The Wonder of Mumbai Dabbawallas

Inspiration of Management
 Introduction
• A dabbawala (one who carries the box ),
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.

• The dabbawala originated in 1880, when India

was under British rule.

• Mission of the Dabbawalas is “to server their

customers on time”
 PRESIDENT & GENERAL SECRETARY
NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION

Raghunath Medge And Mr. Gangaram Laxman

Taleker
 What isNMTBSA ?
(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
 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

GENERAL SECRETARY

TREASURER

DIRECTORS(19)

MUKADAM

MEMBERS(5000)
 Executive Committee
(5 members)

Teams of 20-25 headed by

a group leader

Individual Dabbawalla
workload = 30 tiffins
 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, Robbery of
Tiffin - Rs 500 yearly. Organizational fees - Rs 15
per head. Puja held per station -
Rs 50 per head.
• Coding
VLP : Vile Parle VLP
(Suburb in Mumbai)

9E12 : Code

9
for Dabbawallas at
Destination

E
E : Express Towers E

1
3
(Bldg. Name)

2
12 : Floor No.

E : Code for
Dabbawallas at
Residential station.

3 : Code for Destination station

(E.g.. Nariman Point)
Journey

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.
11:20 – 12:30 pm

•Re-arrangement of tiffins takes place as per

the destination area and destination
building
• 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 day’s routine of dispatching and
collecting from various destination offices

• 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
 Michael Porter's Five Forces Theory at work. 
These are as follows:
 Threat of new entrants
 Current competition
 Bargaining power of
buyers
Bargaining power of sellers
Threat of a new substitute
product or service
 Dabbawala Methodology

Operational Motto “Error is horror “

DISCIPLINE:
 No Alcohol Drinking during business hour
 Wearing Gandhi Cap during business hours
 Carry Identity Cards
 What we learnt

 Supply chain logistics and efficient reverse

logistics
 The concept of Multi-level coding
 Time Management
 Customer Relationship Management
 Customer Satisfaction
 Cost effectiveness
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.
 Awards and Felicitation
Forbes Global magazine to award its Six Sigma
certification in 2001
ISO and many other certificates
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
 Some Achievements

• World record in Best Time management.

• Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World

Records”.

• Registered withRipley's “ believe it or not”.

 Dabbawalas are mostly invited by
• Meetings of Confederation of • Mahindra & Mahira - Kandivli (
Indian Industries ( CII). Mumbai ) and Nasik.

• Stanfort University delegation to • Sandoz Pharmaceuticals - Mumbai.

India.
• Indian School Of Business (ISB) -
• Symbiosys Management School - Hyderabad.
Pune.
• GE Money Servicing - Hyderabad.
• Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
• Microsoft - Gurgoan.
• Global Business School- Nagpur.
• Genpact - Hyderabad.
• NM Dalmia College - Mumbai.
• Community of cooked food - Itly.
• National Stock Exchange -
Mumbai. • Accenture - Mumbai.
• Reserve Bank Of India.
 THE ROYAL VISIT:

• Recently, the dabbawala’s 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 didn’t
employ any technology.

• The prince was presented a small memento, accompanied with a garland,

a Gandhitopi 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 Dabbawala’s services Online

 Booking for delivery through SMS

mydabbawala.com website is developing a

software application for on-line booking
 THANK YOU

Presented By
Rashmi Patil Roll No:13
Dhanashree Mane Roll No:29
Sheetal Shewale Roll No:57