The Wonder of Mumbai Dabbawallas

Inspiration of Management
supported by http://www.mydabbawala.com/

Introduction
A dabbawala (one who carries the box, see Etymology), sometimes
spelled dabbawalla or dabbawallah, is a person in the Indian city of
Mumbai whose job is to carry and deliver freshly made food from
home in lunch boxes to office workers. Tiffin is an old-fashioned
English word for a light lunch, and sometimes for the box it is carried
in. Dabbawalas are sometimes called tiffin-wallas. For the efficiency
of their supply chain it has been claimed that this virtually achieves a
Six Sigma performance rating, (i.e. 99.9999% of deliveries are made
without error, he is at CMMi level 6).[1]
Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a highly specialized
trade that is over a century old and which has become integral to
Mumbai's culture.
The dabbawala originated when India was under British rule: many
Indian people who worked in British companies disliked the British
food served by the companies, so a service was set up to bring lunch
to them in their workplace straight from their home. Nowadays,
Indian businessmen are the main customers for the dabbawalas, and
the service often includes cooking as well as delivery.

What is NMTBSA?
(Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association)

History
: Started in 1880
Charitable trust
: Registered in 1956
Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling
Total area coverage : 60 Kms
Employee Strength : 5000
Number of Tiffin's : 2,00,000 Tiffin Boxes
i.e 4,00,000 transactions every day.
Time taken
: 3 hrs

 Error Rate : 1 in 16 million transactions

Six Sigma performance (99.999999)

Technological Backup : Nil.
Cost of service - Rs. 200/month ($ 4.00/month)
Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)
Rs. 50 Cr. Turnover approx.
[200,000*200=400,000,00 p.m. i.e 48 crore p.a.]
No strike record as each one a share holder
Earnings -5000 to 6000 p.m.

DABBAWALLAS IN TRAIN COMPARTMENT

The word "Dabbawala" can be translated as "box-carrier" or "lunchpailman". In Marathi and Hindi, "dabba" means a box (usually a cylindrical
aluminium container), while "wala" means someone in a trade involving the
object mentioned in the preceding term, e.g. punkhawala with "pankha"
which means a fan and "wala" mean the person who owns the pankha (The
one with the fan).

APPROACH

DISCIPLINE :
No Alcohol Drinking during business hours
Wearing White Cap during business hours
Carry Identity Cards
WOMEN:
Mrs. Bhikhubai of Borivali(East)
Mrs. Anandibai of Andheri(East)
LATEST MARKETING STRATEGY:
Marketing message in the dabba

Case Study : TBSA

Tiffin Box Suppliers Association

How do they do it?

Organizational
structure
Operations

War against Time (10.30

1.00)
The Code

Executive Committee
(5 members)

Teams of 20-25 headed by a

group leader

Individual Dabbawalla
workload = 30 tiffins

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

The service is uninterrupted even on the days of extreme weather, such as

Mumbai's characteristic monsoons. The local dabbawalas at the receiving and
the sending ends are known to the customers personally, so that there is no
question of lack of trust. Also, they are well accustomed to the local areas they
cater to, which allows them to access any destination with ease. Occasionally,
people communicate between home and work by putting messages inside the
boxes. However, this was usually before the accessibility of
telecommunications

PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

GENERAL SECRETARY

TREASURER

DIRECTORS(19)

MUKADAM

MEMBERS(5000)

13 MEMBERS

PRESIDENT & GENERAL SECRETARY

NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION

FINANCIAL DATA OF A
GROUP
1st group
Rs 125000 Total earnings -20 People
Rs 35000 Maintenance cost
Tiffin luggage basket pass Rs 180 per person.
Maintenance of cycles Rs 300 2 cycles per month.
Maintenance of wooden boxes Rs 100 per person .
T.C , police robbery of Tiffin Rs 500 yearly.
Organizational fee Rs 15 per head.
Puja held per station Rs 50 per head.

Awards and Felicitation

Shri.Varkari Prabhodhan Mahasmati Dindi (palkhi) sohala 4th march
2001.
Invitation from CII for conference held in Bangalore.
Documentaries made by BBC ,UTV, MTV, and ZEE TV
Dabbawalla services are popular with the Indian IT developer
community in Silicon Valley, California, USA
In literature
One of the two protagonists in Salman Rushdie's controversial novel The Satanic
Verses, Gibreel Farishta, was born as Ismail Najmuddin to a dabbawallah. In the
novel, Farishta joins his father, delivering lunches all over Bombay (Mumbai) at
the age of 10, until he is taken off the streets and becomes a movie star.
Dabbawalas feature as an alibi in the Inspector Ghote novel Dead on Time.

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

LOGISTICS
Logistics is happening 24 hrs a day,7 days a week
and 52 weeks a year.
Logistical competency is achieved by coordinating
the following:

Network Design

Information
Transportation
Inventory
Warehousing

 Coding
VLP : Vile Parle
(Suburb in Mumbai)

9E12 : Code
for Dabbawallas at
Destination
E : Express Towers
(Bldg. Name)
12 : Floor No.
E : Code for
Dabbawallas at
Residential station.
3 : Code for Destination station
(E.g.. Nariman Point)

 Let us now look at an example of these codes

on the tiffins to better understand the system
and what it all denotes:

MR. RAGHUNATH MEDGE

 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.

 11:20 12:30 pm

At this stage, the unloading takes place at the

destination station
Re-arrangement of tiffins takes place as per the
destination area and destination building

 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.

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 days 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 merry
making, joking around and singing.

 3:30 4:00 pm
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 tiffins
as per the origin area

THE ROYAL VISIT:

Recently, the dabbawalas had royal company at Churchgate station. The Prince of
Wales himself had visited them when he came down to Mumbai.

He took keen interest in their way of functioning, expressed surprise at their

efficiency and was struck with awe when he was told that they didnt employ any
technology.

The prince was presented a small memento, accompanied with a garland, a Gandhi
topi and a trophy by the dabbawalas.

RICHARD BRANSON CHAIRMAN VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS MUMBAI

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Atlantic Airways,

meeting the Mumbai's famed 'Dabbawalas' at their nodal
point, the Churchgate Railway Station in South Mumbai,
on April 1, 2005.

Order Dabbawalas Products and services Online

MyDabbawalas.com developing a software application through which

the people of Mumbai can order Dabba service online through internet.
The order will be booked online and Dabba will be picked up from your
home and will be delivered to office in time. Please wait , the software
will be soon available. Meanwhile you may send us E-Mail us at
Sales@MyDabbawala.Com with your details ( name, home address ,
office address , home phone , office phone , mobile number , whether
you want dabba on Saturday) and He will contact you to start the
service.

Order through SMS

Although the service remains essentially low-tech, with the barefoot delivery boys
as the prime movers, the dabbawalas have started to embrace technology, and now
allow booking for delivery through SMS. A web site, mydabbawala.com, has also
been added to allow for on-line booking, in order to keep up with the times. An on-line
poll on the web site ensures that customer feedback is given pride of place.
The success of the system depends on teamwork and time management that would
be the envy of a modern manager. Such is the dedication and commitment of the
barely literate and barefoot delivery boys (there are only a few delivery women) who
form links in the extensive delivery chain, that there is no system of documentation at
all. A simple colour coding system doubles as an ID system for the destination and
recipient. There are no elaborate layers of management either just three layers.
Each dabbawala is also required to contribute a minimum capital in kind, in the shape
of two bicycles, a wooden crate for the tiffins, white cotton kurta-pyjamas, and the
white trademark Gandhi topi (cap). The return on capital is ensured by monthly
division of the earnings of each unit. -

Sales@MyDabbawala.Com

THANK YOU
http://www.mydabbawala.com/
Presentation : Paavan Solanki
paavans@yahoo.com