c)                                 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com                 tom at jtjohnson.us

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
                                                   -- Buckminster Fuller
==========================================
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