1. A CASE STUDY OF
MUMBAI DHABAWALLA
(A case about Logistics System)
BY: RAHUL RAJ
(ABM)BAU, Ranchi
2. MEANING OF DABBAWALA:
A dabbawalla in Marathi ,literally means person who carries boxes.
A person in Indian city of Mumbai who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary
business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residence of office workers &
delivering it to their respective work places and returning back the empty boxes by using various modes
of transport.
3. History and Introduction to Dabbawala
The origin of the Dabbawalas' lunch delivery service dates back to the 1890’s during the
British raj.
The concept of dabbawala originated when India was under the rule of British.
Many British people who came to the colony did not like the local food, so a service was
set up to bring lunch to these people straight from their homes.
FOUNDER OF DABAWALA SYSTEM:
Mahadeo Havaji Bacche and Dhondiba Medge.
This business started before 1890. Mumbai Dabbawala have been delivering food for
more than a century now since 1890. In 1890, there was one dabbawala, one customer.
As for today, there are having 5,000 dabbawalas and 200,000 customers. It means one
dabbawala can carry 40 Lunchboxes. That’s really the highest weight they could carry;
they can hold 60-65 kg.
4. NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (NBTBSA ):
History : Started in 1890
• Charitable trust : Registered in 1956
• Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling (85% Illiterate)
• Total area coverage : 60 Kms – 70 Kms
• Employee Strength : 5000
• Number of Tiffin's : 2,00,000 Tiffin Boxes i.e. 4,00,000 transactions
every day.
• Time Taken : 3 hours
• Total Turnover : 50 Crore
• Industrial Growth : 5-6% every year.
5. CONT…
• Technological Backup : Nil.
• Cost of service - Rs. 300 - 350/month
• Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)
• “No strike” record as each one a share holder.
• Earnings – 5000 to 6000 p.m. per Dabbawalla.
• Diwali bonus: one month’s salary by customers.
• Great at time management even during floods ( A practice Seldom seen in
Indian context)
• Six Sigma Performance.
6. Explanation How Dabbawalla's work? (Supply Chain Of Dabbawalla)
PHASE 1-
10:34-11:20 am (Andheri Station)
This time period is actually the journey time. The dabbawallas load the wooden crates filled with
tiffin's onto the luggage or goods compartment in the train. Generally, they choose to occupy the
last compartment of the train.
PHASE 2-
11:20 –12:30 pm(Church Gate Station)
At this stage, the unloading takes place at the destination station.
Re-arrangement of tiffin's takes place as per the destination are and destination building.
In particular areas with high density of customers (Nariman point .,Fort , CST), a special crate is
dedicated to the area. This crate carries 150 tiffin's and is driven by 3-4 dabbawallas!
Phase 3 -
Return Journey
1:15 –2:00 pm( At All Destination Stations)
Here on begins the collection process where the dabbawallas have to pick up the tiffin's from the
offices where they had delivered almost an hour ago.
Phase 4-
2:00 –2:30 pm (At Destination Station)
He dabbawalla’s meet for the segregation as per the destination suburb.
7. Phase 5 -
2:48 –3:30 pm
The return journey by train where the group finally meets up after
the day’s routine of dispatching and collecting from various
destination offices
Usually, since it is more of a pleasant journey compared to the earlier
part of the day, the dabbawalla as lighten up the moment with merry
making, joking around and singing.
Phase 6
3:30 –4:00 pm ( The Origin Station)
This is the stage where the final sorting and dispatch takes place. The
group meets up at origin station and they finally sort out the tiffin's
as per the origin area.
9. WORKING STYLE:
The Governing Council held meetings once a month which were
attended by the Macadam's (Supervisors) and Dabbawallas. At these
meetings, the Dabbawallas discussed their problems and explored
possible solutions. The problems could be with the police, Municipal
Corporation, customers, etc. They also adjudicated disputes among
Dabbawallas using their own system. The Trust collected Rs.15 from
each Dabbawalla every month to maintain a welfare fund.
10. CODING DONE BY DABBAWALA LUNCH BOXES
Coding done by Dabbawala's Lunch boxes are usually marked in several ways:
• Abbreviations for collection points
• Colour code for starting station
• Number for destination station and
• Markings for handling dabbawalla at destination, building and floor.
The dabbawalas have started to embrace technology, and now allow for delivery requests
through SMS. A color-coding system identifies the destination and recipient.
For Example:
VLP: Vile Parle (suburb in Mumbai), 9EX12: Code for Dabbawalas at Destination EX:
Express Towers (building name), 12 Floor no. E: Code for Dabbawala at residential station, 3:
Code for destination Station e.g. Churchgate Station (Nariman Point).
11. SWOT ANALYSIS
• Strengths
• • Simplicity with innovative service
• Co ordination, team spirit and time
management
• Low operation cost
• Customer satisfaction
• Opportunities
• Wide scale publicity
• Low operational cost
• Catering
• Weakness
• Highly dependability on local trains
• Low funds for association
• Limited access to education
• Caste based
Threats
• Direct competition from
other caterers
• Indirect competition
from fast food joints and
hotels
• Company canteen
12. MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM DABBAWALA:
Keep Operational cost to minimum:
• Use cycles, Hand carts, Local trains
• No big office to maintain
• No IT Budget and No Miscellaneous cost
• No Add budget – word of mouth publicity.
• Very Nominal Monthly service cost – Rs 200/
Keep Capital Investment bare minimum:
• Hard Work, Honesty, Promptness and Time
management are the only investment
• Low office cost Cheap Hand carts Cycles - easy to maintain
• Use of public space for sorting.
13. Just serve your costumer – nothing else:
• Always deliver food on time – even during heavy
rains
• Always on time – even without using a watch
• Don’t try to impress or Bother costumers with
unsolicited offers
• Bothering Costumers with offer may force them to
discontinue even existing service
Never deviate from your core competency:
• Only business of delivering home made food to clients
• Efforts to sell other products through dhabbawala
system failed
• Be “Master of one trade rather than Jack of all”
• Develop products and services around core
competency, if required.
14. Commitment matters – qualification doesn’t :
• 85% of dabbawalas are illiterate
• Max. level of literacy – 8th standard failed
• Still able to offer world class service, as they are committed to offer food to costumer
on time
• “If commitment is there, Qualification can be built.
Know the implications of failure:
• If food is not delivered on time, it angers customers
and work will suffer
• May cause problem between customer and his wife
• A vegetarian gets a non-veg dabba – BIG Problem !!
• “Knowing the implications of failure makes you more responsible and serious
towards your work.
15. Build your services around existing infrastructure:
• Use reliable, fast, efficient and cheap local train services
• Many food companies in Mumbai use their own infrastructure – tough to maintain
and costly as well
• Building new infrastructure increases the cost of Service.
Abandon Bad customers:
• When dabbawalla knocks door, the dabba, should be ready
• If its not for 3 consecutive days, then the service is stopped as it affects the service to
other customers
• Bad customers affect operation and profitability from existing customers.
16. Penalize employees for non compliance
• Dabbawallas penalized for not wearing Gandhi Topi, Consuming Alcohol, Smoking
Cigarette, not pre informing about leave and misbehaving with customers
• After a few warnings, if dabbawalla doesn't improve, he is expelled from system
• Discipline is main reason for their success.
SOME ACHIEVEMENTS
• World record in Best Time Management.
• Name in “Guinness Book of World Records.
• Registered with Ripley’s “believe it or not”
• Six Sigma rating by Forbes
• Got ISO 9001: 2000 for excellence in services.
• One among to 50 entrepreneur in India.
17. CONCLUSION:
In this highly technologically advanced time ‘dabbawalas’ are working absolutely without
technology. They have an excellent supply chain, despite the fact that they don’t even
know what it means. Most of the people working with them are semi-literate but still
they read the tiffin code correctly and deliver it. Their attitude of competitive
collaboration is equally unusual, particularly in India. Their excellent sense of deep
commitment, sense of work ethics and unparalleled time management system are best
in place.
