Dabbawalas of MumbaiLarge Service Supply Chain

Leading without Suits and Ties

Talks on Best Practices at CII, IIMs, IITs, companies Regularly sought by print media and electronic media Common queries
How do they recruit? Working of incentive system with equal pay for all? Do they know their clients? Robustness of distribution channel? Dealing with growth? Competitors? World is changing! Not dabbawalas?

Facts
2003: 5000 recruits, 175, 000 clients 350,000 deliveries 75 kms of public transport Failure: once in two months, one in 15 million Rs 380 million per annum

Structure
Three tier structure:
Executive committee Mukadams Dabbawalas

Role of Groups (a profit centre with 8 mukadams) Culture similarity of the staff Distinct local entity of dabbawalas
Known for reliability and work ethic Helped by commuters

Distribution Network
Baton relay system Hub and spoke arrangement No historical, theoretical legacy in the design No use of computer technology Coding system
Decentralized at the group level

Workday schedule 30-35 deliveries (manageable) Sorting, loading and unloading at peak rush hours 4 handlings of a dabba in a day- coding essential

Distribution Network
K-BO-10-19/A/15 Clients name is not even existing Easy coding scheme as the level of literacy is not very high

Operating Environment
Competitors: Fast Food chains, restaurants and road-side vendors, Udipi chain etc. Competition is different:
NO MANUFACTURING, ONLY DISTRIBUTION

Success Factors
Low cost delivery
Rs. 150 -200

Delivery reliability
Entrepreneurs, not employees No strikes Flat structure Referrals from friends and relatives No dilution of service culture

Success Factors
Decentralization Perceived equality
Effort different, same remuneration

Suburban Railway Network

Foodline of the city

Future
Key concerns
Shrinking customer base and loyalty
Loss of textile mill workers in 80s amd 90s Each group authorized to target new customers (school children etc.)

Lifestyle changes
Not a major damage for the business

Workforce management
Next generations do not seem to be greatly interested Not many incentives for good workers Not many disincentives wither (no firing)

Future
Sales and Marketing reps of companies?
Approach
Only for sample products, flyers Not for products with billing Want to keep meal delivery simple and manageable

Replicate to other cities

Distribution network Working population Preponderance of long commuting times