Every year around Diwali, I step away from my corporate job to assist with the surge in orders at Diya Innovations. This annual tradition has provided me with invaluable insights into operations, logistics, and supply chain management in low tech environments. The challenge of handling a 10-fold increase in production is significant in any setting, but even more so when your team primarily consists of differently-abled individuals. However, the complexities involved and successes achieved are what make this experience so rewarding.

Key Challenges

Managing the logistics involves:

• Ordering raw materials in bulk at best rates while ensuring they arrive on time.
• Checking for quality and quantity discrepancies in every delivery for outsourced products.
• Processing items like chocolates, which need to be melted, refrigerated, molded, and packed under strict temperature controls. Similarly, dry fruits need to be precisely weighed as per the assortment into 100 gms packets and kept safe from pests.
• Additionally, anything involving custom branding must be approved by clients to avoid diluting their messaging.as well as securing approvals for printed items to ensure accurate client branding.
• Coordinating multiple components per order. With 20+ festive orders and about 10 products per order, each with multiple parts, that means tracking roughly 400 unique line items simultaneously.

For perishable items like chocolates and dry fruits, we also have to ensure conditions are safe from pests. Additionally, items that require painting, such as wood products, need well-ventilated areas for drying. 

The workspace has to accommodate chocolate production  that needs cooling, woodwork that requires ventilation, and teams that need unobstructed access, especially as many staff members use wheelchairs.

The additional complication is that we share our space with Diya Foundation, which runs skill training programs for around 40 students. Their activities cannot be disrupted, adding another layer of complexity to managing our already-cramped workspace.

Even though we begin client conversations in August, final decisions and payments often happen just weeks before Diwali. This leaves us with a mere 2-3 weeks to execute the orders, all while dealing with power cuts, festive holidays, and inevitable delays, which can create a bottleneck unless we plan for every possible contingency.

Production also involves navigating a building shared across four levels with no lift, and most materials have to be moved manually between the basement, ground, first floor and terrace

Resource Constraints:

Our team of 13 faces unique challenges. Only two members are tech-savvy, and only three are fluent in English to interact with clients. Additionally, only one person—the production head—can manage outside errands.

Our workforce, mainly women with families, face time constraints, and the differently-abled employees rely on transportation services to get to and from work. This limits working hours and flexibility. Furthermore, only two staff members can lift heavy loads, and they are also critical to the production process.

With just two members able to lift heavy items and a lack of scope for work-from-home options, we have to be extremely resourceful in how we manage our time and manpower.

Solutions that work

Much of our success comes down to careful planning and replanning. Our production head, Sendhil, takes the lead here, planning everything down to the finest detail. While an ERP system may be useful for many businesses, the complexities of our operations require a more tailored approach, which Sendhil excels at.

Raw materials must be scheduled to arrive in batches to prevent delays, but also to avoid occupying too much storage space. Once orders are ready, they must be dispatched immediately to free up space for the next batch of incoming materials. Any delay in material arrival or production  has a cascading effect, which could disrupt multiple orders. //To mitigate such risks, we’ve invested in portable generators, fans for drying, and even rented additional space when necessary.:/:

We also schedule dispatches strategically to ensure that orders headed to northern India don’t get stuck in the holiday rush. While shifting between multiple orders has its challenges, it helps us meet tight deadlines efficiently.

2. #BuyLocal

One of our biggest assets is our commitment to #BuyLocal. This ensures that most of our raw materials are sourced from nearby, minimizing delays and transportation issues. Over time, we’ve built strong relationships with local vendors, making them extensions of our team. Clear communication, constant reviews, and strategic adjustments ensure that we remain as “just in time” as possible.

Innovation at Diya Innovations is not just about product design but also about how we manage production. A prime example is the “ant formation” we use to move materials between floors. With no lift and safety concerns preventing us from using a pulley system, we rely on our differently-abled staff to form a human chain to pass components from one level to the next.

Our workspace spans multiple levels, and while moving products manually could lead to breakages and inefficiencies, our differently-abled team members form a human chain, passing items down in an orderly and safe manner. This method has allowed us to move tens of thousands of items with minimal damage. I’ve witnessed nearly 50,000 individual components in moved this way in a day with a breakage rate of less than 0.01%

The attention to detail of our staff is another superpower. Each box is packed meticulously, ensuring no component is missing or damaged. Our team’s repetitive tasks, like wrapping chocolates or preparing candles, are done with such precision that our error rate is close to zero. Diya Innovations takes pride in the fact that we have not received a complaint from any customer either for a component missing from any box or the count of boxes being incorrect.

The core of Diya Innovation’s success lies in the incredible teamwork and resilience of our staff. Despite all the challenges—space constraints, resource limitations, tight deadlines—everyone pulls together with a shared sense of purpose. Our differently-abled staff have an unparalleled eye for detail, and their dedication ensures that every order is perfect, even in the midst of the Diwali rush.

In the end, the true spirit of Diya Innovations is the ability to balance efficiency with the meaningful contributions of our differently-abled team members. Together, we continue to deliver high-quality products, even under the most demanding conditions.