Report

MUMBAI’S DABBAWALA
Prepared by
P. Dinesh Reddy

Abstract
The Mumbai’s Dabbawala is world renowned for its
excellence in the field of logistics. It is bestowed with six sigma
efficiency rating of 99.999999 by the Forbes global magazine. In
this article we study briefly about the history, working and also the
factors that led to the success of the Dabbawala.
Introduction
It was 1st of April 2005; Raghunath Medge the
president of Dabbawala received a call from British Deputy High
Commission-Mumbai bearing a message of invitation to two of
the dabbawalas to the marriage of prince Charles of England.
There were only three Indians invited to this wedding and among
them two of them were the dabbawalas such was the liking of
Prince Charles towards them for their excellence. The story of the
Dabbawalas dates back to the time when Mumbai was made up
of seven islands and only three or four villages, when the railway
network had not yet formed its complex web, when India was still
governed by the British. At that time in 1890, Mahadeo Havaji
Bachche from a small village near Pune came to Mumbai to earn a
living. A Parsi banker then employed him to have home cooked be
delivered to him every day at his work place. His colleagues too
liked this idea and started availing this service. Havaji Bachche
recognized the need and took the opportunity to start a delivery
service with a group of 100 people and which developed into
present day strong Dabbawala system.
The NMTBSA
The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association
became a registered organization only in the year 1956. However,
its rules and regulations were defined from its very inception. The
Mumbai’s Dabbawala is operated by a group of 5000 individuals
organized in the form of a cooperative system, delivering 2,00,000
lunch boxes from home to customer’s location with a minimal
error rate. The dabbawala is an outstanding example of excellence
in service delivery. The current president Raghunath Medge had a
crucial rule in this excellence. The dabbawalas have mastered the
management principles with very little formal education. The
average literacy rate of dabbawlas is 8th grade schooling. The
dabbawalas have dress code which includes a white outfit with a
Gandhi cap so as to stand out among the crowd of Mumbai.
People identify the dabbawalas with this dress code and
cooperate with them. Dabbawalas cover a total distance of 60 to
70kms in the Mumbai city. The cost to avail their service is also
very low which is about 600 to 1000 per month depending upon
the distance covered by the dabbawala to deliver the lunch box.
The dabbawalas are all paid of equally .Their salary is about Rs
8000 per month. Even the higher ups in the organization work and
are paid the same. It’s an example of a perfect socialist
organization where everyone is equal. The dabbawalas carry
about 30 to 40 dabbas on their heads or on a bicycle or by a crate.

Limelight
Until recently, the dabbawalas of Mumbai were ignored
and neglected. It is only when Prince Charles called them
‘amazing!’ that people realized true worth and admirable
achievements of the dabbawalas of ‘NMTBSA’. It all started
with the world famous Forbes business magazine bestowing
the prestigious ‘Six Sigma Plus’ performance rating for the
precision of the dabbawalas of Mumbai. This placed them in
league of giant companies such as Motorola and GE. The
reputed BBC made a film on them. Prince Charles watched this
film on BBC and was enthralled. It aroused his curiosity about
this incredible organization.
The illiterate dabbawalas accurately interpret the
symbols marked on the tiffin boxes. These tiffin boxes are then
transported across vast city of Mumbai unerringly reach the
correct person. There occurs an error once in every 6,00,000
transactions. The dabbawalas had made entry into the
Guinness Book of World Records. Several management
students in India prepare projects and case studies on the
dabbawalas of Mumbai.
Standard Operating Procedure
 A dabbawala reports to the work at around 9AM and
starts collecting lunch boxes from residential area one by one.
He takes them to the nearest railway station and sorting of the
lunch boxes takes at the originating station based on the
destinations. Then they load the lunch boxes in set carts to sub
urban train either for a hub or final destination. Resorting of
lunch boxes to the final destination and transfer to final
destination by happens by using rail network. They unload and
rearrange lunch boxes based final delivery location as they
reach the destination station. Then they load them onto special
carts or bicycles and transfer to the final location. The process
reverses in the afternoon. Collection of empty lunch boxes
begins at about 1:30 PM. And the entire process of journey is
repeated in reverse order and the box is delivered again at the
household before 5PM. This ends the daily operations of a
dabbawala. The dabbawalas should be capable of carrying a
load of 100kgs manually on their head and walk 2.5kms
effortlessly. The work hours are between 8:30 AM to 5 PM with
an appropriate rest period of 21/2 hours. The sorting and
loading operations need care and they are time bound. They
are carried out in public places which are usually congested.
Even in such havoc they do their service with negligible number
of transactional errors.
The Dabba Coding System
Now we see another aspect of dabbawala which
fascinate everyone, that is the symbols used to mark the tiffins.
There have been several changes during the past 125 years in
the coding system used to identify the tiffins. Initially, coloured
threads were used to distinguish the tiffins, later shapes like
triangles and circles or horizontal or vertical lines were used.
But today, they use English alphabet and numbers and a colour
coding system to identify the tiffins. The dabbawala who has
studied on an average only up to eighth grade can read these
English alphabets and all of them can decode the symbols to
understand the origin and destination of every tiffin box. A
particular colour is accorded to every group in every area. So
for example, green indicates Medge group in Vile Parle and
yellow indicates Chaudhary group. But the colour indicates only
the origin, or the place from where the tiffin is picked up. The
rest of the symbols are common for the entire Mumbai city. Let
us see how to decode the symbols:

‘ The origin code is in green so it means that

a dabbawala from the Medge group will pick up the tiffin.
E- Hanuman Road
VLP- Vile Parle
3- Churchgate
9E12- 8 indicates that dabbawala number nine will pick up this
tiffin at Churchgate station, E indicates that it has to be
delivered to the Express Towers building and 12 indicates the
floor on which the office is located.
The dabbawala who has rigorously trained does all this
without any problem or mistake. But there are two essential
rules which have to be strictly followed: discipline and time
management. The dabbawala is punctual about picking up the
tiffin box and the clients cooperate and make sure the box
ready by the pick up time.

Time Management
Always a buffer of 2 to 3 dabbawala exists in each
group. Dabbawala is trained to handle all the activities in the
system. Activities include collection, sorting, transportation,
finance, customer care etc. this helps dabbawalas to be flexible
and can take up any role in organization. Raghunath Medge the
current president of NMTBSA has introduced the record sheet
for time management. These records had to be filled by
dabbawala every day. When was the dabba picked up, when
was it loaded on to the train, when had it reached the
customer, when was it returned , all these are entered daily.
This allows to pick out an error. This helps in ensuring the
activities are performed in stipulated time.
Organizational Structure
The organizational structure includes president at the
top then the vice president, general secretary, treasurer,
directors follow him next and they all add up to 13 members
with 9 of them being directors. Then there 5000 dabbawalas
divided into groups headed by a Mukadam and these
Mukadams are headed by directors. The planning is centralized
and execution is decentralized. The dabbawalas are vested with
complete powers when comes to execution. Dabbawalas
operate in group of 25-30 headed by Mukadam. Everyone is a
share holder in the organization. The dabbawalas are perfect
example of a socialist organization where everyone is equal and
has an equal share of things. Even the president and other high
ups work as everyone. Mini organizational meets happen evry
month to help, guide and sort differences.
Characteristics Of Dabbawala
Important characteristic is the chain like system of
transport that they follow and. Over the years they have
managed to perfect this relay system and its time-work-speed
ratio. ‘Work is God’ has always been their motto and it is
undoubtedly a key factor in their success. In dabbawals’ words:
‘Ours is one of the rare professions in this world in
which there is:
No technology
No fuel
No investment
No dispute
No strike
No RTO rules and regulations
There are so many “nos” in our profession. There is however
one big “yes” and that is our clients 100 percent satisfaction’.
Raghunath Medge and his members drew strict rules regarding
customer care an respect:
  The customer should always be treated with courtesy and
respect
 The customer should be dissuaded from using costly tiffin
boxes
 Except in rare cases, the tiffin box should always reach the
customer on time
 If a tiffin box was lost during transport, half the cost should
be borne by the concerned dabbawala.
Each dabbawala was given a written copy of these rules and he
had to keep them in his record book.
Recognition and Accolades
 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.
 In 1998, Forbes Global magazine, conducted a quality
assurance study on their operations and gave it a six sigma
efficiency rating of 99.999999.
 ISO 9001:2000 certified by the Joint Accreditation System
of Australia and New Zealand.
 In 2005, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad)
featured a case study on the Mumbai Dabbawalas.
 Mumbai’s Dabbawala has been a subject of case study of
Harvard Business School.
References
 Mumbai’s Models of Service Excellence: Case study of HBS
( by Stefan Thomke).
 World Class Logistic Operations The Case of Bombay
Dabbawallahs: Case study of IIM Ahmedabad (by
N. Ravicahandran).
 MUMBAIS DABBAWALA : A book by Shobha Bondre
 Mumbaidabbawala.in
 Mumbai’s dabbawala go online : An article by Manasi
Deshpande in The Hindu
 Mumbai’s dabbawala go high tech : An article in
physorg.com
 The Best Logistics Organization In India Uses No
Technology And A Mostly Illiterate Workforce : An article
by Peter High in the forbes.com