Anticipating a nice long nap on a flight from Jaipur to
Bangalore, I was instead given a memorable life lesson or two...
A few nanoseconds after the seat-belt sign went off, a
flurry of activity ensued.
Three people in seats around me jumped up, bags and boxes of
food were opened and paper plates magically materialized. Kachoris, chips, two
types of sweets (laddoo and another one I couldn’t view due to the alacrity of
operations) were put in each paper plate and the game was officially on.
There were at least twenty plates that were distributed
across the aircraft, incredibly enough with very little communication and zero
confusion on roles and responsibilities. One guy was opening the food boxes at
high speed, the other was loading the plates ensuring perfect balance in portion
size and one more guy was going around the plane dishing out the plates. The
frenzied efficiency of the entire operation was a sight to behold. There was
even this one white guy who just couldn’t resist all this food being passed
around and requested for a plate. Not an eyelid batted; he got a plate with no disruption
to the supply chain operations. The flight stewardess wanted to bring her food
card down the aisle to serve us less fortunate mortals but she was informed
politely but firmly that she’d have to wait 2 minutes. The estimate went up to 3 and then 5 minutes
all within a matter of a couple of seconds but at the end of 5 minutes, the perfect
operation culminated with a trash box to gather the remains.
My learnings:
1.
Overall Planning
– These folks were born to do this. At no point was there any sign of trouble
or mismanagement. They made it look easy and seamless. I’m sure that only comes
from years of training in the trenches of kachori and ladoo service with the
constraints of time, space and resources
2.
Capacity
Planning - Ability to cater to unplanned demand (they even asked the stewardess if she wanted a plate)
3.
Scale and
Speed - The entire operation was geared for the shortest possible flight
duration. A 20 minute flight suffices for
end to end execution
4.
Division
of labor - Immaculate – everyone knew their role with minimal inter communication
5.
Optimization
& Efficiency - Only three people were involved and 20+ people in
different parts of the aircraft got served in under 5 minutes. As my colleague on
the same flight put it, this was a surgical strike done with clinical precision
6.
Customer
Satisfaction – The white guy had his fill and promptly fell asleep with his
mouth open and a look of contentment on his face
7.
Quality
– Zero defects, zero wastage, zero evidence of any food/service