Q1. How does the dabbawala organisation achieve high service levels? What is it secret of success?

Solution: The main reasons are their FLAT organisation structure which leads to fast decision making Then their SORTING method which was making it easier for them to achieve the six sigma through coding. Error free processes and timely delivery to satisfy their customers. The other reasons are as follows: Keep extras for fault tolerance. Commitment matters, qualification doesnt. Know the implication of failure. Build your services around existing infrastructure. Abandon bad customers. Strike means suicide labour means life. Penalize employees for non-compliance. Do not transfer your employees very often. Keep your employees emotionally united. High salary alone cannot retain employees. Be humble and do not boast your success. Dabbawala Keep operational costs as low as possible. Keep capital investment bare minimum. Just serve your customer nothing else. Customer is not the Raja but Maharaja. Complexity opposes compliance. Never deviate from your core competency. Do not be over dependent on technology. Flat organization fast decision making Co-operation inside competition outside

Q2. What are the economics of the dabbawala meal distribution network? What is the business model? Is this model scalable? Solution: Economic analysis 1. Everyone gets paid about two to four thousand rupees per month. 2. More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunches get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawala. 3. Only one mistake in every 6,000,000 deliveries. 4. The New York Times reported in 2007 that the 125 year old dabbawala industry continues to grow at a rate of 5-10% per year. Business model 1. Their business model is similar to that of internet packet switching 2. The dabbas (packets) exchange 3-4 hands in one complete traverse to the customer and back to their houses. 3. They use the hub and spoke as the railway stations are the hub and the final destinations are the customer address. 4. They are working as the outsourcing company to many households to deliver the dabbas. The algorithm used is as described below: i) First, each morning the dabbawalas collect the lunchboxes from households and mark it with a unique code. ii) They all then gather at a designated location to sort the boxes and group them into carriages iii) The second dabbawala then marks the carriages to clearly specify the destination local rail station and the building address to which the dabbas have to be delivered.

iv) A third dabbawala then boards the train with the carriages and drops them at each station v) The fourth dabbawala is responsible to pick the carriages, decode the address and deliver it to the final destination. This process is reversed in the evening to deliver back the empty lunchboxes. The model is scalable as they have scope for new members to join in and as for capacity (assets) it keeps increasing as the members get with themselves 2 bicycles and a hand cart along with them when they join the clan.

Q3. Is the dabbawala meal distribution system example of world class service? If yes, then why this model is not replicated elsewhere? If no, what changes to the business model are required to achieve world class status? Solution: Yes it is an example of world class service, justified as follows:When you think of the worlds most efficient and successful performance and supply chains, what comes to mind? For many, large corporate giants like Dell, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola instantly pop into our heads. But few, if any, would think a cultural structure and meal delivery system in Mumbai, India, would be among the worlds most successful performance chains. And yet, a system based on barefoot men, public trains and simple, reusable containers in a city of some 12.5 million people is widely regarded as one of the top performance chains in the world. In fact, the 125-year-old industry using dabbawalas was recognized at the six sigma level by Forbes in 2002. More than 175,000 lunches are moved and delivered each day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas across Mumbai. Whats more impressive is that according to a recent survey, dabbawalas make less than one mistake in every 6 million deliveries. Now thats efficiency. So, what are these dabbawalas doing so right? What can larger organizations with many more resources learn from this simplistic system? A few things stand out for me:

No over-reliance on technology. Sure, the dabbawalas are now using Web technology and SMS for orders, but for the most part this is a fairly low-tech operation. It relies on trains and barefoot men. No computer chips. No social networks. Just guys busting their humps and a reliable train service. The lesson for organizations? Dont expect technology to solve your issues usually the issue has more to do with process, execution and expectations than it does bits and bytes. Create an integrated performance chain. In other words, the dabbawala system keeps its eye on the sum not the individual parts. When you boil it down to simple terms, a performance chain is really just a system of moving pieces. Focus too much on those individual pieces and you get hung up in the details and, as a result, are less efficient. Concentrate on the entire system and flow of products and information and you have a much better chance of success. Acute visibility. The beauty of the dabbawala-based system is that all of the dabbawalas understand exactly what is happening and when to the minute. If certain deadlines and hand-offs are missed, people dont eat. Its as simple as that. Make sure everyone within your chain understands what he or she needs to do, where they need to be and what needs to happen for the chain to be successful. Keep it simple. Real simple. One of the key lessons any organization can learn from the dabbawalas is the simplicity with which this system works. The

dabbawalas are intimately aware of what their customers value (food delivered on time, every day). And, just as importantly, they dont try to do anything other than that. They dont overcomplicate things. They dont add extraneous value. They simply understand what their customers want, and they focus 100 percent of their time and energy on meeting that need.

Q4. Do u agree with Medghes assessment of future of dabbawala? If yes, why? If no, what are the major issues and challenges for them? Solution: The major issues faced by the dabbawalas are as follows: 1. The wives have started to go on jobs, no more unemployed 2. The organisations have started providing their employees coupons for lunch and some have included it in their salary. 3. The railways which are the backbone of the system is getting crowded day by day and it is getting difficult for timely delivery. 4. The next generation is not willing to join the organisation as they are educated and want to do something more than just being dabbawala. 5. New fast food chains have opened up in the vicinity to office areas and people prefer it more than the homemade dabbas 6. They cannot expand their processes and services in other cities due to the infrastructure issues. 7. Other major reason is that the organisation model can be copied by any other entrepreneur in Mumbai itself giving it a strong competition.

Q5. A consultant wants to move the dabbawala system to 2st century and proposes several changes. How should Medghe respond? a. Stop the consultant immediately. b. Focus on small experiments only. c. Change the system to improve modern approaches to manage customer and logistics Solution: Medghe should go for the third option that is Change the system to improve modern approaches to manage customer and logistics Justification: To compete with the competition they have to adapt with the changing technology not as a defensive technique but a proactive move by the organisation.
When the human resources reduce technology is the last resort for the company to survive. As the sorting and coding has to be done by the database collected, which is not done as of now. Customers data is not there with the company, which will be a loss when the employees leave their jobs and no new person is ready to take up their place. Increased traffic in the city area will require planning of proper route and thus take the help of various tools like route optimization and network design.