The Dabbawala

System: On-Time
Delivery, Every Time
Presented by,
Group-3
Service Marketing (2012-2016)
May 16th, 2016

Who is dabbawala?

A person with a box

Supplies the house made food to the person

carrying in the lunchboxes

Also known as tiffinwala, tiffin supplier or

annadata.

NMTBSA

Started in 1890 under British rule

Registered in a charitable trust in 1956 under

as Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier (NMTBSA)

Education: 85% illiterate

Total Area Coverage: 60-70 kms

Employees: 5000

Transaction per day: 260000 dabbas

Time taken: 3 hours

Supply Chain

Pick up from residence and bring it to train station

Journey in local train

Uploading and sorting at destination station

Delivery to respective customer

Collection of empty dabba

Sorting at destination stations

Returning dabba

Work System

5000 dabbawalas with workload of 35

lunchbox each

Group of 25 members each roughly 200

groups

Each group assigned leader

Group Autonomy

Groups assigned different destination to

receive lunch box and deliver

Charge: IRs. 600-1000 per month per client

Achievements

Six Sigma Certification by Forbes group

Rough estimation of 1 error in 16 million

transactions

ISO 9001:2000 Certification

Outstanding service organization awards by

NIQR (National Institution for Quality and
Reliability)

Best time management record holder

Documentaries (BBC, MTV, TV Tokyo etc.)

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths

Simplicity in organization with innovative

service

Coordination, team spirit and time

management

Low operating cost

Customer satisfaction

Weakness

High dependability on local trains

Funds for association

Limited access to education

Opportunity

Tie up with caterers to serve variety of meals

Opportunity of expansion of service in

Mumbai metro

Booking of services through internet and SMS

recently started

Threats

Indirect threats from fast food chain and

hotels

Catering services offering tiffin service

Food court at malls

Success Factors

Low cost delivery

Delivery reliability

Decentralization

Perceived quality

Customer relationship

Discipline

principles

CASE ANALYSIS

Dabbawala service a great example of

remarkable service performance

Able to achieve high and extraordinary results

from ordinary people

4 major pillars: the forces behind exceptional

service delivery
1.
2.
3.
4.

Organization
Management
Process
Culture

Organization

Transportation train system

All employees as entrepreneurs

High level of autonomy in each groups

Management committee sets broad guidelines

Flat, little hierarchy

1 leader supervise 25-30 members in a

group

Management

Daily meetings and customer interactions

Tacit knowledge fills system gaps ( return

address)

Same compensation for all members

Self organized democracy

Accountability

Homogeneity among members

Process

Coding system

Hub and spoke material flow

Strict standards and flexibility

Process checks built into system

Buffers for variability

Culture

They dont eat until all consumers have their

lunch

Deep commitments (food is like medicine)

Trust among team members

religion

X Factor

Crystal Clear mission, never deviate

Simplicity everywhere

No technology

Focus on consumer, not business

Lesson from Mumbai

Dabbawala

Keep operational cost minimum

Minimum capital investment

Serve only the customer

Complexities opposes compliance

Do not be over dependent on technology

Cooperation

Commitment matters not qualifications

Thank you