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Nice summary VK. Another similar example is airline flight safety, which operates at 6 sigma levels but I don't think many airlines follow the methodology. Exception would be GE Aircraft Engines thanks to it being a GE company. (although it is not an airline).

Dear All, It is very important to keep HIGH SIGMA LEVEL distinguished from SIX SIGMA APPLICATION. Many companies have reached wonderful performance levels because they have a good process in place with some mistake proofing and visual controls. They applied these concepts as plain common sense warrants their use. My question was "Is Mumbai Dabbawalas performance a good application example of Six Sigma?" If we pay attention to the term "application example for Six Sigma", the answer should be "NO". I agree that we may use it as an example for application of Lean concepts (or for providing example for high Sigma Level or low DPMO) Lot of people have been referring Dabbawalas as a great example for Six Sigma, which is misleading. The best examples for Six Sigma should be companies who use DMAIC or DFSS rigorously to progressively achieve performance excellence through customer and business focus projects using appropriate techniques. Some people even refer to Dabbawalas as "Six Sigma Certified". Please note that no company gets the tag of "Six Sigma certified" Thanks to all for contributing in this discussion. Amol, Rohit, Karthik, Ravindra, Renu, Imraan have highlighted the high SIGMA LEVEL appropriately and mentioned that process can be considered beyond Six Sigma. However, Rahul, Anees, Reddy, Venkatesh and Arup have appropriately highlighted that we should not consider this as SIX SIGMA APPLICATION (and that this was not a conscious effort with the methodology) By mentioning this, we do not wish to take away the credit for what they achieved. May they achieve greater success! and let us hope that they really use Six Sigma some day. Best Regards, VK

Dear VK. Greeting from Sathya. I consider this as not a SIX SIGMA EXAMPLE because of the following reasons. However, every organization should get into this as a best practice to excell. 1. Six Sigma evolves if there is no business solution to a Critical Problem. 2. I dont see Six sigma tools and methodologies to refer this as an example for SIX SIGMA. 3. Dabbawallas success story has greater relevance to LEAN methodology rather than to SIX SIGMA. 4. As LEAN eliminates WASTE & SIX SIGMA reduces variation in processes, again this will not be a good example for SIX SIGMA because, their processes is near perfect and where is the shift in process that needs SIX SIGMA application ? But, I would like this classic example to be more refered to LEAN application as it could have greater relevance with Standardization, VSM , Waste Elimination, TAKT , Visual Standards, 5S applications etc....