The Head of Fulfilment at Flipkart on Maintaining Order Accuracy Under Volume Stress
By Express HR Solutions on 2025-09-24 20:12:08
It’s late September in Mumbai, and across India, the entire e-commerce ecosystem is in its final stage of preparation. The festive season, with its flagship sales like Flipkart's "The Big Billion Days," is no longer a distant forecast; it's an operational reality just days away. For leaders in this space, the primary challenge is monumental: how do you process millions of orders a day while ensuring the right product gets to the right customer?
A single wrong order isn't just a financial cost; it's a direct hit to your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and a breach of customer trust. To understand how the best in the business tackle this, we spoke with Sameer Rao, Senior Director of Fulfilment Operations at Flipkart, for a look inside the playbook that maintains quality when the pressure is at its absolute peak.
Q: Sameer, thank you for your time. During the festive rush, the focus is often on speed—orders per hour, dispatch times. How does a leader like you ensure that order accuracy doesn't become a casualty of this intense pressure?
A: That’s the classic dilemma, isn't it? But we see it differently. Speed and accuracy aren't competing priorities; they are both outcomes of a well-designed, resilient system. You can't have sustainable speed without built-in accuracy. If you ship the wrong item quickly, all you've done is create a faster problem for your customer and your reverse logistics team.
Our approach is built on a core belief: you can't inspect quality into a product at the end. You have to build it into the process. We do this with a three-part system: dedicated QC lanes for physical checks, real-time data for smart sampling, and most importantly, rapid retraining loops for our people.
Q: Let's break that down. Can you explain the physical setup? What is a "QC Lane"?
A: Of course. If you walk into one of our large fulfillment centres, you’ll see the main packing lines are optimised for pure speed. But near the final dispatch doors, we have several dedicated "QC Audit Lanes." Our system algorithmically flags a certain percentage of packed orders to be diverted into these lanes before they are loaded onto trucks.
In these lanes, we station our most experienced associates - often high-performing temps we bring back every year. They perform a swift 3-point check: correct item and quantity against the order, secure and appropriate packaging, and correct shipping label. This physical separation is key. It allows us to perform a thorough quality check without creating a bottleneck in the primary outbound flow.
Q: Diverting orders sounds like it could slow things down. How do you decide which packages to check? Is it random?
A: It's anything but random. This is where data becomes our most powerful tool. Our Quality Management System analyses data in real-time. It knows which packers are new, which packing stations have historically had higher error rates, or which product categories are more complex to pack.
The system then uses this data for real-time QA sampling. For example, a seasoned associate who has a 99.9% accuracy rate might have only 1 in every 200 of their orders audited. But a new associate in their first week might have 1 in every 20 orders sent to the QC lane. If the system detects a sudden spike in errors from a specific station, it can instantly increase the sampling rate from that source until the issue is resolved. It’s a smart, dynamic net that focuses our attention where the risk is highest.
Q: That’s a fascinating system. So, what happens when the QC lane finds an error? How do you correct the associate's behaviour without causing a major disruption?
A: This is the most important part of the entire system, and it’s all about our people. Finding the error is only half the job. Preventing it from happening again is the real win. For this, we use what we call the "5-Minute Fix" rapid retraining loop.
When a QC auditor finds a mistake, they don't just fix the package. They log the error, which immediately alerts a "Floor Coach" - an experienced team lead assigned to that zone. The coach doesn't pull the associate into an office. Instead, they walk over to their packing station.
The conversation is simple and supportive: "Hey, I saw we had an issue with the taping on your last order. Let me watch you pack the next two." They provide immediate, on-the-spot guidance. It’s a 5-minute intervention that corrects the behaviour in real-time. This rapid feedback loop is infinitely more effective than a report a manager might see a week later. It ensures one small mistake doesn't get repeated a thousand times during a shift.
For us, protecting NPS during a sale isn't about achieving zero errors - that's impossible at this scale. It’s about building a system that finds and fixes errors faster than the customer does. It’s a system of empowered people, smart processes, and real-time data working in perfect harmony.
Flipkart's success relies on a highly trainable and responsive workforce that can execute with precision under pressure. Your fulfillment operation can achieve the same. Express HR Solutions provides vetted, skilled associates and can help you implement on-floor coaching programs to maintain quality when it matters most. Let's talk about building your A-team for the festive season.