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 : 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
(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.

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 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 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 with Ripley's believe it or
not.

Dabbawalas are mostly invited by

Meetings of Confederation of
Indian Industries ( CII).

Mahindra & Mahira - Kandivli

( Mumbai ) and Nasik.

Stanfort University delegation to

India.

Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Mumbai.

Symbiosys Management School

- Pune.

Indian School Of Business (ISB) Hyderabad.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation

Ltd.

GE Money Servicing - Hyderabad.

Global Business School- Nagpur.

Microsoft - Gurgoan.

NM Dalmia College - Mumbai.

Genpact - Hyderabad.

National Stock Exchange Mumbai.

Community of cooked food - Itly.

Accenture - 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.

Order Dabbawalas 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