Mumbai Dabbawala , case in view of Supply chain

1. Dhrubaji Mandal -Dhrubaji Mandal -

2. • A Dabbawallah is a who supplies the homemade food to the person, Also known
as Tiffinwala
• Firstly It was started in 1890 in Mumbai with 20 Dabbawallah
• Starting cost to client was 2 Anna now its Rs 250 per customer /Month
• Working in small group for a decades however in 1954 they were united Together
by forming simple cooperation .
• Later in 1956 this cooperation was officially registered as a Charitable trust under
Mumbai Tiffin box supplier charity trust
• Currently as per 2003 data no of Dabbawallah has reached to approx 5142
serving customer around 175040 .
• The Average literacy rate is 8th
Grade Schooling
• Time Taken is 3 hours

4. • Trust is cooperative body having 3 level management
• The Governing council , its president secretary –Top Level
• Mukadams ( Team leader /Supervisor) -Middle Level
• Dubbawalah’s –Lower Level
• Governing council holds meeting on 15th
of every month which
is attended by all 3 levels and here business policy and
problems are discussed .
• The Dabbawallah are in group of 20-25 Member supervised by
4 Mukadams
• Trust Collect Rs 15 from each Member to maintain welfare fund
, for which they provide various facility to its member like loan
and others

5. • Organization Turnover is about Thirty Six Crores annually
• Uninterrupted and on time service delivered even in occasions of bad weather and
transportation/traffic problems
• Dabbawalas are well used to the local areas where they are functioning and make
use of short cuts to save time
• No error in spite of lunch boxes changing hands six times
• During the working hours, they do not take a break or rest and thus no slack is
present in the system
• They do not use vehicles which require fuel which makes them 0% Fuel reliant
• They do not use any modern technology for carrying out the logistics
• There are no disputes between the employees and no presence of any union
• Unique organization with 99.99% rate of performance
• Cost of Service per lunch box is standard price for all
• Customer Satisfaction accounts 100% with utmost trust

6. • Flat Organization
• No hire and fire rule
• Community based requirement
• Sharing Common benefits , Value , ethics
• Following the strict discipline like dress code and no liquor consumption
at work
• Loyalty and trust in their monopoly
• Training provided to the new joinees
• Owner + Employee is the designation of each
• Quarterly Meetings to discuss issues

7. • The first Dabbawalas Picks up dabba from
homes and takes it to near Railway station
• The second Dabbawalas sort out the dabbas
at railway station according to their
destination and put them in luggage
carriage accordingly
• The third one travels with the dabbas to the
railway station nearest to the destination
• The Fourth one picks up dabbas from the
railway stations and drops them to each
individual office
• The Process is reversed in the evening with
each dabba completing a distance of 60 -70
KM and changing hand and time .
• Customer pay out 250 -300 for this service

8. • Surprisingly there is no use of Information systems or technology for their
Supply chain .
• A rigorous level of practice over the years has led them to follow for accurate
supply chain management and time precision
• Dabbawalas use cycles or go by foot to every household. The waiting time to
collect a lunch box is maximum 2 minutes
• Every Dabbawalas has to assemble at his/her reported collection point at
sharp 9. 30 am
• From these collection points they assemble at the nearest railway station
which is the Aggregation point
• The next mode of transport is the trains where the carriers containing lunch
boxes are transported to the destination railway stations

9. • From every Destination station the dabbas are carried over carts, cycles and
carriers to the destination zones which are given a specific number.
• From these zones, the lunch boxes are carried to the offices or workplaces
which reach by lunchtime.
• From here the reverse process of delivering the empty lunch boxes back to
homes starts.
• All through the above process, there is no slack at any point of time
• Traffic Jams, pedestrians, delays in train and signals do not stop the functioning.
• The trademark white cap wore by these Dabbawalas are known to everyone
including the police who don’t interfere in their process

12. )
CODING OF DABBAS
1-11 CHURCHGATE
12 MARINE LINES
13 GRANT Road
15 DADAR (WEST)
16 DADAR (EAST)
17 ANDHERI (EAST,
WEST)

13. • Coding System is meticulously followed in
order to avoid any mistakes involving
interchange of lunch boxes, that is, wrong Tiffin
box reaching the customer.
• As given in the above Diagram, the Coding
system can be explained as
• BVI: Borivali, a suburb in Mumbai. This denotes
the residential station
• 9 RC 14: Code for Dabbawalas at destination.
This user code is different for each customer
• RC: Raheja Chambers, name of a building or
office.
• E: Code for Dabbawalas at Destination station.
For example, E is a code for Nariman Point,
Church gate.
• Jain: Name/Surname of the customer

14. 9:30 AM- 10:30 AM 10:34AM-11:20AM 11:20-12:30PM
2:48-3:30PM 1:15 -2:30 PM 12:30 -01:00 PM
3:30-4:40PM

16. • No over-reliance on technology
• Create an integrated performance chain
• Acute visibility
• Keep it simple. Real simple
• Low Cost Delivery
• Reliability
• Low attrition rate
• Decentralization
• Suburban Railway Network

17. • Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”.
• Registered with Ripley's “ believe it or not”.
• Invited for marriage of Hon. Prince Charles of England on 9th April, 2005
• Documentary called “Dabbawalas, Mumbai's unique lunch service” by two Dutch
filmmakers in 1998.
Documentaries made by : BBC ,UTV, MTV, ZEE TV, AAJ TAK, TV TODAY, SAHARA
SAMAY, STAR TV, CNBC TV 18, CNN, SONY TV, TV TOKYO, NDTV.
Invitations from : CII for conference held in Bangalore, IIML, IIMA, CII Cochin, CII
Delhi, Dr. Reddy’s Lab Foundation Hyderabad, SCMHRD Pune, SCMHRD Nasik,
Sadahana – Pune, Rotary Club – Bangalore, NIQR at Chennai
CASE STUDY made by : ICFAI Press Hyderabad & Bangalore , Richard Ivey School of
Business – Canada. Also, Included in a subject in Graduate School of Journalism
University of California, Berkeley

18. • Team Work
• Time Management
• Innovation
• Customer Relationship Management
• Six Sigma
• Logistic & Supply Chain Management

19. • Keep operational cost as low as possible
• Keep capital investment bare minimum
• Just serve your customer nothing else
• Never deviate from your core competence
• Do not over depend on technology
• Cooperation inside, Competition outside
• Commitment matters, Qualification Doesn’t
• Know the implication of failure
• Discipline is utmost important for success

20. THANK YOU