The dabbawala are an extraordinary association of more than 5000 individuals in Mumbai. "Dabba" simply signifies "lunch box"; "walla" implies transporter or convey man. Put them together and you get "Lunch box transporter". For this situation it alludes to a stackable tin box utilized for hot meals called the tiffin. Millions in Mumbai commute everyday to earn a living. Banks, colleges, hospitals, government offices, private offices, factories and ports are all spread across different parts of the city. In a country where hot and freshly cooked home food is the most preferred for consumption, carrying of lunch boxes is a big burden for the working populace. Be that as it may, this issue is unbelievable in this metro city because of the presence of the 100 year old association of "Dabbawalas". These Dabbawalas deliver lunch boxes for about 2 lakh people at their work places on time. The work doesn’t end here. They also carry the empty lunch boxes back to the homes of the customers. The unbelievable part is they make only one mistake in sixteen million transactions and have been consistently good at it for all the time of their operations. This credibility earned them a six sigma designation by the Forbes magazine and ISO 9001 accreditation.

1. THE DABBAWALA
SIX SIGMA
ORGANIZATIO
N

2. INTRODUCTION
The dabbawala are an extraordinary association of
more than 5000 individuals in Mumbai.
"Dabba" simply signifies "lunch box"; "walla"
implies transporter or convey man. Put them
together and you get "Lunch box transporter".
For this situation it alludes to a stackable tin box
utilized for hot meals called the tiffin.

3. Millions in Mumbai commute everyday to earn a living.
Banks, colleges, hospitals, government offices, private
offices, factories and ports are all spread across different
parts of the city.
In a country where hot and freshly cooked home food is
the most preferred for consumption, carrying of lunch
boxes is a big burden for the working populace.
Be that as it may, this issue is unbelievable in this metro
city because of the presence of the 100 year old
association of "Dabbawalas".

4. These Dabbawalas deliver lunch boxes for about 2 lakh
people at their work places on time.
The work doesn’t end here.
They also carry the empty lunch boxes back to the homes
of the customers.
The unbelievable part is they make only one mistake in
sixteen million transactions and have been consistently
good at it for all the time of their operations.
This credibility earned them a six sigma designation by
the Forbes magazine and ISO 9001 accreditation.

5. HISTORY OF
DABBAWALA
DABBAWA
LA

6. BREIF HISTORY
The dabbawala was set up in 1890 to carry lunches from
home to office for British administrators who would not
carry their own lunches in public.
In 1890 Bombay, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started a
lunch delivery service with about a hundred men.
In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize the
dabbawallas.
Later, a charitable trust was registered in 1956 under the
name of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust.
The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968
as Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association.
The current president of the association is Raghunath
Medge.

7. REASONS OF
DABBAWALA’S
SUCCESS
DABBAWA
LA

8. REASONS FOR THEIR
SUCCESS
1.SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
2.CODING SYSTEM
3.EMPLOYEES

9. SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT OF
DABBAWALA
DABBAWA
LA

10. SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT
Shockingly there is no utilization of Information
frameworks or innovation for their Supply chain side.
 A thorough level of practice throughout the years
has prompted the unwritten strides to take after for
exact production network administration and time
exactness.
There are around 40000 exchanges (conveyance
and return) of lunch boxes occurring every day.

12. WORKING OF
DABBAWALAS
Dabbawalas use cycles or go by foot to every household.
The waiting time to collect a lunch box is maximum 2
minutes.
Every Dabbawala has to assemble at his/her reported
collection point at sharp 9. 30 am
From these collection points they assemble at the nearest
railway station which is the Aggregation point
The next mode of transport is the trains where the carriers
containing lunch boxes are transported to the destination
railway stations
From every Destination station the dabbas are carried
over carts, cycles and carriers to the destination zones
which are given a specific number

13. From these zones, the lunch boxes are carried to the
offices or workplaces which reach by lunchtime
From here the reverse process of delivering the empty
lunch boxes back to homes starts
All through the above process, there is no slack at any
point of time
Traffic Jams, pedestrians, delays in train and signals do
not stop the functioning. The trademark white cap wore by
these Dabbawalas are known to everyone including the
police who don’t interfere in their process

14. CODING SYSTEM OF
DABBAWALA
DABBAWA
LA

15. CODING SYSTEM

16. CODING SYSTEM
Coding System is meticulously followed in order to
avoid any mistakes involving interchange of lunch
boxes, that is, wrong Tiffin box reaching the
customer.

17. CODING SYSTEM
As given in the above Diagram, the Coding system can
be explained as follows:
1.BVI: Borivali, a suburb in Mumbai. This denotes the
residential station
2.9 RC 14: Code for Dabbawalas at destination. This user
code is different for each customer
3.RC: Raheja Chambers, name of a building or office
4.14: Floor Number
5.E: Code for Dabbawala at Destination station. For
example, E is a code for Nariman Point, Churchgate
6.Jain: Name/Surname of the customer

18. EMPLOYEES DABBAWA
LA

19. EMPLOYEES
All the employees or Dabbawalas are the
stakeholders in this organization. This is the source
of their motivation.
Most of the employees are illiterate and rest is
school dropouts. However they are literate enough
to understand the codes and comprehend which
lunch box belongs where.
They are given basic idea about writing the
alphabets and numbers on the boxes on joining the
organization.

20. Every Dabbawala takes about 3 hours for
completing his assignment and has to cover 60-70
km on foot, carts, cycles and carriers combined.
Alcohol consumption is strictly avoided during
work hours. The employees’ monthly salary is
about Rs.6000 per month.

21. KEY FEATURES OF
DABBAWALA
ORGANIZATION
DABBAWA
LA

22. KEY FEATURES OF
DABBAWALA
ORGANIZATION
Organization Turnover is about Thirty Six Crores
annually.
Uninterrupted and on time service delivered even in
occasions of bad weather and transportation/traffic
problems.
Dabbawalas are well used to the local areas where
they are functioning and make use of short cuts to save
time.
No error inspite of lunch boxes changing hands six
times.
During the working hours, they do not take a break or

23. They do not use any modern technology for carrying out the
logistics.
There are no disputes between the employees and no presence
of any union.
Unique organization with Six Sigma designation and 99.99%
rate of performance.
Cost of Service per lunch box = Rs. 450 per month and is
standard price for all.
Customer Satisfaction accounts 100% with utmost trust

24. SHARE MY DABBA
PROGRAM
DABBAWA
LA

25. SHARE MY DABBA
PROGRAM
“This Share My Dabba syste m is the pe rfe ct e xam ple
o f a cle ve r charity. No o ne is lo sing o ut, le ss fo o d is
be ing waste d, and kids are g e tting the no urishm e nt
the y ne e d be cause o f an e asy to use pro g ram . ”
– Happy Life Welfare Society, program notes

26. Recently they came up in the news again, this time on the
web… as the key to a new idea for helping to feed
Mumbai’s 200,000+ slum children.
A private charity called the Happy Life Welfare Society
realized that the dabbawala could represent an opportunity
to get food to those in need.
You see, a certain amount of the food they deliver is never
eaten, or barely touched. This perfectly good food – as
much as 16 tons per day – was going into the garbage,
while the street children of Mumbai were literally starving to
death.

27. They contacted the south Mumbai arm of the dabbawala
organization, who immediately expressed their willingness
to help.
The solution they developed together is simple,
inexpensive, and does not risk delaying the dabbawala’s
schedule or their record of on-time delivery. And it gives the
people of Mumbai a personal way to fight the poverty in
their city, without actually demanding very much of them.

28. WORKING OF SHARE MY
DABBA PROGRAM
Anyone who doesn’t want all of the food in their
lunch can simply place a sticker saying “Share” on
the tiffin of uneaten food.
The dabbawala pick up the tiffins after lunch as
usual, and take them back to a central redistribution
location. Here volunteers meet them, quickly
separate the tiffins with “Share” stickers, remove the
food in them to give to the children, and then quickly
repack the tiffins so the dabbawala can get them
back to customers’ homes on schedule. The whole
process takes less than 15 minutes.

29. The food these children receive may be cold, but
is otherwise perfectly good, and would otherwise
be going to waste.
It’s a brilliant, simple, creative way of addressing
a gigantic problem. Everyone has a chance to
personally contribute, and the cost – in rupees, or
in disruption – is minimal.

30. CONCLUSION DABBAWA
LA

31. CONCLUSION
1. The Dabbawalas association is a outstanding example of
proficient Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
2. Corporates and scholars ought to make note of their
working by keeping in mind the end goal to comprehend
their one of a most unique structure and process.
3. Today the Dabbawalas have respected the utilization of
web innovation just to increase their client base and
nothing more.
4. Numerous fast food chains and lodgings in the city will
dependably be rivaling the Dabbawalas yet their trust of
disappointment of Dabbawalas framework may never
emerge.