Murthy's Chai Supply Route

Murthy makes chai for twelve shops in Udupi, and this shows his boys where to go in what order, then counts the flasks back in.

Who this is for

Venkat Murthy is seventy-one and has been boiling chai on Car Street in Udupi since 1979. Twelve shops take his flasks each morning, and two boys on scooters run the round while he stays at the stall. He wants the round on a screen he can read at arm's length without his spectacles. The curd man and the bread man on the same street run the same kind of round, so this is built from the start as one website that each supplier signs into and keeps their own shops on.

How the job is done today

The order of shops lives in Murthy's head and nowhere else. When a new boy joins, Murthy stands at the stall and shouts the sequence at him twice, then rings him at nine to ask where he has reached. The boys send a thumbs up on the family WhatsApp group after some stops and forget after others. Flasks are the real trouble. Sixty flasks go out, some come back empty, some come back full because the shop already had stock, and by evening they are all stacked together in the shed. So on Sunday, when Murthy sits with the notebook to work out what each shop owes, the flask count is a guess and he usually guesses in the shop's favour.

The screens, in order

1. Sign In — Murthy or one of his boys taps a four-digit number on very large keys and lands straight in his own round, not anybody else's.
2. Today's Round — Shows the twelve shops in the order they are to be visited, one line each in text you can read from arm's length, with the ones already done greyed out at the bottom.
3. This Stop — Puts one shop on the whole screen with its name, the street, who to hand the flasks to and how many they usually take, so nobody has to squint at a list while sitting on a scooter.
4. Handed Over — Closes the stop with one big tick and then asks the two questions that matter, how many flasks were left here and how many empties were picked up, using plus and minus buttons the size of a matchbox.
5. End of Round — Tells Murthy on one screen how many flasks went out, how many have come back, and which shops are still not done, so he knows before the shed gets stacked.
6. My Shops — Lets Murthy add a shop or move one up and down the round himself, without ringing anybody for help.

What it keeps track of

• Suppliers — name of the person, name of the stall, phone number, the four digits they sign in with, and the boys who are allowed into their round
• Shops — shop name, street, who to hand over to, their phone, how many flasks they usually take, and where they come in the order
• Stops — which day, which shop, which boy went, delivered or not, what time, how many flasks left there, how many empties brought back
• Day's account — the date, flasks sent out that morning, flasks come back by evening, the difference, and any shop that took nothing

The one decision that matters

The route order can either be worked out by the website from the shop addresses each morning, or fixed once by Murthy and left alone. It should be fixed by Murthy. He has run these twelve shops for years and the order is not about distance, it is about the hotel on Car Street wanting chai by six-fifteen and the bus stand shop not opening till seven. A route that quietly rearranges itself would make him distrust the screen, and a seventy-one-year-old who distrusts the screen goes back to shouting. Let him drag a shop up or down and let it stay there until he moves it again.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out money completely. No what each shop owes, no weekly bill, no online payment. The flask count is the thing that is guessed at present, and once the empties are logged at the door the Sunday sum becomes arithmetic Murthy can do himself in the notebook he already trusts. Adding bills in the first version doubles the screens and puts small numbers back on a screen built for large ones.

How you would know it worked

On a Sunday evening Murthy counts the flasks stacked in the shed, looks at the number on the screen, and they match. He stops asking the boys what happened at the bus stand shop.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I make chai at my stall in Udupi and send flasks to twelve shops every morning, and two boys do the round on scooters. Make me a website where I sign in with four digits and see my twelve shops in the order I want them visited, and I should be able to move a shop up or down myself. When a boy reaches a shop he should see just that one shop filling the screen, then tap one big tick to say delivered and tap plus and minus to say how many flasks he left and how many empty ones he took back. At the end I want one screen showing flasks gone out, flasks come back and which shops are still pending. Make every letter and button big because I am seventy-one and do not read small text. Other suppliers on my street want the same thing, so each one should sign in and see only their own shops.