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CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

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Tom Johnson

CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

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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Merle Lefkoff

CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

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
> <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 <http://www.analyticjournalism.com>
> 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
> http://www.jtjohnson.com tom at jtjohnson.us
> <mailto: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
> ==========================================
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Tom

I liked this. Did you read the article "The World ISN'T Flat!"? The
cool stuff is still happening locally. Friedman, as usual, is just full
of Friedman. Where are you in the universe?

Love, Merle

Owen Densmore

CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

Administrator

On May 29, 2007, at 11:22 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:
> I liked this. Did you read the article "The World ISN'T Flat!"? The
> cool stuff is still happening locally. Friedman, as usual, is just
> full
> of Friedman. Where are you in the universe?
>
> Love, Merle

Where is the article, btw?

-- Owen

Robert J. Cordingley

CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

In reply to this post by Tom Johnson

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:

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Tom Johnson

CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Sorry, I guess that I was logged into the NYT site screwed up the URL.

The article is at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/worldbusiness/29lunch.html

-t

On 5/30/07, Owen Densmore <owen at backspaces.net> wrote:

>
> On May 29, 2007, at 11:22 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:
> > I liked this. Did you read the article "The World ISN'T Flat!"? The
> > cool stuff is still happening locally. Friedman, as usual, is just
> > full
> > of Friedman. Where are you in the universe?
> >
> > Love, Merle
>
> Where is the article, btw?
>
> -- Owen
>
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>

--
==========================================
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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Tom Johnson

CAS in Mumbai. At lunchtime.

In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley

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
> ==========================================
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>