Dabawala Marketing Management Project

A PROJECT OF MARKETING
MANAGEMENT ON

“DABBAWALA”
(Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association)

[MARKETING MANAGEMET ] Dabbawala Service Excellence

PRESENTED TO:

SIR JAHANGIR SADDIQ

PRESENTED BY:

Mr Muhammad Tayyab 111405

Mr Ali Yazdani 113511

Mr Waleed Tayyab 102507

Mr Farooq Haider 103119

Mr Abid Nadeem 111509

Institute of Management Science (Pak-AIMS) Page 2


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to pay our praises and humblest thanks to AL-MIGHTY
ALLAH, the most Merciful and Beneficiate of all, who bestowed us with the
ability to complete this project. It gives us immense pleasure and honor to extend
our thanks to our kind & cooperative. Sir Jahangir Sadiq from Faculty of
Institute of Management Sciences, Lahore for his valuable advices and
suggestions throughout our semester, in order to perform well & up to mark..
Finally, we pay regards of gratitude to our parents, as they and their prayers for
Our success are always been a pillar of strength for us in our life.

PREFACE
Quality without creativity is meaningless. As changes grow ever more
unpredictable creativity is rapidly becoming recognized a core management skill.

Today‟s business environment demands that manager‟s posses a wide range of
knowledge skills and competencies, as well as sound understanding of
management process and function. Managers need to be able to make best use of
their time, talent and of other people to work with and through others to achieve
corporate objectives. They also need to demonstrate their ability not merely to
solve problems, but to transform them and design ways through them.

This report concerns needs and changing needs and their satisfaction level, which
are the important function in every organization.



Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 7

THE GREAT DABBAWALA: ........................................................................................................ 9
We, the Dabbawala never go on strike. ..................................................................................................... 14

SOME BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT DABBAWALS ....................................................... 16

Some Achievements ...................................................................................................................... 18

ATTITUDE & APPROACH ............................................................................................................. 18

DISCIPLINES .................................................................................................................................. 18

Code of conduct ....................................................................................................................... 19

DABBAWALA AS MARKETING RESOURCE......................................................................... 19

THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE OF THE OFFICIAL ASSOCIATION
FORMED IS AS FOLLOWS:................................................................................................... 20

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITY ...................................................................................................... 22

PRESEDENT .................................................................................................................................... 22

GENERAL SECRETARY ............................................................................................................. 22

MUKADAM ....................................................................................................................................... 22

MEMBERS ........................................................................................................................................ 22

CORE VALUES ................................................................................................................................... 22

HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES OF THE ASSOCIATION ................................................ 23

DISCIPLINE ......................................................................................................................................... 25

HR PRACTICES OF THE ASSOCIATION ............................................................................... 25

FLAT ORGANIZATION: .............................................................................................................. 25

NO HIRE & FIRE RULE: ............................................................................................................. 25

COMMUNITY BASED RECRITMENT: .................................................................................. 25

SHARING COMMON BELIEFS, VALUES & ETHICS: ................................................... 26

FOLLOWING OF STRICT DRESS CODES: ......................................................................... 26

LOYALTY & TRUST IS THEIR MONOPOLY: ................................................................... 26

TRAINING PROVIDED TO NEW EMPLOYEES: ............................................................... 26



OWNER + EMPLOYEE ARE THE DESIGNATION OF ALL:......................................... 26

QUARTERLY MEETING TO DISCUSS ISSUES: .............................................................. 27

MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OF THE DABBAWALA ....................................................... 27

TEAM WORK:.................................................................................................................................. 27

TIME MANAGEMENT:................................................................................................................. 27

INNOVATION: ................................................................................................................................ 27

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: ................................................................ 28

SIX SIGMA: ...................................................................................................................................... 28

HRM System of NMTBSA: ........................................................................................................ 28

LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: ............................................................ 28

THE SYSTEM OF SERVICE NETWORK HOW THEY OPERATE .............................. 29

Leaving Home for the work: ...................................................................................................... 30

DABBAWALAS' UNIQUE SUPPLY CHAIN MODEL ........................................................... 31

Supply Chain Management ..................................................................................................... 31

Coding System .............................................................................................................................. 34

LEAVES ................................................................................................................................................. 36

Weekly Leave: ............................................................................................................................... 36

Festival Leave:.............................................................................................................................. 36

THE GROWTH ................................................................................................................................ 37

PRODUCT ELEMENT OF DABBAWALA ................................................................................. 38

Place .................................................................................................................................................. 38

Time .................................................................................................................................................... 39

PromotionandEducation........................................................................................................... 39

Price ................................................................................................................................................... 40

OTHER PHYSICAL PRODUCTS: ............................................................................................ 40

PHYSICALENVIRONMENT: ..................................................................................................... 40

Environment: .............................................................................................................................. 41

PROCESS.......................................................................................................................................... 41

RETURN JOURNEY ..................................................................................................................... 42

SWOT ANALYSIS OF (NMTBSA) DABBAWAL: ................................................................... 42

STRENGTH ...................................................................................................................................... 42


WEAKNESS ..................................................................................................................................... 42

OPPORTUNITY .............................................................................................................................. 43

THREAT ............................................................................................................................................ 43
Reliability ....................................................................................................................................... 43
Basic Service .................................................................................................................................. 43
Service design................................................................................................................................ 43
Recovery ........................................................................................................................................ 43
Fair Play ......................................................................................................................................... 43
Teamwork ..................................................................................................................................... 43
Employee Research ....................................................................................................................... 43
Servant Leadership ........................................................................................................................ 43

Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 44

FOUNDER OF NMTBSA (NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX

SUPPLIER AND ASSOCIATION)

Mr. Dhondiba Medge (1923-1980) - the father of Mr. Raghunath Medge
(president of NMTBSA), framed Human Resource Policy of Nutan Mumbai
Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association.

Mr. Dhondiba Medge was educated only to 4th standard. He framed rules &
regulations of the Dabbawalas. He was very stair & disciplined kind of person.
Who was believes on "Time Is Money."

THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

The Dabbawala have two different aspects as considered with the mode actual
operations & mode of organizations formed by the Dabbawalas.

To guide & manage the entire operation procedure.



Acquisition of any new customers & training a new person assigned to the
particular customer.

INTRODUCTION

Dabbawalas the carriers of Tiffin boxes daily deliver lunch boxes to lacks of
office goers in city Mumbai. The practice 119 years old in spite of complexities
this Dabbawalas goes in to the delivery has been appreciated worldwide among
them being BBC, MTV, CIIT, PRINCE CHARLES & BRITAIN
CHAIRPERSON OF VIRGIN AIRLINE COMPANY & OTHER TOP
MANAGEMENT COMPANIES & SCHOOLES. It is believed that system if
applied to other cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc.
will impact a major positive change the lunch delivery system. The system runs
efficiently & is in prestigious position with achievement of SIX SIGMA
RATING.



Dabbawalas fascinating for instance the Berkeley University in California teaches
the logistic system of Dabbawalas as a case study in one of their business
management programs and many Indian business schools and industry
associations have the Dabbawala logistics system in their case-study agenda. In
1998 two Dutch filmmakers, Jascha De Wilde and Chris Relleke, made a
documentary called "Dabbawalas, Mumbai's unique lunch service" and in 2001,
the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston-based newspaper, covered the
Dabbawala in an article called "Fastest Food: It's Big Mac vs. Bombay's
Dabbawala." The British Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation have done features on the delivery system as well,
while Prince Charles was so impressed with their service that he had even invited
a few Dabbawalas to his marriage with Camilla Parker in London. Yet these
Dabbawalas have remained poor. "Nowhere in the world would you find a lunch
delivery service that costs as little as $9 a month," says Talekar. The charges for
this complex delivery system have remained dirt-cheap ever since its inception
and still the maximum rate that a Dabbawala charges (depending on the distance
carried) is about $11 a month. Which is why technology is needed to improve
their lives, says Tripathy. "No doubt a major driver for establishing a Web-based



and mobile phone ordering system was the need for a central ordering facility
where one can call for a Dabbawalas service by just hitting the Web site or
through an SMS” says Tripathy, "but the other equally important driving force
was to expand business." Until recently business has come just through word-of-
mouth or from contacts made in local railway stations. "But ever since we
introduced the SMS-based ordering service we have been getting about 15 new
orders every day," said Tripathy. The Web site (www.mydabbawala.com) has also
enabled the association to solicit donations and sell merchandise, the proceeds of
which go towards creation of a social security fund to pay for the Dabbawalas' life
and medical insurances. "The use of IT would not stop there," says Tripathy, "we
would be stretching its use soon to enable the Dabbawalas to add additional lines
of business." According to him the next plan is to gear the Dabbawalas with the
ability to sell groceries and other daily necessities, the orders of which could be
taken through their mobile phones.

THE GREAT DABBAWALA:
My time in Mumbai was brief but full. The city itself seems to be about as
different as could be from, Delhi. Clean, full of sky scrapers, bustling, and largely
friendly. Through a contact of a contact I was able to spend some time learning
about one of the stranger aspects of Mumbai life – the Dabbawala.

The term “Dabbawala” means something close to “boxman.” The Dabbawala are
an entire caste of people whose job is to transport home cooked lunches to their
locations at peoples‟ places of work. There are 5000, largely illiterate, Dabbawala
who use a complex system of symbols and home-grown business sense to move
260,000 lunches each day. The system is near flawless (one research paper put it
as one screw up in 16 million successful deliveries) and has been going for over a
century. Almost all of these men hail from a small village a couple of hours
outside of Mumbai and because of the small town nature of things, almost all are



somehow related. The unique shape of the city and cheap train network make it
affordable for this system to work here and only here. And while it‟s amazing to
watch these men scurry about doing their job, what I was interested in is how this
amazingly Indian concept has held on as long as it has. While fast food is
booming as the only option for office workers in virtually every megacity in the
world, in Mumbai it is the norm to have a fresh home cooked meal every day.

The system works a bit like this (and while I use gendered terms here the system
is becoming less so, again in an interesting way). Man leaves in the morning to go
to work at six to accommodate for the two hour commuter train to work. He wants
lunch, so his wife would have to get up at four to cook it and send it with him.
Instead, in rushes the Dabbawala, making it so that she can send off the lunch at
eleven to get to the office at one, giving her an extra five hours of sleep. You
subscribe to the service on a monthly basis – man on a bike comes by your house
to pick up your tiffin (a stainless steel box or canister which everyone uses to eat
out of), he hands it off to the next fellow at the train station, who hands it off to
someone at the next train, to a sorter, to another bike, to the office. A couple of
hours later the Dabbawala picks up the Tiffin and the whole process happens
again in reverse. The average Tiffin goes through the hands of five or six people
in each direction. It has no writing on it besides a few grease paint marks of x‟s,
o‟s, and squares. Depending on how far away you live from the office, you can
get deliveries for between 400 and 500 rupees a month (three to ten USD).

Now, while this used to be all men receiving and women cooking, it has expanded
lots over the past couple of decades. Now about a quarter of the office workers
receiving lunches are women. They deliver to schools. If you want to deliver to
your husband, children, brothers, sisters, and cousins, you can send Tiffin‟s to all
of them. If you have no one at home to cook for you the Dabbawala have found
homemakers who will be willing to cook extra meals on a subscription basis so



that strangers can also have a home cooked meal and the home cooks can get a
little bit of extra cash.

I am not the first or last person to marvel at this system. The whole organization
organized itself (stemming from a demand during the British rule for home
cooked meals that were British for British workers, then moving to Indians
wanting their own food too) and incorporated during the 1960s. The three heads
of the organization are former runners themselves and now give talks at major
business colleges around the world on a system of organization and efficiency
which came naturally to them.

Moving away from the marvel that it does work, it‟s amazing to think about why
people want it to work. In a city which is renowned for its hustle and bustle it‟s
amazing to think that something as little as a home cooked meal would get this
much love and care – but it‟s a sign of how people are making attempts to adapt to
this way of life while maintaining connections to their roots.



Delivery process of Dabbawala



TOP 10 REASONS TO USE
DABBAWALA
Homemade food is best for health and because health is wealth.
Outside junk foods may take your life and makes you sick.
Homemade food keeps your doctors bill down and there are fewer absences from
office due to poor health. In fact bad food is the reason #1 of all
the diseases.

Homemade food is cheaper. When you use Dabbawalas
services to deliver your home cooked food to your office you
are actually saving your hard earned pennies. The delivery
charge of Rs 400 - 500 per month is very nominal and
reasonable. It‟s simple math‟s.

Do you not love your mother or wife and like to eat food made by her?

Even if there is no one at home to cook food for you,
Dabbawala can deliver you good quality home like
lunch through many restaurants. We have quality restaurants
all over Mumbai where cheap and best quality food is prepared
which is delivered at your office or home through Dabbawala
Channel.



Safety - The Local train of Mumbai are always much
crowed and it is very tough to take even small luggage
during peak times. There are instances where the person's
hand got hurt or broken and ones

Belongings destroyed while traveling during peak time.
People leave from their home at about 8 - 9 PM which is
peak time and it‟s not possible to carry Tiffin during this
time and Even the food is not ready by this time. By
using our services you are getting hot food safely deliver
in your office.

Dabbawala give reliable services and their performance
and accuracy match six sigma standards. You must be
sure that your home cooked food reaches in time.

We, the Dabbawala never go on strike.



By taking our services you are proving direct
employment to 5000+ Dabbawala and many of their
dependent families. You are actually helping us.

Dabbawala are an icon in their own sense and famous
world over for their efficiency and by taking our services
you are being part of India's image building.

Dabbawala are from the remote villages of Maharashtra
and mostly uneducated. They regularly organize bhajan
and kirtans and spread the essence of Marathi culture,
good will and oneness of India. Being a part of
Dabbawala, you are actually nurturing Marathi culture



SOME BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT
DABBAWALS

History : Started in 1890

Charitable trust : Registered in 1956

Employee Strength : 5000

Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling

Total area coverage : 60 Kms to 70 Kms

Number of Tiffin’s : 2, 00,000 Tiffin Boxes

400,000 transactions every day (including return)

I.e. 400,000*25 days*12 months= 120,000,000

(120 million or 12 crore transactions per year)

Time taken: 8 to 9 Hours

Morning 3 Hours Wartime

(9 A.M. to 12 P.M. for the Collection and Delivery)



WORKING OF DABBAWALA

Error Rate: 1 in 16 million transactions

Six Sigma performances (99.999999)

Technological Backup: Nil.

Cost of service: Rs. 400/- to 500/- month

($7-9 £4-5, €6-7 per month)

Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)

Earnings: Rs. 6000/- to 7000/- per month.

($130, £70, €110) per month.

Turnover per Annum (Approx). Rs. 72 to 80 Cr

Diwali Bonus: One month‟s extra payment

“No Strike” record since 1890.

“No Police / Court Case” since 1890.



Some Achievements

ATTITUDE & APPROACH

“People study business books and then practice. We practiced first and have now
become case studies” Raghunath Medge (President)

“It‟s a model of managerial & organizational simplicity” C. K. Pralhad

DISCIPLINES
• No Alcohol Drinking / Smoking during business hours.
• Wearing White Cap during business hours.
• Carry Identity Cards.
• No Leave without Prior Notice.



Code of conduct

• Rs 500- Drinking on duty
• Rs 100- Smoking on duty
• Rs 25- Not wearing white cap
• Rs 25- Not carrying ID card
• Rs 1000- Leave without intimation, sacked if repeated in 2-3 instances

DABBAWALA AS MARKETING RESOURCE

• Marketing pamphlets with the “Dabba”.

Sticker, Tag and Sample Piece of Goods with “Dabba



THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE OF THE OFFICIAL
ASSOCIATION FORMED IS AS FOLLOWS:
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PRESIDENT

MR. RAGHUNATH D. MEDGE

VICE GENERAL TRASURER DIRECTORS

PRESIDENT SECRETARY MR. DAMODAR (9)

MR. SAMBHAJI MR. GANGARAM PINGALE

G. MEDGE L. TALEKAR

GROUP
(120)

MUKADAM MUKADAM

1 M

Dabbawala-1 Dabbawala-n Dabbawla-1 Dabbawala-n



ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

GENERAL SECRETARY 13 MEMBERS

TREASURER

DIRECTORS ( 9 )

MUKADAMS (800)

MEMBERS ( 5000 )

21


DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITY

PRESEDENT

Taking monthly meeting

Checking accounts of the association

Solving the problems among the members

GENERAL SECRETARY

Drafting the various types of letters

Collecting the trust fees

MUKADAM

Supervising the functioning of the members in his group.

MEMBERS

To deliver Tiffin Boxes to the customers & carry Tiffin Boxes back to
their home respectively.

CORE VALUES
Work is Worship

Serving people is Serving God

Annadan is Mahadan

Time is Money

Unity is Power

22


HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES OF THE
ASSOCIATION

The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association is registered
institution. Though it is so, it does not function as a commercial institution e.g.
courier company.

The organization is formed by the members. To avoid any disputes &
give each member pride, the employee-employer relationship is avoided. Each
member is a shareholder in the association. He gets his monthly salary from
each of his customers directly.

All the members in a group gather on a particular date of each month
mostly at a nearest local office of the organization or the trust (NUTAN
MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS' CHARITABLE TRUST). all the
members collect their salary together, cut down for overheads & travel
expenses. Also each member contributes amount of rupees 10;/- towards for the
charity purposes.

E.g. there is the group of 15 Dabbawalas

They carry 30 dabbas each

They get Rs. 150/- customer

So calculation goes like this:

15×150×30 = 675000/-

So. Gross earning of this group is Rs. 67500/-

Now from this amount, a collective amount of Rs. 4000/- approximately
is deducted comprising expenses for railways pass, expenses for parking the

23


carts & cycles & overheads the remaining amount is divided equally into all
members of the group.

So, suppose now after deductions, group has left with 63500/-; it will be
divided equally among all the members, thus each member getting Rs. 4230/-
each. This salary may not be sufficient compared to the cost of living in
Mumbai also may of have their families back in villages to send money to. To
cope up, with this problem, few of the Dabbawala have started doing some side
business for extra income. Some of them after returning home in evening drive
auto-rickshaws or early in morning before going on work distribute newspaper
or milk.

The association once a month calls a meeting of all the members. In this
meeting. It tries to solve the internal problems of the members.

Such problem & solutions solved till now have laid a kind of unwritten
rules & regulations for the members of the organization to follow in certain
cases.

1. In the case of loss of Tiffin Box of the Dabbawala, if he is found guilty,
then the customer is refunded the appropriate amount for the loss.

2. Each member is supposed to operate in his allocated area only & not
interfere with any of his fellow colleagues, work area. In fact normally no
Dabbawala does this too!

3. In case if the customer is not pleased with dabbawala provided to him for
service, both of them cannot co-ordinate well with each other then the
organization can shift that dabbawala to some other area & replace other
dabbawala in his area.

24


DISCIPLINE

Wearing White cap during working hours.

Reporting to duty on time.

Behave properly & respect the customers

Carry identity cards

HR PRACTICES OF THE ASSOCIATION

FLAT ORGANIZATION:

The president, Vice president, General Secretary, Treasurer & 9 no. of
Directors formed 13 members of board under which Mukadam & other
Dabbawalas work. So due to such Flat kind of organization structure
decisions are taken on the spot. Even the president & other higher
categories members also work.

NO HIRE & FIRE RULE:

Everyone is shareholder of the association. Whatever profits they can
equally distributed within itself. It is democratic type of organization HR
Practices.

COMMUNITY BASED RECRITMENT:

Those who have capacity to job they can apply for the Dabbawala post.
There is no any kind of basis happens related to recruitment process.

25


SHARING COMMON BELIEFS, VALUES & ETHICS:

All the Dabbawalas are from poor background, the aim of the
organization is mutual benefit to all members so they follow certain
values, belief & ethics to run business effectively.

FOLLOWING OF STRICT DRESS CODES:

All Dabbawalas must wear white cap which is called as Gandhian cap on
duty. Also wear white sadara & pyjama (shirts & pants). All Dabbawals
must carry their Identity card on duty. All these rules are bninding on all
cadres of the Dabbawala.

LOYALTY & TRUST IS THEIR MONOPOLY:

All Dabbawalas are loyal & hard working in nature. They follow their
norms & promise which they made their customers.

TRAINING PROVIDED TO NEW EMPLOYEES:

After recruitment they provide complete process training to new joiner
under the observation of Mukadam or any senior member. When they feel
that new employees are capable to work, that time training will
completed.

OWNER + EMPLOYEE ARE THE DESIGNATION OF ALL:

Everyone is the shareholder of the Association. All disciplinary rules &
other ethics follow by all members. So there is no any employee &
employer relationship between each other. All are owners of the business.

26


QUARTERLY MEETING TO DISCUSS ISSUES:

Every quarter all Dabbawalas meet & discuss issues related to service,
salary & future goal. They discuss balance sheet & distribute profits
among them. If any critical issue arises that time they cal immediate
meeting. Also conduct daily meeting to handle day to day problem. All
Dabbwalas can participate in meeting & can contribute his suggestion.

MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OF THE
DABBAWALA

TEAM WORK:

Working with team is the strength of the Dabbawals. Also Team work is
the key aspect of their inner self satisfaction (proved by research). One
Tiffin box goes from many hands of the Dabbawals & finally reaches at exact
destination which shows success of their Team Work.

TIME MANAGEMENT:

They deliver Tiffin boxes before 12 pm at customer's office. There duty
starts from morning 8 am. Same time there is always lots of rush at
railway station, & traffic on the road, in such kind of critical situation
they able to deliver lunch boxes on time. They got Six Sigma because of
their Time management & no. defects in deliveries.

INNOVATION:

Dabbawala promote innovation. They started coding system to Tiffin box
for easy identification, which are one of the examples of their innovation
strategy. They believe on continuous improvement by way of
innovation.

27


CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT:

100% customer satisfaction is the success of their system. They achieved
this level because of maintaining good relationship with customers. They
believe on “Service to Customer Is Service to God”.

SIX SIGMA:

They have got the prestigious achievement of SIX SIGMA RATING
because of their percentage of correctness which is just perfect up to
99.999995 i.e. six decimals or more than that. Not many of the topmost
companies are even near to it. This is simply incredible!

HRM System of NMTBSA:

They achieved six sigma in following aspects.

Simplified coding system

High conformity to the system

Buffer in the lead time

Confirmed by the limits of the human capabilities

LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT:

By using their own logistic methods they deliver lacks of tiffin boxes
through many dabawalas hand: but the final goal is to reach tiffin box
before 12 pm. At customer‟s office everyday they achieve their goal.

28


THE SYSTEM OF SERVICE NETWORK HOW THEY
OPERATE

The dabbawalas are the whole & soul of the entire system of these
operations. For these dabbawalas to be able to provide prompt & efficient
service, it is very much important & necessary to be always on time. So
you will not see any Dabbawala moving ahead road taking his own sweet
time! They are always in hurry pushing through the crowd carefully to
deliver lunches on time for lacks of mumbaiities

The entire system involves carefully planned, organized & implemented
activities around the hour timings, but they do it with excellent associated
teamwork.

We now take look in the routine course of action Dabbawalas i.e. from
the time they leave their home in the morning till the time they deliver the
tiffin box back to the customers‟ home in the evening.

This cycle of operations of delivery takes them nearly 8 hrs a day very
similar to the office timings, as these takes time normally from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. the day starts around 8.00-8.30 am in the morning.

29


Leaving Home for the work:

The Dabbawalas leave there homes in the morning between 7.50 am to
8.30 am depending upon from which areas they have to pick up tiffin
boxes.

The Dabbawalas reaches the customers homes according to the timing
fixed between two of them.

The day in home then hands over the prepared & packed tiffin box to
the Dabbawala.

Collecting 30-35 tiffin boxes (from area specified to him) is the
responsibility of each Dabbawala, but there were we can see that
number of Dabbas picked up is also dependent upon the age of the
Dabbawalas. Where young person picks even 40 Tiffin‟s each, an
elder person might pick 30!

Also collecting tiffin is not an easy task. Because, Dabbawalas have to
pick up tiffin boxes from various distant location in his area. These
locations may be far from each other located on higher floors of the
building where sometimes elevator may not be available.

These tiffin boxes are then taken to the nearest local station by
vehicle. Usually a bicycle or in long wooden creates carried on the
head! E.g. If a Dabbawala a collecting Tiffin boxes from area of
Ghatkopar then he will carry them to Ghatkopar or Vikhroli railway
station whichever is nearer from his area of collecting Tiffins

30


DABBAWALAS' UNIQUE SUPPLY CHAIN MODEL

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. However, this problem is unheard of in
this metro city thanks to the presence of the 100 year old organization of
“Dabbawalas”.

he Dabbawala community has about 5000 people working with them. 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. The three
main reasons for their success are as follows.

Supply Chain Management

Surprisingly there is no use of Information systems or technology for their
Supply chain side. A rigorous level of practice over the years has led to the
unwritten steps to follow for accurate supply chain management and time
precision. There are about 40000 transactions (delivery and return) of lunch
boxes taking place daily. The figure below shows their Supply chain model.

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

31


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

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

32


Coding System
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 eg. Churchgate D’souza
Station (Nariman Point)

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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.

As given in the above Diagram, the Coding system can be explained as follows:

BVI: Borivali, a suburb in Mumbai. This denotes the residential station

9 RC 14: Code for Dabbawalas at destination. This user code is different for
each customer

RC: Raheja Chambers, name of a building or office

14: Floor Number

E: Code for Dabbawala at Destination station. For example, E is a code for
Nariman Point, Church gate

Jain: Name/Surname of the customer

34


35


LEAVES

NMTBSA has segregated annual leave on two types

Weekly Leave:

All Dabbawala gets weekly leave on every Sunday.

Festival Leave:

All Dabbawallas are devotees of lord Shiv shankaras & vitthalas so
NMTBASA only sanctioned leaves for those festivals which are celebrated for
their God.

Mahashivaratri (Festival of Shiv Shankaras)

Aashadhi Ekadashi (Festival of Lord vitthalas)

Kartiki Ecakashi (Festival of Lord Vitthalas)

Chaitra Pournima (New Year of Marathi People)

Diwali (2 days) (Festival of Lights)

36


THE GROWTH

YEAR NUMBER OF DABBAWALAS NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS

1900 58 1445

1905 75 1965

1910 142 4120

1915 204 6504

1920 321 9675

1925 407 12140

1930 695 22865

1935 1024 43230

1940 1206 4340

1945 1715 64240

1950 2106 82000

1955 2552 105120

1960 3216 140000

1965 4406 198100

1970 4605 176040

1975 4904 215000

1980 5551 27507

1985 5524 190645

1990 5102 130860

1995 5180 142260

2000 5164 16670

2005 5142 175040

2006 5150 175060

2007 5200 187080

2008 5220 190900

2009 5300 200000

37


PRODUCT ELEMENT OF DABBAWALA
The product Element here is basically a service they provide to the office
goers by delivering their Tiffin box or more commonly called as „Dabba‟ in
the city of Mumbai.

There are other ancillary physical products such as Tiffin Box, Gandhi Cap,
and Video CD on Dabbawala, Dabbawala Mug, and Dabbawala T-shirt.
These products are sold by the trust to earn more money and to work for the
welfare of their members.

Place

The Mumbai dabbawallas journey start from Andheri station. At this place
they put all the dabbas collected from different places of houses. They load
the wooden crates filledwith tiffins onto the luggage or goods compartment
in the train.

Generally they choose to occupy the last compartment of the train. After that
they unloading all the dabbas on the Church Gate Station which is there
destination place . They re-arrange the tiffins as per the destination area
and destination building. In particular areas with high density of customers
such as Nariman point, Fort, Cost a special crate is dedicated to the area.
This crate carries 150 tiffins and is driven by 3-4 dabbawallas.

After that return journey start at all destination stations. Here begins the
collection process where they have to collect tiffins from different offices
where they have delivered an hour ago. Then they segregate the dabbas at
destination stations. Finally they again reach to there origin place (Andheri
station) where the final sorting and dispatching takes places according to
their origin area.

38


Time

The journey of Mumbai dabbawallas start in morning at 9:34-10:30. They
collect the dabbas from different places between 10:34 to 11:20. They
travel in the local train and choose the last compartment. After that between
11:20 to 12:30 they unload all the dabbas and re- arrange according to
their destination area and destination building. Then the collection process
starts between 1:15 to 2:00. They pick up all the dabbas where they had
delivered an hour ago. Now the g r o u p m e m b e r s s t a r t s e g r e g a t i n g
t h e d a b b a s a c c o r d i n g t o d e s t i n a t i o n between 2:00 to 2:30. Between
2:48 to 3:30 the return journey by train takes place after routine of
dispatching and collecting. Since it is more of pleasant journey compared to
earlier part of the day, they lighten up their moment with merry making,
joking around and singing. Finally the stage between 3:30 to 4:00 where the
final sorting and dispatch of dabbas takes place as per their origin area.

PromotionandEducation

Dabbawala‟s are in Tiffin distribution field since last 125 years hence they
don‟t need any promotional tool for their business. Though they are used by
other business units as promotional tool for their business units Orders
through SMS and online is accepted by the organization and they have
come up with a site named mydabbawala.com

As reliance power is making best use of them. If you receive dabba it is
very possible that you will get IPO application along with it.

Maharashtra government has roped them in to spread of AIDS awareness.
Film industry is using them to promote their films. Example at time of
movie tashan release they were used and the response to it was very good.
World record in best time management with Six Sigma rating.

Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”. Registered with Ripley's
“believe it or not”. World record in best time management.

Participated in “Deal Ya No Deal Contest” by Sony Entertainment
Television
39


Price

The Cost of Service per person is Rs250/month it is Standard price for all
(Weight, Distance and Space). The Dabbawalas Turnover is Approx
Rs 50cr.Total Earning of 20 people is Rs125000. Earning per person
varies from Rs5000 to 6000/month. Maintenance Cost is Rs 35000 per year.
Tiffin Luggage Basket pass is Rs 180 per person. Maintenance Cost of
cycles is Rs300 that is for 2cycles per month .Maintenance of wooden
boxes is Rs100 per person .If any Police robbery of Tiffin is Rs500 yearly.
An organizational fee is Rs 15 per head and Puja held per station Rs50 per
head. They get Diwali bonus one month‟s from customers.

OTHER PHYSICAL PRODUCTS:
Dabba (Tiffin box) is Rs.200/- Gandhi cap is Rs 50/-

Video CD is Rs.200/- Dabbawala Mug is Rs.300/- Dabbawala T-shirt Rs
400/-

PHYSICALENVIRONMENT:

Mumbai is the financial hub of the country. It is the most populous city in
India and the second most populous in the world, with approximately 20
million inhabitants. It generates a big part of income generated in India. The
climate of Mumbai is humid between March and October, and rains lash the
Mumbai from June to September. Mumbai is facing high problem during the
rainy season. They are mainly facing the problem of floods from last three
to four years. But still Dabbawala are working their work continuously.

So we can say that they have to do hard work to survive in the Physical

40


Environment:

Providing service in highly populated city. Have to travel 60-70 kms in a
route.

Have to travel by walking, cycle, carts and even by Local trains. Have to
travel from one place to another in hot summers.

Have to face the lot of crowd for the fulfillment of service. Even they have to
provide service in high rains.

The person who serves Tiffin to the customer is well known about the
physical environment of that area and because of that Dabbawalas are
able to serve in every season so this helps a lot to Dabbawalas in achieving
Six Sigma.

PROCESS

This is the process that is being followed by the dabbawalas to carry on their
job eefficiently and with precision.

10:34-11:20 am

This time period is actually the journey time. The dabbawalas load the
wooden crates filled with tiffins onto the luggage or goods compartment in
the train. Generally, they choose to occupy the last compartment of the train.

In particular areas with high density of customers, a special crate is
dedicated to the area. This crate carries 150 tiffins and is driven by 3-4
dabbawalas!

1:15 – 2:00 pm

Here on begins the collection process where the dabbawalas have to pick up
the tiffins from the offices where they had delivered almost an hour ago.

41


RETURN JOURNEY

2:00 – 2:30 pm

The group members meet for the segregation as per the destination
suburb.

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 dabbawalas lighten up the moment with joking around and
singing.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF (NMTBSA) DABBAWAL:

STRENGTH

 Low operational cost
 Customer satisfaction
 Low attrition rate
 Flat organization
 Team spirit & team management

WEAKNESS

 Limited access to education
 Funds for the association
 No social security to members

42


OPPORTUNITY

 Operational cost is low
 Wide range publicity

THREAT

 Job satisfaction level of new generations
 Competition
 Canteen facility provided by corporate firm.

What is service?

A service is any act of performance one party can offer to another party that is essential
intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be
tied to a physical product.

Service Quality

Reliability
Basic Service
Service design
Recovery
Fair Play
Teamwork
Employee Research
Servant Leadership
Reliability
Dabbawala is very reliable service for their for their customers they have a record of on time
delivery with minimum errors.

Basic Service
Dabbawala delivers the promised basic service to their customers, keep customer informed,
and be determined to deliver value to customer.

43


Service Design:
Dabbawals have developed a holistic design of their marketing services.

Recovery
Dabbawala have hired extra personal for recovery.

If any Tiffin box gets misplaced the recovery process starts quickly and they try to deliver the
recovered Tiffin on time.

Fair Play
Dabbawala make special effort to fair and make special effort to be fair to customer and
employees

Team Work
Dabbawala who rang in age from 18-65, tend to remain for their entire working lives. As the
result member of team care deeply for one another.

Employee Research
Dabbawala continuously try to identify service problems and solve those problems promptly.

Servant Leadership
Dabbawala have excellent service system design use information effectively and have strong
corporate style culture

Conclusion
Managing more than 5000
Dabawalas daily is really increased! So
what kind of Human resource policy they
have adopted & how do they implemented
it, was the objective behind these report.
Which are satisfactory completed, & I got
some key formulas, principles of their
effective Human resource management system from this project work.

44


The lacks of office goers, 5000 Dabbawalas & risky job schedules, all
these kind of problems they are able to handle only due to their efficient Human
resource management system. Mr. Dhondiba Medge formed Human Resource
Policy for Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association. He set core values
for the Association, these improved their system.

The key feature of their Human Resource Management is Flat
organizational structure. These are able to maintain no communication barriers
from top level to lower level. All Dabbawalas are employer of the association,
there has no any employee-employer relation. This thing is them motivational
factor behind their job satisfaction. Effective delegation of authority helps them
to do work effectively. From top level to lower level Dabbawalas know their
work & their target which helps to effective job specification.

They have implemented Human Resource Policy in their organization,
these contains strict disciplinary rules of employment, dress code & effective
training & development facility to new
joiners.

They follow management principles
in their organization such as Team work,
Time management, Innovation, Customer
relationship management & six sigma.
Because of these they called as
"Management Guru".

Human resource policy, Manpower planning. Training & Development,
Disciplinary Code of conduct & their Corporate Social Responsibility activity
are the key result areas of their Human Resource Management system.

Their daily earning is not sufficient to fulfill their basic needs but
whatever they earn out of from it some amount they spend in FSR activities.

45


'We are the part of society which provides many resources to us, so it is our
prime duty to give back to society'-these CSR principle they follow.

The organization has gained a lot of appreciation from foreign countries
but it still in some ways or other not fully appreciated by its own countrymen.
Organization can do a lot to perform better but it needs support & word
appreciation firm its own countrymen. It so, it will even leave back the top
world running entrepreneurs & give India a place of pride on the world map.

The Dabbawalas organization is a standout
example of efficient Logistics and Supply
Chain Management. Corporate and students
should make note of their functioning in order

to understand their unique structure and
process. Today the Dabbawalas have
welcomed the use of internet technology
only for increasing their customer base and nothing more. Many fast food
chains and hotels in the city will always be competing with the Dabbawalas but
their hope of failure of Dabbawalas system may never materialize.

___________________________

46

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