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 is NMTBSA?
(Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers
Association)

History : Started in 1880
Charitable trust : Registered in 1956
Avg. Literacy Rate : 8
th
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)
MEMBERS(5000)
MUKADAM
Executive Committee
(5 members)
Teams of 20-25 headed
by a group leader
Individual Dabbawalla
workload = 30 tiffins
1
st
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.
FINANCIAL DATA OF A GROUP
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)
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.
2:00 2:30 pm
The group members meet for the segregation as per
the destination suburb.

RETURN JOURNEY:

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

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 4
th

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 with Ripley's believe it or
not.

Dabbawalas are mostly invited by
Mahindra & Mahira - Kandivli (
Mumbai ) and Nasik.

Sandoz Pharmaceuticals -
Mumbai.

Indian School Of Business (ISB)
- Hyderabad.

GE Money Servicing - Hyderabad.

Microsoft - Gurgoan.

Genpact - Hyderabad.

Community of cooked food - Itly.

Accenture - Mumbai.

Meetings of Confederation of
Indian Industries ( CII).

Stanfort University delegation to
India.

Symbiosys Management School
- Pune.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Ltd.

Global Business School-
Nagpur.

NM Dalmia College - Mumbai.

National Stock Exchange -
Mumbai.

Reserve Bank Of India.


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.
Booking for delivery through SMS


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