Daba Wala 100 Marks - by ASIF AGHADI

Dabbawalla’s: Simply Complex
Executive Summary
The Mumbai Dabbawalla’s operation .is widely recognized as an outstanding

example of excellence in Logistics. It is often quoted as a standard example of six
sigma implementation in the Indian context Because of its popularity Prince Charles
of the United Kingdom paid a visit to the operations site during his official visit to
India in 2003. In this project we study in detail the nature and content of this system,
critically examine its salient features and analyze the possibility of extending the
system to similar or related domains.
The central theme of this project is to present a detailed analysis of Mumbai
Dabbawalla’s Operations from a management perspective. Dabbawalla’s is a home
grown model, conceived, developed and perfected by a group of individuals who
have very little or no formal education in the area of Logistics. Dabbawalla’s is
operated by a group of 5000 individualsorganized in the form of a cooperative,
delivering everyday 150,000 lunch boxes from home to customer locations in
Mumbai with negligible error rate. Dabbawalla’s is recognized as an outstanding
example of excellence in service delivery. Dabbawalla’s is the most talked about
Indian example of excellence in logistics
Several academic institutions routinely invite the Mumbai Dabbawalla
representatives to make formal presentations in their campus to complement and
enhance their academic content of their respective programmes. Often, senior
management meetings find it useful to have a presentation on Dabbawalla’s to
illustrate the applicability of six sigma in Indian context and inspire managers to
adopt and practice world class systems. The popular business press has been
publishing material on Dabbawalla’s from time to
time. The Forbes journal had an article on Dabbawalla’s. Recently the Alliance Air
Official In-flight Magazine had an article on Dabbawalla’s. Top ranking management
schools have documented Dabbawalla’s as case material for teaching purposes.
Prince Charles of United Kingdom, as a mark of appreciation visited the Mumbai
Dabbawalla’s' work location during his visit to Mumbai in 2003
1
The purpose of this project is to present the details of Dabbawalla’s and explore the
distinguishing features of it from other world class systems. The secondary purpose
is to conceptualize the broad management principles (in Dabbawalla’s) which may
have universal application.
In this Project, I am trying to provide a detailed analysis of the content, context, and
decisions made by Mumbai Dabbawalla’s' in managing Dabbawalla’s effectively. I
am trying to provide a balanced perspective on Dabbawalla’s features. As a
consequence of this discussion, I hope academicians; managers and students would
not only develop a perspective on Dabbawalla’s, but also see the essentials of the
system and its inherent potential and limitations in its replication to other contexts.
The project is organized in three sections. In the first section, the standard operating
procedures, basic statistics and information on Dabbawalla’s is presented. The first
section details the logic, the distinguishing features of Dabbawalla’s and its growth
options. The second section summarizes some of the best management practices in
Dabbawalla’s and draws some meaningful insights in managing such a large service
model. And the third section provides the annexure and Bibliography
2
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This is a story of a conventional Indian system of management that is today a

favourite case study among management institutions for a simple reason that it
doesn’t use any technology and yet outperforms most organizations in operating
efficiency. To the extent that bit received a six-sigma rating from Forbes
international. Its history dates back to 1980….
MUMBAI, The city of dreams and ambitions. The city of explorers and wildcatters.
The city that had always been on the fast track. Here, success happens purely on
merit. TheBritish had developed the basic infrastructure of roads, railways and
buildings for Bombay. At that time, the prime business centres were fort and Ballard
pier areas. These were the houses of banks, government departments, insurance
houses, shipping companies and other industrial head offices. Soon, the residential
colonies move away from fort and hence, a lot of Parsis, Christians and Europeans
started finding it difficult to go home for their lunch from work. Carrying lunch boxes
was also not a preferred routine for them since they didn’t like having cold meals.
In 1980, a Parsi banker working in Ballad Pier employed a young man who came
down from Poona district to fetch his lunch everyday. Business picked up through
referrals and soon our pioneer dabba -carrying entrepreneur had to call for more
helping hands from his village. This reinforcement led to the unleashing of an army
that even today, in the 21st century, serves millions of Mumbaites with the same spirit
and competence.
Such was the origin of the dabbawalla. This Tiffin carrier guy picks up the lunch box
in the morning and delivers it on time to the place of work, wherever in Mumbai that
is, and delivers it back to the residence at a very economical price. However trivial
the task may sound nevertheless, it is of vital importance since havoc is caused if the
client has to skip his home cooked food or worse, carry the Tiffin in the ever so
crowded Mumbai local trains and that too during the Rush Hour!
4500 dabbawalla’s across Mumbai coordinate with each other for picking up and
delivering the tiffins for over 1,75,000 mumbaites everyday in a 3 hour period,
through60 kms of public transport. In fact, the modes of transportsimply include the
3
local trains, bicycles and hand carts. Of course, It is rare that a Tiffin may miss being
on its owner’s lunch table at the lunch hour
The organization is really a marvel because it achieves a high level of efficiency and
performance without any documentation, without computers and without an
educational work force. Yet they are the ultimate practitioners of logistic
management. They have been practicing hub and spoke system, just-in-time tactics,
no inventory policy and supply chain management principles even before these
terms were even coined! ! ! Leaving thefts apart, these dabbawalla’s make a mistake
only one every two months. I.e. one error in every 8 million deliveries, making it one
of a kind ‘Six Sigma’ supply chainin India. The six sigma principle was devised by
Motorola for rating operational efficiency in terms of the number of errors that occur
in a series of transactions or activities. In case of dabbawalla’s, one error occurs in
every 6 million transactions!! This puts it at par with the likes of Motorola and G.E.
such efficiency is marveled by various organizations and institutions across the
globe. Most organizations and enterprise would only aspire to be at this level of
efficiency that the dabbawalla’s operate on The organization works on a ‘Work is
Worship’ philosophy, which is the traditionalIndian practice. They respect food and
therefore, there is no misuse of food, timely delivery is important because it is an
individual’s basic need for food at that time. The dabbawalla’s have never gone on a
strike since they went into business! Thus, for all of the above reasons, the
community of businessmen, workers, employees and students know the
dabbawalla’s as their fuel suppliers.
As it is popularly said in Mumbai, ‘If the local train is the lifeline of the city then the
dabbawalla’s are the food line’. But there are a lot of aspects that need to be known
about the dabbawalla’s, in order to find out why they are so important as a case
study in management schools and as a unique traditional system of Indian
management which has to be given its due recognition. Therefore, let us now take
upon each of these aspects of this process.
4
CHAPTER 2
HISTORY OF THE DABBAWALLA’S
The dabbawalla service had begun informally in Mumbai. According to Raghunath

Medge: A Parsi banker working in Ballad Pier employed a young man who came
down from Poona district to fetch his lunch everyday. Business picked up through
referrals and soon our pioneer dabba-carrying entrepreneur had to call for more
helping hands from his village. Such was the origin of dabbawalla’s.
However trivial the task may sound it is of vital importance since havoc is caused if
the client has to skip his home-cooked meal or worse, carry his on dabba in theever
so crowded Mumbai trains during the rush hour.
By the early 20th century, people from all part of India were migrating to Mumbai in
large numbers. Once they found a source of livelihood and settled down they wanted
home cooked food at their workplace. Home-cooked food had a comfort level for
various reasons. First, the food was cooked in the ambience of a domestic kitchen,
with recipes that were tried and tested, and that resulted in familiar fare. Second,
home-cooked food was comparatively inexpensive. The dabbawalla’s were initially
charging two annas per dabba for their delivery service.
Working independently and in small group for decades, the dabbawalla’s had united
in 1954 to put together a rudimentary co-operative. This umbrella organization
was officially registered in 1956 as a charitable trust under the name Nutan Mumbai
Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust. At that time, some of the dabbawalla’s employed
delivery boys to carry their dabba’s and transport them along the routes on bicycles
and push carts. These dabbawalla’s would collect the fees from their clients and pay
the delivery boys whatever they could negotiate with them. This changed in 1983
when the trust adopted anowner-partner system. Under this new system, the practice
of subcontracting was dispensed with and dabbawalla’s started to receive equal
earnings. The delivery boys system was converting into an apprenticeship system
wherein new recruits were trained for at least two to three years on a fixed
remuneration before they became full time dabbawalla’s. By 2003, more than 5,000
5
dabbawalla’s worked under aegis of the trust. Together they delivered about 175,000
lunched daily in Mumbai. They served a total area that covered approximately Rs
380 million per annum. Given the two way route for each dabba, the number of
deliveries worked out to more than 350,000 per day. Despite the sheer number of
daily deliveries, the failure rate reported by the media numbered one in two months,
or
one in every 15 million deliveries
6
CHAPTER 3
THE NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS CHARITY TRUST
The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association is a streamlined 120-year-old

organization with 4,500 semi-literate members providing a quality door-to-door
service to a large and loyal customer base.The Trust was responsible for managing
the overall meal delivery system. it worked in close co-ordination with the Mumbai
Tiffin Box Suppliers Association, a forum that provided opportunities for social
interactions among the dabbawalla’s and the Dakkhan Mavle Sahakari Patpedhi, a
credit union that catered to the financial needs of individual dabbawalla’s
by providing personal loans. Given its charitable trust status, the Trust was also
involved in community initiatives by providing free food and accommodation to low-
income families at some pilgrimages centers.
The Trust had a three-tier structure Executive Committee, Mukadams and
dabbawalla’s. Under this structure, the basic operating unit was the team. Each
team, which comprised between five and eight dabbawalla’s, was headed by a
Mukadam. Having risen from the ranks of the dabbawalla’s, a Mukadam’s primary
daily responsibility involved the sorting of the dabba’s. However as team leader the
Mukadam performed several administrative tasks that included maintaining records
of client payments, arbitrating disputes between dabbawalla’s and customers, and
apprentice training. The Mukadam was also in charge of acquiring new clients for the
team and managing customer satisfaction. New customers purchased their dabba’s
7
from the dabbawalla’s when service was commenced. Dabba’s Mwere typically
replaced at cost to the customer once every two years.
Seven to eight Mukadams aggregated their efforts and constituted a profit centre,
eachprofit centre was referred to as a “group.” There were about 120 groups in total.
While each group was managed autonomously, its members stepped in
withouthesitation to help other groups in dealing with emergencies such as
dabbawalla absenteeism. Monthly group maintenance costs totalled Rs.35000/,
covering the maintenance of the bicycles, push carts and wooden boxes the
dabbawalla’s used in their daily deliveries. The 13 members of the Executive
Committee, which was elected by the general body every 5 years, coordinated the
activities of the various work groups. The Committee, which undertook all major
decisions for the trust and worked on the principles specified in the Cooperative
Societies Act, met on the 15th of each month. Operational issues typically dominated
each meetings agenda. Examples of such issues included disputes with the Mumbai
city railways over dabbawalla’s not carrying their monthl passes or the ID issued to
them by the Trust, and with the city police when dabbawalla’s parked their push carts
or bicycles where parking was not permitted. Annually there were few reports of lost
or stolen dabba’s. In such instances clients were reimbursed by the individual
dabbawalla’s or given a free dabba.
8
CHAPTER 4
WHO IS THE DABBAWALLA?
The dabbawalla’s were a homogenous group in many ways. Its members,

traditionally male, hailed from the same geographical region – known as Mavla –
located east of the Sahyadri near Pune, and they spoke the same language
(Marathi). They shared similar customs and traditions, such as gathering together for
a week every April for a festival in their hometown. They wore the same dress, a
loose white dhoti shirt, cotton pyjamas and their trademark white oval cap
All of these combined to form a distinct local identity for the dabbawalla’s. They were
easily recognized even in the busiest of locations. Pedestrians and commuters
yielded to the dabbawalla’s in order not to interfere with their service delivery.
Seemingly always in a rush the dabbawalla’s were known for their reliability and work
ethic. They ascribed to the traditional Indian belief that “work is workshop”. Averaging
55 years in age, dabbawalla’s were typically lean, active and physically fit. While the
minimum level of education was Grade 7 most never got past Grade 8 schooling.
Each dabbawalla earned a monthly income between Rs.5000 and 6000. Out of this
income each dabbawalla was responsible for paying:
• Rs.120 for monthly railway pass that allowed them unlimited access to
Mumbai’s railways.
• Rs.60 for the maintenance of the bicycle or the push cart and
• The compulsory monthly contribution of Rs.15 to the Trust.
9
“It is a good earning for a semi-literate by Indian standards,” observed Medge.

"Farming earns a pittance, compelling us to move to the city. And the Tiffin service is
a business of repute since we are not working under anyone. It's our own business,
we are partners, it confers a higher status in society," says Sambhaji, another
dabbawala. "We earn more than many padha-likha (educated) graduates," says
Khengle.
Each new recruit would undergo an apprenticeship for 2 years and a fixed
remuneration of Rs.2000 per month. Each apprentice was then required to purchase
a delivery route Mbefore being admitted as a dabbawalla. The price was the route
was fixed as a ratio for the average monthly earnings of the group at 1:7. For
instance, most groups’ monthly earnings were approximately Rs.1, 40,000, so the
apprentice was expected to deposit Rs.20, 000 for a delivery route. This money went
to the Shared Capital of the Trust and would be returned to the dabbawalla upon
retirement. Once admitted, the dabbawalla was guaranteed a monthly income and a
job for life.
INTRODUCTION OF A NEW MEMBER:

• The village address and other details are taken and then the membership to
the association and bank is granted.
• Two guarantors from the group are required. Usually, they are the senior
members of the group.
• The new member is paid a fixed amount of Rs. 2000 for the first 6-7 months
till he is completely trained for handling his own business. (These people are
from thevillages and therefore take considerable time in adjusting to the city
life andsystems).
• Lastly, when joining the group, the new comer has to contribute to the
capital of the association in a 1:7 ratio of the group's average monthly
earnings. That means that the new entrant must contribute Rs.5000 as
capital if his group's-average monthly earnings are Rs.35000.
• There is a belief in religious neutrality and therefore, people of all castes are
10
welcome to join, nevertheless, most of the dabbawalla’s still remain

Maharashtrians and a small proportion is Rajasthanis.
WOMAN IN BUSINESS
Working shoulder to shoulder with the men are the female folk, affectionately called
"Moushi". If woman can work as engine drivers, bus drivers or as senior executives
in the corporate world, there is nothing that can stop them from working in this
profession too.
Although there are just two women compared to male dabbawalla’s numbering
around 4,500 they are for certain. One of these women works with her husband in
this profession and then at the end of the day also carries out the household chores.
With such a hard life for twenty years, she feels pride to own her own house.
The other member carries 18 tiffins everyday!! Her husband had returned to the
village after succumbing to hardships of Mumbai life. But she went on in this city and
is now earning her livelihood owing to this profession. Thus, the dabbawalla
association ensures that woman too get their equal right for contributing to their
family’s or individual incomes.
The quintessential aspect of this organization is that nobody is an employer and
none are employees. Each dabbawalla is a businessman by himself and they all are
‘partners’. The association just facilitates the coordination among these small groups.
This is also acharacteristic of logistical operations where co-ordination among
various factors of production and operation is of prime importance.
The annual turnover of this business is Rs. 50 Crores!!
Woman in business
• Mrs. Bhikhubai of Kandivali
• Mrs. Anandibai of Borivali
• Mrs. Parvatabai of Karale (Ghatkopar)
• Mrs. Laxmibai Bagade of Santa Cruz
CHAPTER 5
11
ORGANIZATION
In 1890, when the dabbawalla’s actually began their services, there was no umbrella
organization then. The fist attempt to unionize was made by Mahadev bacche in
1930. The carriers started collecting one Anna each per month and the funds were
used to build an inn at Bhumashankar, Maharashtra. A charitable trust was
registered in 1956 under the name of ‘Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust’.
Today every carrier contributes Rs.15 per month towards the Trust. The commercial
arm of this trust was registered later in 1968 as ‘Mumbai Tiffin Box Carriers
Association’. Just like old times, recruitment is essentially done through word of
mouth and from neighbouring towns and villages inwestern Maharashtra including
Junnar, Ambegaon, Khed, Maval, Mulshi, Akola, Rajguru nagar, etc.
The recruitment policy is such that even before a new recruit leaves his hometown
for Mumbai, his area of operation and remuneration are decided. The whole system
operates as a loose cooperative, and with customer satisfaction levels so high,
there’s little need for a rigid operating structure. The essence lies in its simplicity.
The Nutan trust is the apex body representing the dabbawalla’s. It is trim hierarchy
with
three tiers
• THE GOVERNING COUNCIL
• THE DABBAWALLA’S THEMSELVES
• THE MUKKADAMS OR TEAM LEADERS
REMAINIG TREE DIAGRAM

THE GOVERNING COUNCIL
The Governing Council is a 13 member body, for which elections are held once
every 5 years. The committee works on the guidelines of the ‘Cooperatives Societies
Act’. With Mr. Raghunath D. Medge as the president, the committee includes the
vice president, General Secretary, Treasurer and 9 Directors.
The president of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust and Association
12
heads the association followed by the Vice President, both of them are responsible
for taking monthly meetings, checking bank accounts and solving problems of the
members. This is followed by the General Secretary who looks into the daily matters
of the Association like drafting letters, Making Vouchers, Collecting Rs. 15 as a fee of
the Trust etc. then the treasurer who looks into the accounts of the Trust. The 9
directors in all help the president in decision-making and also the smooth functioning
of the Trust
. There are no internal disputes that can lead to unrest in the organization. This great
coordination enables great work efficiency and simpler decision making. A simple
reason why the organization can sustain with its trim structure is because each
dabbawalla is an individual businessman.
THE MUKADAM’S
A Mukadam is the team leader for a group of 25-30 group members. Although his
key responsibility is sorting the tiffins, he plays a crucial role in settling disputes,
maintaining records of payments and receipts of members of his group and getting
new clientele. Another Key function of a Mukadam is to ensure consumer
satisfaction. He is generally chosen as the leader on the basis of his experience and
skill.
THE DABBAWALLA’S
Each dabbawala is a businessman himself. Therefore, each one has to find out his
own
way to maximize a sustainable business. The system has adopted the Strategic
Business Units (SBU) concept way before it was even introduced by Peter Drucker.
The entire system is highly decentralized
• The dabbawalla’s operate in groups of roughly 15-25 members each
carrying around 30-35 tiffins. However there are dabbawalla’s that operate
individually too. Around 120 groups registered. All groups are independent
of each other as far as money matters are concerned.
• Each group is responsible to generate money for all its needs and day to
day functioning. The rationale of developing such a system is to improve
thecompetitiveness of the system. This system has adopted the Strategic
13
Business Unit (SBU) concept, way before it was introduced by Peter

Drucker.
• In the association’s code or ethics, no dabbawalla is allowed to undercut or
outsmart the other. However groups can coordinate among themselves to
get new clients. This is the uniqueness of this competitive collaboration.
There is unity at the delivery end, which leads to perfect cutting-edge
performance by each dabbawalla.
• Some groups also have this understanding that when any one of the
members gets a new Tiffin business, he treats the others on that day. This is
an informal gestureof course and there is no compulsion.
• Another remarkable advantage of this group system is that there is a backup
system for absentees. If any member abstains from duty on a certain day,
another member will always be there to collect and deliver the tiffins on the
absentees’ behalf. “We work like a cricket team; if any of the members gets
injured we have a substitute for him. Like any team we have a substitute
player in our group” says Raghunath Medge.
• As far as social activities are concerned, each group of the individual
systems contributes Rs. 50 per member for the yearly pooja that is held in
their area.
• Each group is financially self-sufficient. Each group pools in the collections,
distributes and equally shares the monthly spoils amounting to Rs. 5000 to
Rs. 6000 per person.
E.g. If there is a group of 10 members with varying individual monthly incomes
that range from 3000 to 7000 adding upto a total of 40000, then the collections
are pooled together and then divided equally among all members. Thus, each
member will eventually get Rs. 4000 per month in that group. Out of these, Rs.
15 per person goes towards the mandal as welfare fund of the trust.
CHAPTER 6
14
RULES AND POLICIES

An important feature of the dabbawalla’s service is customer satisfaction. (Also,
the ultimate objective of any logistical operation) Keeping in line with this
objective, all problems are usually resolved by the Association's officials.
• Like, in cases of theft or loss of a Tiffin-box, if any carrier is found guilty
then thclient is allowed to deduct the costs from the dabbawalla's
charges for thesubsequent month. If a client receives improper services
by any dabbawalla, for which a complaint has been made to the
association; that particular dabbawala will be directed to end his services
with that client and another dabbawala will be allotted to the client. In this
manner, no future disputes between that client and the dabbawalla will
arise and with the allocation of another dabbawala in his place, the client
will also receive continuous and efficient service. Thus leading to greater
customer satisfaction,
• The association also has the responsibility of handling all the internal
disputes. Apart from discouraging undercutting between two
dabbawalla’s, the association has to handle all kinds of disputes arising
between two dabbawalla’s. For this reason, the association charges Rs.
100-200/- before looking into the complaint.
• This is done to ensure that the official’s time is not wasted on any petty
disputes. A meeting is convened on the 15th of every month at the Dadar
office where all the committee members assemble and all complaints
and disputes arc heard and resolved. The dabbawalla’s are not
supposed to take any major decisions and are not supposed to claim any
amount arising out of a dispute until the actual dispute matter is brought
forward in front of everyone during the monthly meet.
• Each Tiffin carrier has to pay Rs. 15 to the union every month. This
money accumulates and helps as aid in celebrating and funding their
festival at various locations in Maharashtra. This is a social activity of the
association since the dabbawalla’s get proper accommodation whenever
they go to these places.(Unfortunately, there are a lot of Dabbawalla’s
15
who don’t pay this contribution at all.)

• In the association’s code of ethics, no dabbawala is allowed to undercut
another. As far as possible, coordination among groups is encouraged so
that undercutting doesn’t lead to disputes.
• The whole dabbawalla’s union takes a one week break every year in the
month of March when they all go to Ambegaon for their annual village
festival. This is called the ‘Bhairavnath Maharaj Utsav'. This is a welcome
break from the hectic day-to-day routine that the dabbawalla’s follow. All
customers are informed much in advance about this period when the
dabbawalla’s will collectively remain absent from duty. This is the
individual dabbawala's responsibility to communicate with the clients and
in order to authenticate the reason for the leave; the association also
circulates notices for customers along with each carrier. Wearing the
traditional white cap is very important. It is the only integral symbol of the
dabbawala’. If a dabbawala is caught not wearing the cap. He will be
fined Rs.30 when spotted by the officials.
• Each dabbawalla is allowed to carry a maximum of 35 Tiffin boxes. If the
number is more than 35, then the excess tiffins need to be carried by
another carrier.
• In the long historical relationship with Mumbai city, the dabbawalla’s have
onemajor unattended demand. The union has constantly requested the
Railways to reserve one goods compartment for them during peak hours
but they have not been adhered to. Bu tit is an unwritten rule that people
are not to load the particular goods compartment occupied by
dabbawalla’s for their goods. Meaning between 10:00 and 11:30 am and
15:00 to 16:30 hours commuters are generallyare not supposed to board
the goods compartment occupied by the dabbawalla’s. In fact, until the
1970s, the particular compartment read something like this “Reserved for
Tiffin carriers”. But with growing number of commuters and more and
more demand for better service and space, this reservation has been
discontinued.
16
• Every dabbawala has to handle his own expenses. Handcart and Bicycle
maintenance. Railway pass, luggage pass and all other contributions and
fees. They can also opt for the loan from the Union at around 5% p.a.
which is lower than market rate of in interest. The union also runs a small
co-operative bank in order to help the dabbawalla’s and the community
as a whole. The dabbawalla’s belong to a large community and hence, it
is a part of the association‘s social commitment to help achieve the
upliftment of the community.
CHATTER 7
17
SAFETY AND WELFARE
Risky Affair!!
• There is no protection for the dabbawalla’s from the rain and scorching sun.
Even the dabba’s are not under any cover or protection except for what is
actually givenby the customers. Raincoats do not provide adequate protection
when they have to cycle around. Whereas, umbrellas are more of a hassle
to carry around during their hectic activities. Thus, they are vulnerable to any
illnesses during the season. As for the dabba’s, it's not much of a worry
because the rainwater isn't going to get into the food anyway.
• There is also a minute risk of the bicycles getting stolen or tiffins getting stolen
or lost but it's extremely rare. Since there is no insurance for anything, what is
lost is a loss incurred by the responsible dabbawala. In case the Tiffin gets
stolen or lost, the respective customers of the dabbawalla’s are free to deduct
the amount from the dabbawalla's salary. In other cases, where the incident of
the loss is due to the fault of another member that leads to a dispute, that
matter is then settled duringthe monthly meetings held at Dadar where the
committee decides who will bear the compensation and who is to be blamed.
Of course, the loss of a Tiffin is one in a million cases that leads to the
achievement of six-sigma distinction. As for the bicycles, the dabbawalla’s
usually have an understanding with the watchman or security people who take
care of these cycles as the dabbawalla’s are away delivering. In case they do
get stolen, nobody is blamed and the dabbawalla has to bear the loss
completely.
• During the mornings the carriage would take around 40-50 tiffins. Now,
18
eachTiffin is filled with food and the whole carriage weighs on an average 8O
kgs. This is extremely heavy for a head load! But the dabbawalla’s manage
this as their daily routine. So much weight in the scorching heat of the day
may lead to fatigue and therefore is unsafe for them but due to the physical
fitness levels. It is rare for a dabbawalla to fall ill due to fatigue. But there is no
welfare policy in this regard.
• The only welfare activity carried out by the union is the social gathering that
the association carries out every year at their village festivals.
CHAPTER 8
19
SYSTEM
The dabbawala network operates so efficiently and punctually owing to one simple
reason The Railways. The local trains of Mumbai city cover approximately 60-70
kilometres. This distance is covered by hundreds of trains that operate at a
frequency of a train departing every three minutes. This feature of the local trains
leads to over 90% theCity's population depending upon this mode of transport. A
local train is rarely ever delayed in its journey, thus, it enables millions of commuters
to be punctual in reaching their offices and homes everyday and in all conditions,
and this is the main reason why the dabbawalla’s actually operate in this city and not
any other. In order to deliver over 1,75,000 tiffins everyday, the dabbawalla’s can rely
only on this mode of transport, Aperson can reach from one end of the city (Mira
Road) to the other end (Churchgate) in just under an hour and a half! Thus, it is
rightly said that if the dabbawalla’s are the foodline of the city of Mumbai, then the
loca trains are the lifelines of the city.
The entire dabbawala system works on a military discipline based on a shared
agenda and a common protocol. The workforce is not even basically educated and
there is no paperwork involved
The two essences are the LOCAL TRAIN and INFORMATION, The system is
information rich in nature, the coding system enables all the 'magic' with which all
dabbawalla’s function, Again, it is ‘Centralized planning and decentralized
implementation’.
Now let us look at the main features of the system of the dabbawalla’s
• The dabbawala’s are spread over the entire city and hence, all three lines of
the local train are utilized by them, Western, Central and Harbour Lines.
• The main stations include Dombivili, Andheri, Dadar, Kurla, Grant Road,
Churchgate and C.S.T. these are also the major sorting areas for the
dabbawalla’s.
• Each station may have approximately 4-8 groups depending on the density of
population and demand. E.G. there can be 15-20 groups at Churchgate and
20
just 5-6 groups at stations like Khar and Vile Parle.

• The various modes of transport that can be used by the dabbawalla’s in their
whole network will mainly include trains, bicycles, handcarts and of course, on
foot,
• Time is the principle factor in this system. If there is any delay of even a few
minutes, the train will be missed by the dabbawalla’s and the system will be
disrupted because of him. Hence, planning for contingency is also very
important on part of the dabbawalla. Punctuality is therefore of prime
Importance. Rarely has it been that the Tiffin doesn't reach the owner's desk
at lunchtime.
• The city's geographical pattern helps. Most of Mumbai's Office-goers live in
the suburbs and work downtown and there arc local trains connecting two,
points - which form hubs for hub-and-spoke sub-networks. Each Tiffin is at
least handled by 4-5 different dabbawalla’s in the entire process
Let us just look at the whole system concisely to understand how the dabbawalla’s
manage the whole job.
The 5000 dabbawalla’s are divided into 3 sets of activities. The entire system is
highly decentralized. Between 9-9:30 am , one crew of dabbawalla’s collects freshly
packed tiffins from residences and delivers it to the nearest stations where they are
sorted, at a place designated as ‘Sorted Place’ on the station itself. This sorting is
done as per the destination stations. The train for Churchgate or CST departs
between 10:30 to 11:00 am and stops at all the stations with intermediate stop-over
for the dabbawalla’s like Thane, Kurla, Andheri and Dadar. At these junctions, the
second set of dabbawalla’s exchange and sort tiffins, in a speedy manner involving
“ZERO DOCUMENTATION”. Then the 3rd set is waiting at the respective destination
stations, which sorts out and assemble the respective set of tiffins and load them
onto handcarts, trays, bicycles and then each carrier sets out on the final delivery.
Not to mention, after all these efficiently carried out activities, a Tiffin box rarely
misses the destination stomach at lunchtime.
21
CHAPTER 9
PRICING STRATEGY
The rationale behind the development of a group model in the business is to improve
competitiveness of the system. If there are 5 groups in Andheri then each group will
fight in order to acquire new customers because each group is responsible for
generating its own income. Generally the service charges are between Rs. 150 to Rs
300 per month depending upon two main factors.
LOCATION
In some populated area such as RBI colonies or apartment complexes such as
Lokhandwala complex in Andheri the charges are lower because there are lot of
clients tin these areas. At one point of time there used to be 2 handcarts full of tiffins
from RBI colony situated at Santacruz. This is very economical for them and hence
the charges are lowers so that more and more customers can opt for the service. In
either cases where the area is less populated or the demand for this service is
minimum e.g. Juhu area the charges will be comparatively higher since the demand
is poor and it uneconomical to travel all the way to Juhu for just one or two dabba’s
which give him the same amount of money. Thus they charge a higher or lower
depending upon the location.
TIME
Sometimes the client may not be able to prepare the dabba at the tine that is
convenient for the dabbawalla to pick up. In such cases the dabbawalla is forced to
make an exception and hence these charges are more because he has put in extra
effort to make it at that tine suitable to the client. Whereas, if the client can prepare
the Tiffin at the time convenient for the dabbawalla’s to pick up, his charges will be
22
lower as it is now convenient for him and he has to put in equal effort without making
any exception. Where as if the Dabbawalla covered 70km to 80km in two-and-a-half
hours by train, on bicycles, dabbawala’s covered much less territory.
Money is collected in the first week of every month and it is remitted to the Mukadam
on the first Sunday. The money thus collected, is divided among all the members of
the group equally.
Let us take an example here as there are 4 groups at Santacruz i.e. Red, Green,
Yellow and blue. Now, if there are 15 members in the red group and the total number
of customers serviced by the group is 375 and the amount thus collected is Rs.
75,000. Then this total amount would be equally divided among all the members.
Now there are two aspects to this. Two questions that one might ask? If one
dabbawala services 40 customers and another one services just 20 customers, then
why should the first one not get the bigger share of the money?
There are two reasons which were mentioned earlier as the factors of pricing:
location and Time.
Also, one has to consider that the dabbawala collecting 40 tiffins may have collected
all from one area itself (like RBI colony) in 30 minutes. Whereas the other dabbawala
collecting 20- Tiffin’s may have had to travel long distances covering a large area in
order to collect his 20 Tiffin’s in over an hour’s time. Thus it would be unfair to him if
the first dabbawala is paid a higher amount.
Out of the total proceeds earned by each dabbawala, Rs. 60 per crate and Rs. 120
per month per person have to be paid to the railways to obtain the pass.
Nevertheless, each dabbawala earns on an average Rs. 4000-5000. He makes a
contribution of Rs.10 per month to the association for the utilization of bringing
upliftment of their community. Loans are given by the association and also
contributions are made to religious places during festivals such as Mahashivratri at
Bhumashankar.
Considering all these factors, one can say that the monthly charges that the
dabbawala’s take, is not at all expensive. The service delivered with the efficiency
and accuracy is all worth it!
Chapter 10
23
BUILDING A CLIENTELE
The range of customers includes students (both college and school), entrepreneurs
of small businesses, managers, especially bank staff, and mill workers.
They generally tend to be middle-class citizens who, for reasons of economy,
hygiene, caste and dietary restrictions or simply because they prefer whole-some
food from their kitchen, rely on the dabbawala to deliver a home cooked mid-day
meal. Their customers are middle-class citizens, who for reasons of economy,
hygiene, caste and dietary restrictions ñ or simply because they prefer wholesome
foods from their own kitchens ñ rely on the dabbawalla’s to deliver a home-cooked
midday meal.
New customers are generally acquired through referrals. Some are solicited by
dabbawalla’s on railway platforms. Addresses are passed on to the dabbawala
operating in the specific area, who then visits the customer to finalize arrangements.
Today customers can also log onto the website www.webrishi.com to access the
service
.In its clientele, the dabbawalla’s have reached out to students living in hostels (again
a privileged lot being nurtured by middle class parents), working women (whose
maid at home cooks the lunch for the dabba the use of the term working women in
Mumbai is ironically restricted to office-goers and the like and fails to consider maids
as working women) and aged people (living away from the nuclear family but within
the field of responsibility of the nuclear family).
An interesting addition to the clientele of dabbawalla’s is a new set of health-
conscious executives who are on health diets. One such centre uses the
dabbawalla’s to send lunches to as many as 300 people on its diet regimen.
24
Chapter 11
DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
DABBAWALLA MEAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
The dabbawalla meal distribution network was

characterized by a combination offer “baton relay
system” in which dabba’s were handed of
between dabbawalla’s at various points in the
delivery process and a “hub and spokes” system
in which the sorting of dabba’s was done at
specificrailway locations form where individual
spokes branched out for distribution. There
was no local historical model on which this
distribution network was designed. All design
decisions were driven by the singular purpose of
delivering as a dabba in time for the customer’s
lunch. The delivery processes had largely
remained unchanged since their inception even though the environments of service
delivery are changed. For example, the delivery system did not relyon the use of
computers. According to Medge: If we were to use computers, we would be out of
business. It is not because we do not know how to use computers, but the system
itself is not amenable to the use of technology in whatever form.
The only major change in the dabbawalla’s delivery model was the fine – tuning of
the coding system in 1966. The number of customers using the delivery service had
continued to grow, , and without some form of common identification that all
dabbawalla’s could follow, the sorting process at the hubs was likely to become
overly time consuming. Medge observed:
We decided to decentralize the coding at a level of groups and each group was free
to develop its own coding system based on simple and easily identifiable numbers
and signs. In time, each group gradually developed its own distinctive colour code –
25
from a spectrum of combinations of the seven primary colours – serving as the first
line of identification for any dabbawalla.
REVERSE CHANNEL/NETWORK DESIGN

TREE DIAGRAM REMAINING
Now, to better understand the sorting process; let’s take the above example that is
shown pictorially. Let’s say at Santacruz station, there are four different groups of
dabbawalla. Each of them has 20 members each and each of these dabbawalla
services an average 20 customers. That makes 1600 tiffins in all. As we already
understood earlier, the task for the dabbawalla’s to collect the Tiffin’s, meet at the
station on the stipulated time for sorting, exchange tiffins with other dabbawalla’s on
the way at various stations, sort them again at the destination station and dispatch
the Tiffin’s in order to deliver them to respective offices.
ONWARD JOURNEY – 8:30- 10:34 am
26
The day for the dabbawalla’s starts at 8:30 am, with collecting the dabba’s from the
various houses. People usually leave the dabba’s outside the door for them. In case
they are late the dabbawalla’s have to urge them to hurry up, else if it gets late they
have to leave if the clients’ Tiffin is not ready in time. He then picks up all the tiffins
and meets the other dabbawalla’s at the station
[The dabbawalla is forced to do so because he is bound by the train time. The
departing train’s time is very crucial and he must consider the time required for the
sorting process. There may, on the other hand, be further delays caused by other
customers too. It is extremely difficult, yet crucial to ensure that the entire pick up of
all tiffins takes place as per schedule. The scheduling has to include cushion time for
uncertainties such as these without which the whole system will, be disrupted]
The dabbawalla picks up the Tiffin from his lot of houses in Santacruz
and meets the other group members at the designated spot at the station. This
particular group of 10 dabbawalla’s takes the 10:34 am Churchgate local train
everyday. Therefore, the dabbawalla’s have to make sure that they reach the
platform for the sorting process at least by 10:15 am in order to ensure a smooth flow
of their networking throughout their daily routine, this peri
od in the morning that includes picking up the Tiffin’s and meeting at the designated
spot on the station is the most crucial part of the system. One bit delay in this aspect
will disrupt the whole system and will lead to a chaotic situation. Therefore, the
27
dabbawalla’s have to collect the tiffins n time and reach the station with enough time
left for the sorting to take place before the train arrives.
SORTING - 10:15 – 10:34 am
The critical phase of the system is sorting. Sorting of all the tiffins according to their
destination station and arranging them into wooden crates takes 20-25 minutes! The
aim of the process is to segregate the tiffins and differentiate them as per the
destination of each of them. The tiffins are then handed to different dabbawalla’s at
the destinationstation and sorting makes it easier to identify each group of tiffins and
less time consuming for the respective dabbawalla. The sorting makes the entire
process error free. The process of sorting is similar to that of a post office where
letters are segregated according to their destinations. Since each Tiffin exchanges
many hands, each of the lids of the tiffins is marked with a colored code indicating
the originating station, destinationand building with the floor number. The coding is
the secret behind the efficient working of the system and that’s why the network is
‘Information rich’. This is a unique feature as it requires no documentation or record
keeping. There is no communication between the 2 groups, but just coordination
among them because the whole blueprint is pre-decided by the dabbawalla’s
themselves
The Mukadam plays a key role here to ensure smooth working and coordination, his
responsibility is to know all the tiffins his group carries. The responsibility of the
Mukadam is to the extent that he has to know all the tiffins that his group carries.
Therefore, he must be able to recognize these Tiffin’s even if the codes on them
28
arebarely visible. Also, if any member of the group abstains from his duty for a
particularday for some reason, then it is the responsibility of the Mukadam to ensure
that all the dabba’s that the absentee was responsible for, are duly picked up and
delivered back on time. Hence, we see that the Mukadam plays a critical role in this
stage of sorting and allocating jobs
The dabba’s are collected, sorted out and sent to their destinations based on a
numerical and alphabetical code. Every station has a numerical code and each place
has an alphabetical code. The Tiffin carries the code of the source and the
destination. The codes help identify Tiffin owners. Very simple system of sorting
exists with this Dabbawala Network. Every Tiffin-carrier has the mark of a circle or a
flower of a specific colour and a digital identity number. Take this Tiffin Mark for
example-K-BO-10-19/A/15. K is the identity letter of the dabbawala. BO means
Borivali i.e. the area from where the Tiffin is to be collected... The figure of 10 refers
to Nariman point area. 19/A/15 refers to the 19th Building and the 15th floor in
Nariman point area where the Tiffin is to be delivered.
These codes have been developed over the years and began with simple coloured
threads. An employee delivers the dabba’s, collected individually from homes at the
railway station nearest to the house. At the station the destinations are sorted out,
based on the codes, and taken by train to respective stations
29
.
JOURNEY TIME – 10:34 to 11:20 am
The time period between 10:34 and 11:20 is the journey time for the dabbawalla’s.
They load the wooden cart filled with tiffins into the luggage or goods compartment of
the train. Generally they try to occupy the last compartment as this helps them to
avoid the rush at the platforms and is easy to be located and conveniently situated
once the trainarrives on the platform. Mostly the commuters don’t get on this
compartment as they are already filled with crates and there is not enough room.
This is a common understanding among daily commuters and dabbawalla’s. In any
case the platform is filled with people and dabbawalla’s have to unload the crates on
the platform, they start a series of loud verbal comments warning everyone to make
way of the unloading. The unloading of this particular group takes place at Dadar,
Lower Parel, Grant road and finally Churchgate etc. finally just six out of total 10
dabbawalla’s get off at Churchgate. There are also others joining into the group from
the station as they have common destination points.
The allocation of manpower at each station depends on the number of tiffins that
have to be delivered in a particular area. E.g. if 150 tiffins are to be delivered in Grant
Road, 4people are assigned to the station. This is done in keeping in the mind that
one person cannot carry more than 35 dabba’s. They will also be assigned specific
codes which are written on the top of the Tiffin. This 4 dabbawalla’s can be from any
30
groups and irrespective of any station. Their job is now to deliver these 150 Tiffin’s
irrespective of which group they belong to. If the number of Tiffin’s that are to be
delivered in an areas like Nariman point, is large then the number of people allocated
goes up. Within that area, if one location lets say, Mittal towers, has a huge number
of Tiffin’s have to be delivered then this area number of the location number remains
the same and tiffins are differentiated on basis of colour.
SORTING AT THE DESTINATION STATION AND DELIVERING - 11:20 to 12:30

am
At this stage the unloading takes place at Churchgate and our destination station. In
our example in it will be Churchgate. Here, the rearrangement Of Tiffin’s takes place
as per the destination area and destination building in Churchgate. Dabbawalla’s
have to be dispatched accordingly and the dabba’s are to be delivered in large
quantities at times to areas like Nariman Point, RBI and Stock Exchange. If the
number of Tiffin’s that are to be delivered in an area like Nariman Point (Which is
very large considering the density of offices), then the number of dabbawalla’s to be
31
allotted to the area increases. Now, within that area, if one location, like, Mittal
Towers has a huge number of Tiffin’s to be delivered then this “area of number” or
“location number” remains the same and the dabba’s have to be differentiated
according to the basis of colour. To sum up the delivery process at the destination
centers, each dabbawalla looks for a particular three character code written on right
hand side of the cap of the Tiffin. The dabbawalla concentrates only on the dabba’s
that he has to deliver from Churchgate. He may not have in most cases, picked up
his Tiffin’s from the originating stations; he has been allotted these dabba’s only at
Churchgate. This kind of specialization makes the entire system efficient and error
free.
The entire sorting process takes place outside Churchgate station or in the lanes
around the station. Here, different groups arrange their dabba’s in order of their
destination areasand buildings. The main area around Churchgate includes Nariman
point, RBI, StockExchange, Ballard Pier, and world trade center. There are around
thirty groups itself at Churchgate station dispatching their respective tiffins in the
area. In particular area with high density of customers a special crate is dedicated to
that area. This crate carries 150 Tiffin’s and is driven by 3-4 dabbawalla’s!!
A unique feature of the system is that bigger buildings with large office densities, like
inNariman point, or the stock exchange building itself, an elevator is especially
reserved for the dabbawalla’s during the lunch time. Usually these elevators have
queues throughoutthe day as the offices ar4e extremely busy and hence, in order to
provide convenience and quick delivery without queues. The dabbawalla’s have a
special elevator reserved for themselves onto which others cannot board. In some
cases, they also leave theTiffin’s in the canteen that is common to the whole building
and hence the respective owners cansimply pick up theirs. This is also a feature
seen in schools where the dabbawalla’s deliver.
In other cases, like at Mittal Cambers the dabbawalla’s leave the Tiffin’s outside the
respective offices. The peon comes and gives them to the respective clients in their
offices. Incidentally, even the peons are good at recognizing the Tiffin’s as to whom
they belong to!
So, in this process, the dabbawalla’s save a lot of time by cutting short the delivery
32
process.
Thereafter, the dabbawalla’s take a break and have their own lunch which is usually
their Tiffin’s kept along with the others in the crate with special markings. Different
group’s have their lunch at different locations. It is generally on the footpath or some
benches on the roadside. This break is usually of 45-60 minutes in duration. Till then,
the customers must finish having their lunch and keep the dabba’s outside for the
dabbawalla to collect.
COLLECTION PROCESS - 1:15 to 2:00 pm
Here on begins the collection process where the dabbawalla have to pick up the
Tiffin’s from the offices where they had delivered almost an hour ago. The
dabbawalla’s are the same in this case. The one who delivers it to the office will be
the same one who collects it. Most of the time, the dabbawalla will collect al dabba’s
from all the offices situated on the same floor and will leave them in the corridor.
Then, he goes and collects all dabba’s from various floors and gets them to the base
level. Finally, he loads them onto the crate.
This is actually the only risky point in the entire network system. This is
because there is a risk of theft when the dabbawalla leaves the Tiffin’s outside the
corridor. The only solution to this is, to have another dabbawalla securing the
33
dabba’s while the other one goes and collects the remaining. This is related to a
personal experience and hence amention of this incident is critical in analyzing the
mechanism of the system. By complaints and suggestions from customers, the
dabbawalla’s can actually bring some improvements in the system such as the one
mentioned. A dabbawalla who can secure the procured Tiffin’s can greatly help in
reducing thefts.
RETURN JOURNEY – 2:00 to 2:30 pm
After the collection is over, the dabbawalla’s meet the remaining group members at a
designated spot and the first assortment on the return journey takes place. The
groupmembers meet with their respective crates and the segregation as per the
destinationsuburbs takes place. The group departs for the station and all groups
meet there for a common sorting process. The crates are arranged in a line and each
dabbawalla picks up the tiffins that belong to his group at the destination centre (the
originating centre). This is not the final sorting and therefore, the individual members
of the destination group have to just identify the boxes and put them into the crates.
One important thing to note is that a particular dabbawalla need not operate in the
same group throughout the day. He will, in most cases operate with 2 different
groups. One at the originating station (Santacruz) and one at the destination station
34
(Churchgate). Thecoordination is equally important in either groups and there is total

unity among them.
After sorting in various crates they depart in their respective train, which again are
pre-decided and is part of their daily routine. This part of the journey is more relaxed
as they are not under the pressure of timely delivery as in the mornings. They lighten
up the moment by joking around and singing, which eases their stress and develops
a strong bond in the group.
TRAIN JOURNEY – 2:48 - 3:30 pm
This again, is the return journey by train where the group finally meets up after the
day’s routine of dispatching and collecting from various destination offices. The
group members from Marine Lines, Grant Road and Dadar board the designated
compartments and finally, they arrive at Santacruz station with the same dabba’s that
they had started off with in the morning.
Usually, since it is more of a pleasant journey compared to the earlier part of the day,
the dabbawalla’s lighten up the moment by merry making, joking around and singing,
whicheases their stress and develops a strong bond among the group. Of course,
other passengers also join them in the merry making at times and hence, these
dabbawalla’s have created an impression upon other passengers of being hard
35
working, dedicated and joyous people.

THE FINAL JOURNEY OF THE DAY – 3:30 to 4:00 pm
This is the stage where the final sorting and dispatch takes place. The group meets
up at Santacruz station and they finally sort out the Tiffin’s as per the destination
area. This is the easiest process because of the limited quantity of tiffins that gets off
the trains with
them; it is simpler to understand which Tiffin belongs to whom. The dabbawalla’s
take out the respective tiffins from the crates and either carry 10-15 of them
physically on themselves or load them onto the crates till they reach their cycles.
Then each of them departs on their way with the same dabba’s that he took in the
morning and delivers them to their respective houses.
This delivery process takes roughly 30-45 minutes depending on the distance that
the dabbawalla will have to cover.
Thus, the entire network system ends with the delivery of the tiffins back to the
customer’s origin point at the precise time everyday. The customer is satisfied with
timely delivery of home food and the dabba back to the origin.
There is still one more important and unique aspect to this system and that is the
individual dabbawalla. This dabbawalla doesn’t operate in any group. He picks up
the dabba himself in the morning and travels himself in the morning and travels to
the various destinations himself delivering them to the destination offices, collects
them again and delivers them back to the origination home. This is a rare case but it
36
is a laudable effort that the dabbawalla puts in just to earn a meagre livelihood. A
real example of this kind of a dabbawalla can be cited here. This particular
dabbawalla travels from Ghatkoper toCuffe parade and back everyday!!! It is simply
unbelievable that a person can do so much everyday and still manage efficiency with
punctuality.
He operates on an 8 am to 8 pm shift. But he doesn’t have an option of taking the
train too at any point because there are always tiffins at various points at various
suburbs en route. For example, there are 4 tiffins from Parel to Churchgate between
which he could’ve easily taken the train by delegating his task of collection to another
dabbawalla. But then, he will lose his customers to that dabbawalla then because it
will be that second dabbawalla who is putting all the efforts and hence, he cannot
afford to lose customers because he would be hurting his own income. He cannot
lose out on his business which is earned with extreme hard work. Therefore, this
system of going individual as a dabbawalla instead of a group is for those who prefer
to put in more hard work just to earn that bit of extra income.
The disadvantages in this system are:

• The dabbawalla’s entire scheduling and system will be disrupted if any
customer causes a delay in giving the dabba to him.
• And secondly, if the dabbawalla falls ill or takes leave due to any reason,
there won’t be anyone to substitute his place and therefore, no backup. The
customers will be frustrated and will switch over to another dabbawalla if this
one has a habit of abstaining. That would be a great loss to the dabbawalla
and hence, his health also needs to be maintained. Even more than any other
dabbawalla who are working in groups. This is rather difficult considering the
rigorous working and the long hours involved.
As it is apparent enough, there is hardly any contact between the client and the
dabbawalla during each day. The dabbawalla meets the client in his office only on
the first day of delivery to verify the address and to show the spot where the Tiffin will
be kept daily. The system has been honed to such perfection that many
dabbawalla’s carry out the entire operation with the help of just the 1st code, which is
37
absolutely reversed. Evidently, this system is tailor-made specifically for a city like
Mumbai. Such a daily exercise can run successfully only in Mumbai due to following
factors:
• Plentiful commuters who go to offices daily.

• Presence of an efficient and wide spread railway network.
• Large distance between residencies and work places.
• An efficient and simple information system like the coding used by the
dabbawalla’s
Chapter 12
38
CODING
The origin of the dabbawalla’s a hundred years odd ago was as a service of Tiffin
carriage for the Parsi population. Soon, more and more people moved into the city
and the dabbawalla’s had to cater to people of various religions. The suburbs kept
going further and the patrons list kept getting longer. More and more carriers were
pressed into service and soon, there was a clash in functioning styles of various
groups. The number of tiffins increased for the dabbawalla’s as the days passed on.
As every Tiffin box had to be carried to and fro mapping each box to its carrier was
crucial or else it would lead to chaos. For this the dabbawalla’s started tying strings
or wires or threads to their boxes. But soon these methods were inadequate as the
number of tiffins grew exceptionally. Thus the need for a new form of coding came
up, which could be understood by the illiterate dabbawalla’s and was inexpensive.
Hence, in the 1970’s a senior member in Raghunath Medge’s family decided to
implement a new system where all the box codes and markings were uniform for the
dabbawalla’s. This system would cater to any number of tiffins no matter the growth
in additions. This was an ingenious creation. It served as a common code for the
dabbawalla’s which was easy to decipher.
That was the most important thing to remember while creating the codes. The
Dabbawalla’s, being illiterate should be able to understand it and explain it with ease
to new comers and outsiders.
39
This coding system eventually stood the test of time and proved extensible. With
coding in place, there was enough scope to factor in new developments like adding
new dabbawalla’s or new office blocks or new sources and destinations.
The new system depends on common protocols, a typical Indian approach to
versatile distribution. Each tiff in containing the food has, number of codes in
alphabets and numbers on its top which identify the following:
• The code allotted to each dabbawalla in a group that picks up the Tiffin form
a particular area or suburb.
• The code of the origin station, which is usually one of the suburbs on
western, central or harbour lines.
• The code for destination, which is Churchgate, CST or any other commercial
area.
• The code of the dabbawalla in the destination area who handles the Tiffin
there
• The code for the location or office building in the destination area
• The floor or the room in that building
Besides these that are displays on the top of the dabba there is also a difference in
the colour of paints or chalk that they use to write the codes. Different groups will
have different colour cod written on the top of the dabba so that the Tiffin belonging
to a group remains distinct. This is necessary because there is usually more than
just one group present at each station. The destination codes will be the same for all
40
groups at the same station. This makes it difficult to distinguish their tiffins, so the
simplest way of bringing the distinctions that is required is by coding with different
colours. This is a simple and easy way of differentiating the codes which is also easy
to understand for the illiterate dabbawalla’s. The maximum number of colour used
in this system is 7.
Incidentally each group of dabbawalla’s must also carry coloured pencils or chalks so
that they can write the codes if they have been erased or are difficult to interpret.
Obviously, each and every dabbawalla must know the coding system very well and
must also know all the dabba’s in his group with respect to the origin and destination.
Let, us know look at a few examples of these codes on the tiffins to better
understand the system and what it all denotes
:
We can now separate each element that is written on the Tiffin cover or top for
understanding what it means. Let us follow the pattern anti-clockwise:-
41
VP – The first thing on the Tiffin is the code for the originating station. This is the
station from where the dabbawalla picks up the Tiffin in the morning. In this case, VP
denotes Vile Parle. The area under this station will include Juhu and also J.V.P.D
scheme since this is the only station, which is nearest. Even if the dabbawalla goes
to the most interior parts like in Juhu, it will not be mentioned in the coding simply
because the dabbawalla’s are just concerned about the respective railway stations.
E – This is the code for the dabbawalla who is picking up the Tiffin from its origin or
home. In this case, the dabbawalla with the code of ‘E’ will be a part of the group
distinguished by the colour code ‘RED’. In many instances, the code will be the initial
of the name of the dabbawalla. This is one of the elements that can be changed
during the course of time if the dabbawalla for that particular customer changes.
3 – This is the code for the destination area. This may not necessarily be restricted
to astation only. For instance, the Churchgate is allotted number codes from 1-10.
Number 11 is allotted to marine lines, 12 to Charni road and so on. In this example,
the number 3 is allotted to the area between flora fountain and cross Maidan area.
Other prime locations would include Nariman Point, stock exchange, Ballard pier,
RBI etc.
9 – VS – 12
9 – This is the code number for the dabbawalla who delivers the Tiffin to the
destination office from Churchgate station. This is the dabbawalla who is responsible
for delivering it to the respective office and picking it up after the lunch hours. He is a
part of another group from the one he worked with at the originating station. Thus, in
most cases, each dabbawalla will be a part of more than one group for sure, one at
the origin and one at the destination.
VS - This code denotes the exact location or more likely, the building’s initial in the
area that falls under Churchgate station. In this case, it is VSNL building. VS being
the initial for the building is unique and therefore, creates no confusion whatsoever
for the dabbawalla’s. Office buildings around southern Mumbai are very popular and
hence, easy to comprehend when given in codes. Other examples would be ‘M’ for
Mittal Towers,‘R’ for RBI, ‘MC’ for Maker Chambers and so on.
42
12 – finally, the last code among the three codes that form the right side of the top of
the dabba is the floor on the building (VSNL) or the room number in case of buildings
with large number of rooms on each floor. Such an example would be Stock
Exchange, RBI and BMC etc.
Let us take a second example with different locations so we can exactly figure out
how to comprehend the coding system.
GH – This again denotes the originating station code, which in this case is Ghatkoper
that is central line suburb. A dabbawalla will not usually work in two different groups
or switch groups based in central region to Western suburbs. Of course, a
dabbawalla, in all possibility can pick up Tiffin from a central suburb but deliver it to
an office based in the western lines and vice versa. In this case, the origin is from a
central suburb that is Ghatkopar.
D- In this case, the dabbawalla, who picks up the Tiffin from Ghatkopar area and
assembles with this group at the station, has a code ‘D’ as mentioned earlier, this
could be his initial or a random allotment.
13 – This code is for the destination station and in this case, it represents Grant
Road. This being a smaller station as per the area it encompasses, requires just one
number for its designation. Churchgate and C.S.T are the only ones that have so
43
many numbers based on locations under them.
2–P–9
2 – The first part of the right side codes is the code of the dabbawalla at the
destination station. In this case, it is the dabbawalla with code 2 who is responsible
for delivering it to the respective office and picking it up after the lunch hours.
P - This code denotes the exact location or more likely, the building’s initial in the
area that falls under Grant Road station. ‘P’ stands for the ‘Panchratna’, which is
among the most famous buildings in south Bombay as it is home to one of the
largest diamond makers offices in the country. It is an old building and the
dabbawalla’s have been providing services over here ever since the city became a
diamond exporter and trading hub.
9 – finally, the last code among the three codes that form the right side of the top of
the dabba is the floor on the building (Panchratna) or the room number.
Therefore, we can link the coding system and its function in the entire network
process with fine example by taking the network process of the second example of
the coding system:
The sorting takes place at Ghatkopar station and the tiffins collected from the client’s
residences is kept with boxes that are bound for grant road station. This way it is
easier to offload them and dispatch them to the respective dabbawala who is
responsible for deliveries at grant road.
At grant road station, the carrier whose number is ‘2’, picks up all the boxes that are
marked for him and proceeds
At Panchratna, he leaves the tiffins outside the lifts or outsides the office on the 9th
floor. During the lunch time, the client fetches the tiffins completes his lunch and puts
the empty tiffins back to the same place so that dabbawala can collect it easily .The
return journey follows the same route back.
Chapter 13
DABBAWALLAS’ OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
44
Dabbawalla’s operating environment depends upon the route and the geographical
distance travelled by the dabbawalla’s. According to Medge, for many decades, the
labour-intensive textile mills in Mumbai made the single largest contribution to the
overall pool of dabbawalla customers. While the customer composition had recently
changed to include school children, the basic customer profile had remained
unchanged. The majority of dabbawalla customers comprised the Indian middle
class of fixed income earners. Approximately 4,000 dabbawalla’s daily served
workforce clients. Given the larger geographic spread of these clients from their
homes, dabbawalla’s typically employed bicycles, pushcarts and the Mumbai railway
to make these deliveries. Servicingschool children, on the other hand, did not require
the use of the railway system as most were located close to their residences, despite
the shorter distances for delivery, the dabbawalla’s charged more for these deliveries
since lunch timings and their pick-ups varied.
Dabbawalla’s had three primary lunch competitors’ fast-food chains, restaurants and
roadside vendors. Kamat and Udupi were chains of both fast-food counters and
restaurants located throughout Mumbai, catering to the lunch hour needs of their
customers. These local chains were in direct competition with global chains, such as
McDonalds, which entered the Mumbai market in 1997 Sociality food stalls, sans
frills, serving local favourites provided another lunch option for Mumbai’s workforce.
As did roadside vendors offering fast and efficient service and a varied lunch fare.
Lastly, some Mumbai companies – for tax shelter purposes offered their workers
lunch coupons that were redeemable at select food outlets known as “Ticket
Restaurant.”
Dabbawalla’s have a niche of their own. We do not any of them as competitors.
They prepare food, but we are not in the business of preparing food. We do not
manufacture. We only deliver. There is no other meal delivery service in Mumbai. We
work in a unique operating space where we have a monopoly.
There are several factors that favour the trust. First, people in Mumbai, given a
choice, seemed to prefer home-cooked food. Those who were already using the
dabbawalla service were not inclined to switch to other providers as lunch hour
routines were habit forming. Second, and perhaps most important, was the cost of
45
home-cooked lunches. Home-cooked food delivered by a dabbawalla almost always

cost far less than having lunch at a food counter or a restaurant. For instance, at
Nariman Point, Mumbai’s central downtown location, a vegetarian lunch, served in a
steel plate called a thali, purchased at a restaurant would cost Rs. 120. Further, a
combination of snacks that passed off for lunch at a fast-food counter would cost
about Rs. 30, while similar fare from a roadside vendor would cost Rs. 18. All these
options required that customers leave their workplace to eat food whose quality was
not assured. lunch delivered by a dabbawalla from a catering establishment would
cost an average of Rs. 20 (including Rs. 5 for delivery) Ahome-cooked lunch
delivered by the dabbawalla would cost the home-owner about Rs. 8, with the
majority of that cost paid for the dabbawalla delivery.
Some of the smaller courier firms, known in Mumbai as angadias, were viewed in
thelocal media as potential threats to the dabbawalla’s in terms of their ability to
develop a parallel delivery service. Medge was doubtful about this potential threat as
“an angadias would require an army of couriers to handle the meal delivery
business.” Mobilizing and motivating the requisite workforce would likely prove
challenging for angadias, many of whom were mom-and-pop businesses that lacked
the resources and skills to manage a substantially large business demand.
Larger courier firms operating in Mumbai, such as Blue Dart, DHL and FedEx, were
not interested in pursuing a service similar to that offered by the dabbawalla’s, given
the unique requirements of this type of delivery and their concerns about the inability
to extend this service beyond Mumbai.
The dabbawalla’s, as providers of these spaces and services, become minor
patrons of spirituality in the rural context. This has been acknowledged by the award
to the dabbawalla’s of the Shri Varkari Probhodhan Mahasamati Dindi (Palkhi)
Sohala in March, 2001.
The dabbawalla system has survived both the advent of the Udupi Restaurant a
cheap eating-out option and the closure of the textile mills in Mumbai which provided
a major chunk of its clientele.
In its clientele, the dabbawalla’s have reached out to students living in hostels (again
a privileged lot being nurtured by middle class parents), working women (whose
46
maid at home cooks the lunch for the dabba the use of the term working women in
Mumbai is ironically restricted to office-goers and the like and fails to consider maids
as working women) and aged people (living away from the nuclear family but within
the field of responsibility of the nuclear family).
Suburban railway network: Mumbai’s longitudinal-based geography provided a
great deal of latitude in logistics management because the movement of dabba’s
towards the various north to south destination points remained largely unhindered,
This helped in reducing the amount of food spoilage during delivery. The
dabbawalla’s made extensive use of Mumbai’s suburban railways network. Indeed
one popular saying in Mumbai was “If the local train is the lifeline of the city, then
the dabbawalla’s are the food line.” It was only on days when the suburban
railways grounded to a halt such as once or twice a year that monsoons flooded the
tracks that the dabba’s were not delivered .However,few recipients of the dabba’s
reached their workplaces when the railway system was not working. The railways
provided the most convenient and economical mode of transport for the dabba’s.
Section II
47
Chapter 14
SWOT ANALYSIS
A SWOT analysis is very important for a thorough and complete analysis of the
dabbawalla’ssystem. Being over a 100 year old organization, it is bound to have
many strengths that are inherent in the system and it may also have certain
weaknesses arising out of conventional technology. There will be several
opportunities since it s such an open organization and its performance is also always
visible to everyone. Lastly there will surely be certain threats to this system.
Increasing competition from various other means and sources that provide similar or
substitute services to commuters will also have a great impact on the organization.
Let us now look at each aspect of the analysis and hence take a better picture of the
dabbawalla’s system.
STRENGTHS
Simplicity in organization - The organizational structure is very simple. It is a loose
cooperative with the entire organization divided into Strategic business Units (SBUs).
48
I.e. groups of 10- 20 individual dabbawalla’s. These groups are responsible for their
own sources of money and have to maintain their own accounts if required.
Therefore, they are financially independent. With relatively medium income levels
and greater levels of customer satisfaction, this Organization does not at all need a
rigid operating structure.
Coordination - The groups although independent as far as money matters are
concerned, work very smoothly and effectively with each other. Not only is the
coordination within the group perfect but also the coordination among different
groups is really remarkable. Agroup responsible for a particular area in Andheri will
effectively coordinate with other groups on the way to Churchgate station and will
gradually. The individuals will merge into other groups for delivery. The effectiveness
of coordination can best be seen during the sorting process. There is no rivalry
whatsoever among different groups and the functioning is smooth and problem free.
Integrated working - A large number of groups coordinate among themselves and
dabbawalla’s change their groups for picking up and dispatching at the origin and
destination Stations, they can practically work with the same efficiency in any group.
This makes the end result extremely efficient and the customer satisfaction is also
high. The basic reason for this is the integrated working pattern. A highly accurate
and efficient coding system along with the efficient system of local trains leads to a
complete integration of the working of all groups at various stations. A single
Dabbawala is never completely devoted to one single group or one single Tiffin box.
Therefore, this integration goes a long way in asserting the success of the system.
Team Spirit - All the dabbawalla’s mostly operate in groups that are actually
functioning as a team does in any sport. They have a daily routing to complete which
is like a mission to accomplish within a stipulated time. External factors such as
weather elements, crowd, disputes with outsiders etc.., are all neglected then it
comes to performing the duty first because of the time constraint. Every dabbawala
knows that he must work effectively in the team in order to complete the job
successfully. Another reason for the great team spirit is that most dabbawalla’s are
from the same region and community and therefore, it’s like a huge family that is
working together to earn a livelihood. Disputes are often for a short period only and
49
they get back to working with everyone in a very friendly way. Cooperation is the key
element here. Apart from the advantages that one drives by working in a group.
People prefer to work in a group simply because it is a team whichpools all the
efforts and gives the most efficient overall output in terms of productivity and
efficiency.
Simple character – The dabbawalla’s are basically a part of a large community that
was the direct descendent of Shivaji Maharaj‘s work force and army. Therefore, their
origins date back to the glory days of the region and hence, their nature is essentially
simple and orthodox. Rather. One can say that they seem to be like simple, cheerful
and humble folk. But this is lighter side of the dabbawalla who is like a military
personnel carrying out the duties with immense hard work and agility. At work, they
perform like a ruthless army with a mission to achieve victory by racing against time.
their daily agenda, if experimented by the common man in practically will not only
exhaust him but will make him have more and more respect for the great army Tiffin
carriers who have such a vigorous daily exercise to perform. Whenever they have an
opportunity or have time inhand, like during lunch or while sitting in the train during
the journeys, the dabbawalla’s show their true nature and simplicity in character by
sharing some light moments. They are cheerful, joyous and relaxed folk.
Difficult characteristics to believe if one were to simply see the way they work. But by
simply travelling with them for a day, one can make out that they welcome strangers
whoare willing to know more about them and want to talk to them. They are also very
inquisitive about the happening around the world. Be it the technology in new
gadgets, sports, politics and products that have been introduced in the market. They
are quite intelligent as a matter of fact, due to their inquisition. They are very
cooperative and cheerful and when interacted. There is no cunningness or malice for
anyone and are satisfied with whatever they earn out of the hard work. During the
hectic day they will always manage to get a couple of good laughs over matters that
would seem ambiguous or childish to us.
Low Operation Cost - The costs involved in carrying out the daily routines are very
low if you compare it to any logistical company. The main expenditure is on their
travelling only which too, is by the cheapest and fastest mode of transport in the city.
50
Besides trains, they operate on bicycles or on foot which is also very cheap. Bicycles
require negligible expenses because they are easy to maintain. The information
system is neither computerized nor does it involve paper work. It is simply done by
marking codes on the top oh the Tiffins with coloured pencils or paint or chalk. The
money matters are handled individually by the groups and therefore the incomes and
common expenses are borne by the groups itself. It is difficult to find any other
organization that operates on such a large scale and yet is so cost efficient.
Conventional working methods - the working methodology of the dabbawalla’s is
totally conventional. It consists of non-technology based techniques and yet is very
efficient. There is absolutely no computerization involved in maintaining client
accounts, the systematic networking of tiffins carriage, in maintaining records of the
number of dabbawalla’s the number of absentees or even complaints. All this is
handled individually by the respective groups. For the number of tiffins allotted, each
dabbawalla is responsible for collecting the money from his clients. And he has to
handle their complaints too. If there are major disputes they have to resolve during
the monthly meetings held at Dadar. That are convened by the association, there is
no paperwork involved as well. All the transport logistics, clients account, Tiffin
allocation etc are handled without any book keeping or by maintaining records. All
the functions are discussed within the group initially and the same is carried out
regularly. There is no change in their working method at all. All principles and
methods have been predefined and have been kept simple enough to avoid any
need of automation or complexity Considering all these factors, it is laudable that the
dabbawalla still manage all the deliveries, client accounts and differences in income
and expenditure so efficiently. Customer satisfaction - The clients of the
dabbawalla’s are an extremely satisfied lot. They have no disputes with the
dabbawalla’s as matters can be resolved face to face and in most cases, the
dabbawalla’s policy makes things simpler. If in a particular case the client’s Tiffin
gets misplaced or lost, the dabbawala takes the responsibility irrespective of the fact
that another carrier working in the destination area might have lost the dabba. It was
primarily the responsibility of the dabbawala who is under the respective client’s
contract to ensure the safety of the Tiffin. He has taken his own decision to delegate
51
the job of delivery to another member and hence, he has to bear the loss for the
misplaced Tiffin - box. Therefore this policy being simple as it is the client is quite
satisfied because there are no disputes and claim issues. In other cases such as
leaves, the dabbawala would usually intimate the group members about his being
unable to attend the duties on a particular day and hence, the backup member would
catty out the duty on his behalf. Therefore, because of the absence of the usual
dabbawalla, the client is not totally deprived of the services, as there is a back up in
the most cases. Other leaves include the week long holiday that all dabbawalla’s
take to attend the annual festival at their village. This information is provided to the
client before hand, and is intimated one week in advance. So that is not inconvenient
at last moment.
WEAKNESSES
Funds for the association - The association has very limited funds for the
organization. Every dabbawalla has to deposit Rs. 15 every month to the
association. With around 4,500 dabbawalla’s working that would amount to Rs.
67,500 for the association per month that translates to over Rs. 8 lakhs. With this
fund, the association has to maintain all the pilgrimage places where it has set tip
dharamshalas. It also has to sponsor certain welfare benefits to the dabbawalla in
terms of medical aid and financial aid to the family members of the dabbawala
involved in an accident. The association can accumulate more funds and allocate
them for programs such as children education, upliftment of communities at village
level and other well benefits. But this shortage of funds hinders these possibilities.
High dependability on local trains - The entire dabbawala network, barring a few
who function independently on bicycles, is totally dependent on the functioning of the
railways. They work only if the train works. Therefore, during the bandh or
railwaystrikes, the dabbawalla’s call off their duties, Of course, the customers do
understand the problem and the case of the dabbawalla’s taking an off due to non -
functioning of railways is again, a rare case. The local trains of Mumbai do not stop
in case of heavy monsoons or even during riots. The trains are hence, very efficient
in their daily functionality. This enables thedabbawalla’s to perform their operations
regularly enough. But the underlined fact is that they function only when the trains
52
function and therefore their over dependence on the railway net work is an
undeniable weakness.
Illiteracy - the majority of the members of’ the dabbawala association can only
manage to sign their names. They are unable to read or write in English. This poses
as a major problem in case the individual leaves the association and has look at an
alternative profession. His inability to write will then pose a problem to his own
survival. The association does not take any up any initiative to educate the
dabbawalla’s. As a part of its welfare and social commitment, education is absent
from the agenda. But the dabbawalla’s do manage to carry out their operations with
their limited ability to read and write. They are able to comprehend the codes
imprinted on the tiffins. If they are totally illiterate, they ale trained to that level but in
most cases, the dabbawalla’s do not require this kind of training because the
association has set a minimum criterion for the applicants who want to join the
association. They must be able to understand the basic alphabets and numbers.
Unfortunately in today’s times it is necessary to acquire proper knowledge and
education to secure one’s future. Not all dabbawalla’s work till they are 65 or 70
years old and therefore they require the knowledge to support themselves. Thus, it is
definitely a weak point.
OPPORTUNITIES
Advertising - the dabbawalla’s have been approached by various companies before
for advertising on the Tiffin’s the most famous and successful campaign to date has
been the ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ advertisement. Star Plus approached the
organisation and offered a meagre amount of Rs.10, 000 for pasting its stickers on
every Tiffin box. This is incidentally the standard rate the association charges from
every company that wishes to advertise. The ‘9 baj gaye kya?‘ campaign was a great
success as all office goers would notice this on their Tiffin boxes everyday and would
hence remember to watch the programme 9 pm every night. It had great recall value
at that time. Thus, association has several more opportunities to grab in form of
additional revenue that arises from these ads. It caters to over 1, 50,000 people
everyday and the cost for the advertising is also minute compared to the exposure
that it offers. The contract would be on a weekly basis or a month basis.
53
Other cities - The dabbawalla network could also work in other cities but in a smaller
scale. Cities like Pune already have a small network of dabbawalla’s who operate on
bicycles only. There is definitely a source of income in such cities as there is a huge
market. Although, the absence of a efficient railway network that is gifted to Mumbai
city exclusively could pose a problem, it is nevertheless quite possible to operate on
a medium scale compared to Mumbai. Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad,
Ahmedabad etc are few cities where office goers have to commute daily to their work
places also, the dabbawalla’s can cater to the needs of school going children. It will
be a more rigorous exercise if the dabbawalla’s were to travel by bicycle across the
length and breadth of cities but small cities such as Pune can be manageable and
then cities like Delhi now have the Metro Rail as an efficient means of transport.
Thus, these cities are a great opportunity for the dabbawalla’s to expand their service
network.
Catering – considering the increasing competition from restaurants and catering
services, the dabbawalla’s also can, in a small way, start their own catering service
for customers. There are a large number of customers who find it difficult to prepare
the lunch early in the morning. Especially in the case of working women who have to
prepare lunch for their husband and her self and also to manage to reach the office
on time. In such cases, if there could be the convenience of catering as well as
delivery services. It would be an ideal benefit to many customers. The dabbawalla’s
can manage the catering at a central location (e.g. Dadar) and then, a few of the
dabbawalla’s can pick up the tiffins from the catering centre and deliver them to
various offices. In this manner, the customers can get the benefit of warm food at the
lunch hour and without undergoing the pain of preparing lunch early in the morning
while managing other affairs. This in fact, is one of the biggest opportunities for the
dabbawalla’s to tap.
THREATS
The business of the dabbawalla’s has to withstand major shocks during the last
decade. Textile Industry Shutdown – a major chunk of the clientele was lost with
the closure of the textile mills in Mumbai. These mills constituted a huge labour force
and thus their closure was a severe blow to dabbawalla’s.
54
Change in Timings – many of the city’s banks changed their timings from 10:30 hrs
to 11:00 hrs. The RBI employees was used to leave for work at 9:00 am previously
and so there were crates of tiffins leaving from colonies but after the change in
timings, they can leave an hour later and take their lunch with them as they have
sufficient time for preparation. Company Transport – the main benefit that the
dabbawalla serve for the most office goers is the convenience of going hands free to
work by trains during the rush hours but now many of the companies has started pick
up and delivery us service for their employees. This again, is a loss of clientele for
the dabbawalla’s
Subsidized Lunch – many of the schools and companies are now of offering
subsidized lunch in their in-house canteens. Hence, the students and employees
Don’t have to carry tiffins anymore.
Catering Services - these services pose the biggest threat to the
dabbawalla’s.Private organizations provide cheap food delivered hot and fresh.
Usually, they charge anything between Rs.20 per Tiffin to Rs.40 per Tiffin. This price
is inclusive of food and delivery!! Predatory pricing one might say but it works
brilliantly with people who are willing to compromise with home cooked food.
Eatery Stalls - while eating trends have changed and so there is a decrease in the
demand for the dabbawala’s service. The number of eating options has increased
drastically. Not only restaurants but cheaper outlets serving a variety of meals are
now a flourishing business. These stalls and outlets prepare huge vessels filled with
a complete meal and sell it for merely Rs. 15 only! Briyanis, fish curry, rice plate,
Chinese food etc are among the variety of’ cuisines offered at really cheap rates.
Almost every lane in downtown Mumbai has some outlet or the other. People get
used to the taste and do not care too much about the quality. In most cases, the
quality is genuinely good in case of meals that are pre - cooked and served. Ticket
Restaurant – many offices have started using coupons to their employees which are
valid at particular restaurants they’re known as Ticket Restaurants. Employee
canenjoy restaurant grade food at the company’s expense. Smoking Joes, Shiv
Sagar, Copper chimney etc are some of the ticket restaurants.
Over comings these threats is a great challenge for the dabbawala’s. In most cases,
55
it is impossible for them to substitute the eatery stalls and subsidized food offered by
companies but the advantage to them still remains that their customers can get warm
home cooked food at the lunch hour.
Chapter 15
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
The Dabbawalla’s are known and recognized for its negligible number of
56
transactional errors. We now discuss in detail what is behind such an outstanding

performance.
Flexible Infrastructure: The back bone of Dabbawalla’s is the higher frequency of
sub-urban train services. There is a train service virtually every minute. The entire
operational area of Dabbawalla’s is serviced by the well developed rail-way
infrastructure. Further, the train services are inexpensively priced.
Customer Co-operation: The members of the co-operative do not wait for lunch
boxes, if they are not ready when they arrive for collection at residences. The
household understands the need to be punctual to support i.e. functioning of
Dabbawalla’s and extend appropriate co-operation.
Appropriate Network Structure: The logistics network of Dabbawalla’s is
acombination of milkman route, hub-hub transfer, and hub and spoke distribution.
There is perfect symmetry in the reverse logistics operation.
Codification system: The codification system is the core to material flow and its
tracking in the system. It is home grown, ad hoc but serves adequately the purpose
for which it is designed. It is a combination of alphabets, symbols and colour. It is
unique to Dabbawalla’s. The codification is a combination of systems approach and
personalized information available to members. It is specific to the extent required.
Topography: The Dabbawalla’s have evolved in the context of Mumbai city. The
operational area topography is linear. At the origination it is dispersed over a large
area. At the destination it is concentrated on a smaller geographical area. The traffic
pattern is characterized by low volume spread over larger area to high volume
spread over small area. Process Capability: The total time required from collection
to delivery is about 3 hours. End to end (conservative) travel time - 1.30 hrs. Travel
time to the nearest railway stationat the origin 30 mts. sorting and material handling
etc. - 30 mts. and final dispatch - 30mts. All this adds up to 3 hours. However, the
time available for end-end delivery is at least 4 hours. Thus the Dabbawalla’s
process is inherently capable of meeting customer expectations and specifications.
Further, the delivery of the lunch boxes is consolidated at the floor level at the
consumer location. In a place like Mumbai, this saves significant time, energy and
possible complications. The customers also participate in the last step of the (lunch
57
box) delivery process. Further, it makes no difference to the customer (on time
dimension) as long as the delivery is made before 1300 hrs.
Transport economics: The public infrastructure (sub-urban rail network) is used to
deliver lunch boxes. This keeps the cost low, and hence affordable price to
consumers. Lower price induces volume and scale economics. Depending on the
need (at the origin and destination locations) the allocation of manpower is dynamic
and flexible. There aremore members to handle large volume at destination. At
collection centers it is more of spread and appropriate volume and member
ownership. Every customer location is identified with a team member. It is his
(members) responsibility to collect lunch boxes and return empty boxes back home.
The codification system incorporates this specific need. Actually the Dabbawalla’s
assign specific collection routes to individual members.
Redundancy: Each route (collection) is assigned to an individual member. Often,
this information on collection route is know11 to every other member in the team.
Should there be a need to substitute a member on collection route it can be done
effortlessly, without affecting the collection process and its accuracy.
Coordination: The responsibility to collect, transport and deliver lunch boxes is at
the individual member level. There are no managers or supervisors in the system.
Every member is motivated, trained, disciplined and empowered to do his job to the
best of his ability.
Structure: The structure is decentralized. The model is scalable (on volume). It is a
three tier structure, co-operative organization. The basic units are individuals, teams
and groups. There are in all 120 business units.
Compensation: Compensation in a group is same to every member irrespective of
work load and responsibility.
CHAPTER 16
LESSONS TO LEARN FROM THE DABBAWALLA’S
The Dabbawalla’s provide illustrations of several well known world class business
practices. It has all the salient features of a brilliant business strategy. We first
58
discuss briefly the elegant management practices and then outline the business
strategy.
Structure and Organization: The Dabbawalla’s is organized as a co-operative
structure to symbolize equality and fairness. The three tier structure is readily
scalable based on business opportunity and volume. It eminently suits the attention
needed at specific territories (group level). It ensures attention to detail and
decentralization (at optimal resource deployment) at the team level. The team is
nothing but a confederation of members. Each member is associated with a route. In
this sense, the revenue opportunity is well integrated with the organization structure.
The scale and scope economics are managed respectively by the teams and groups.
The present structure is an optimal way of delivering centralized planning and
decentralized execution of business services.
Codification System: This pragmatic codification system ensures complete
traceability of lunch boxes in the system. It enables material flow and tracking of
individual boxes by detailed information. It is inexpensive, less elegant, yet detailed
enough to support operations. It integrates the knowledge and information of
individual members on route, origin, handling agent, destination address etc. In a
sense it is a variation of an online transaction processing system to identify and track
material in (such) a large system
HR Practices: The Dabbawalla’s is built on (members) pride in work. The members
do not consider themselves as logistics (operation) providers. They consider their job
is to provide food to their customers. This is source of pride for them. It is a great
motivator to improve and sustain their performance. The members belong to a
homogeneous (ethnic) group. There is a well developed apprenticeship program.
Compensation: The compensation is same at the group level. Equal work equal
pay. There is no subsidy since group is a homogeneous and logically a differentiating
entity.
Redundancy: The team members have slack capacity. Substitutability among
members in a team is easy. Flexible manpower deployment at the destination
ensures operationalaccuracy. More than one team operating in an originating train
station ensures internal competition and operational efficiency.
59
Fun and Work Mix: After delivery of lunch boxes, the members break away from
work to enjoy their leisure time. There is a one week forced holiday every year to visit
their (member) villages. Mutual respect for individuals and empowerment are
reinforcing features. Members are expected to conduct themselves to earn respect
from public. They were uniform while at work.
Transportation Economics: Dabbawalla’s is an example of a judicious mix of
transportation economics. At the collection point it is a milk man route structure. This
is supported by a hub-hub transfer to handle large volume at reduced operational
cost. At the destination, it is hub to spoke to ensure response time and handle
volume flexibility. The rail infrastructure ensures flexibility and lower cost of
operation. Flexible manpower deployment and codification system guarantee
appropriate response time, smooth flow of information and material tracking in the
system.
Inspite of death the delivery is impeccable: Some months ago, a dabbawalla
waiting on his bicycle at a traffic light was hurled off the road by a lorry gone berserk
and was smashed to death. Yet, even in such an extreme situation, his quota of
dabba’s was delivered. News travels fast on the network. The Mukadam got to hear
of the accident within minutes and contracted the secretary of the Association (who
patrols the city for just this kind of emergency), asked him to look after the police
formalities, collected the dead man's dabba’s, and being familiar with the symbols,
got them to their destination — just 30 minutes late. Bombay's salute to its
dabbawalla's, as you see, is well deserved.
CHAPTER 17
NETWORK MANAGEMENT: LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN

MANAGEMENT
60
About Logistics
Logistics is happening around the globe, 24 hours of every day seven days a week
during 52 weeks a year. It is difficult to visualize accomplishing any marketing or
manufacturing anything without logistical support.
Logistics has been performed since the beginning of civilization. However,
implementing best practice of logistics has become one of the most exciting and
challenging operational areas of business and public sector management.
Logistics is concerned with getting products and services where they are needed
when they are desired. The operating responsibility of logistics is geographical
positioning of raw materials, work in progress and finished inventories where
required at the lowest cost possible. Logistics involves integration of information,
transportation, and inventory. Warehousing, internal handling, and packaging. All of
these areas of work provide a variety of stimulating jobs the overall goal being to
achieve targeted level of customer service at the lowest possible cost.
Logistical competency is achieved by coordinating the following:
 Network Design
 Information
 Transportation
 Inventory
 Warehousing, material handling, and packaging.
Two qualifications are important when discussing logistical work from point of single
enterprise. First, all firms require the support co-operation of many other businesses
to compete in the overall logistical process. Second, there are service firms that
perform logistical work on behalf of their customers such as transportation carriers.
Logistics management is a field of management, which primarily deals with the
coordination or resources of in an organization. Logistics management focuses on an
organization as a whole and not on individual units and departments while deciding
the allocation of resources men, money materials, machines and time.
It is through the logistical process that the materials flow into the vast
manufacturingcapacity of an individual nation and products are distributed through
61
marketing channels to consumers. The problem of logistics management becomes

increasingly complex as the volume of business increases, and as the distances
between the procurement centre, production centre and market consumption centre
increase.
The overall goal being to achieve targeted level of customer service at the minimum
possible cost. Logistics involves detailed and complex work. Logistics managers are
responsible for planning and administrating this work. Thus logistics management is
defined as under:
Definition of Logistics
The definition of logistics adopted by the Council of Logistics Management is “the
process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, effective flow and
storage of goods, services, and related information from point of origin to point of
consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements.”
Note that this definition includes inbound, outbound, internal, and external
movements, and return of materials for environmental purposes.
The Logic of Logistics Transportation is vital to logistics and supply chain success.
Yet by defining yourself solely as a freight company, you’re essentially defining
yourself as a commodity service. And with a commodity, the only way to distinguish
one companyfrom another is price. That can be a dangerous, myopic alternative.
As a logistics service provider, you expand what you offer the customer. You may
provide a warehousing service, for example. But it is not a separate, discrete service.
It is integrated in with your transportation. You may integrate with your customer’s
systems towork with him to manage the movement of products to meet production or
customer requirements.
When mulling the pros and cons of a move towards logistics, consider the
following:
• As a commodity service, you’re vulnerable and can be replaced by your
customers. As a logistics provider, you’re integrated into your supplier
Replacing you isn’t so easy.
• Many customers issue bid requests and select largely on price. Some
62
readily drop carriers over rates.

• Career advancement in your customers’ logistics departments requires a
rounded experience of responsibilities and promotions. Often the way to
accomplish this is to change companies. This turnover of logistics decision
makers can create adangerous situation for incumbent carriers. The new
executive wants to be asuccess and may bring his own set of preferred
carriers with him.
• Logistics departments aren’t staffed as they once were. They’re looking for
service providers who can do more and make their job easier.
Of course, providing a logistics service means more than putting the word “logistics”
in Your company name. It means offering truly integrated services. One that is
tailored to meet the specific needs and requirement of each customer, a customized
service rather than a homogenized service.
Developing that service can be difficult. Intermodal companies aren’t used to thinking
in terms of tailored and integrated service. This is true whether you’re looking at how
to sell it, how to design it or how to implement and operate it. You may need to call in
outside consultants to work with you and your customer. But if done properly, the
effort will be worth it to your bottom line.
One last hint and this applies whether you explore logistics as a separate third-
party company or as opportunities arise with customers: look at the small and
medium-sized businesses. Everyone chases the major corporations, yet small
businesses comprise by far the majority of companies in the U.S. The next time
you’re making your pitch at some corporate HQ, think about all the small businesses
you drove by on the way in.
About Supply Chain Management
A supply chain is the process of moving goods from the customer order through the
raw materials stage, supply, production, and distribution of products to the customer.
Allorganizations have supply chains of varying degree’s, depending upon the size of
the organization and the type of product manufactured. These networks obtain
supplies and components, change these materials into finished products and then
distribute them to the customer.
63
Managing the chain of events in this process is what is known as supply chain
management. Effective management must take into account coordinating all the
different pieces of this chain as quickly as possible without losing any of the quality
or customer satisfaction, while still keeping costs down.
The first step is obtaining a customer order, followed by production, storage and
distribution of products and supplies to the customer site. Customer satisfaction is
paramount. Included in this supply chain process are customer orders, order
processing, inventory, scheduling, transportation, storage, and customer service. A
necessity in coordinating all these activities is the information service network.
In addition, key to the success of a supply chain is the speed in which these activities
canbe accomplished and the realization that customer needs and customer
satisfaction are the very reasons for the network. Reduced inventories, lower
operating costs, productavailability and customer satisfaction are all benefits which
grow out of effective supply chain management.
The decisions associated with supply chain management cover both the long-term
and short-term. Strategic decisions deal with corporate policies, and look at overall
design andsupply chain structure. Operational decisions are those dealing with every
day activities and problems of an organization. Therefore, an organization must
structure the supply chain through long-term analysis and at the same time focus on
the day-to-day activities. Furthermore, market demands, customer service, transport
considerations, and pricing constraints all must be understood in order to structure
the supply chain effectively. These are all factors, which change constantly and
sometimes unexpectedly, and an organizationmust realize this fact and be prepared
to structure the supply chain accordingly.
Structuring the supply chain requires an understanding of the demand patterns,
service level requirements, distance considerations, cost elements and other related
factors. It is easy to see that these factors are highly variable in nature and this
variability needs to be considered during the supply chain analysis process.
Moreover, the interplay of these complex considerations could have a significant
bearing on the outcome of the supply chain analysis process. There are six key
elements to a supply chain:
64
 Production
 Supply
 Inventory
 Location
 Transportation, and
 Information
The Issues
The supply chain has also been called the value chain and the service chain,
depending on the “fad of the moment”, or sometimes, we think, the weather, or sun
spot activity. Just like anything else, supply chain management is no panacea, nor
should it be embraced as a religion. It is an operational strategy that, if implemented
properly, will provide a new dimension to competing: quickly introducing new
customized high quality products and delivering them with unprecedented lead times,
swift decisions, and manufacturing products with high velocity. Software companies
have jumped on the bandwagon and attempted to claim SCM as their own.
Information transfer is critical to swiftly moving parts through the chain of processes,
but information is only one of six key elements.
Definition of Supply chain Management (SCM)
The definition of supply chain management adopted by the Ohio State University’s
Global SCM Forum is “the integration of business processes from end user through
original suppliers that provide products, services, and information that add value for
customers.”
Integration of Logistics and the Supply-Chain
Logistics is the time-related positioning of resource, or the strategic management of
the total supply-chain.
The supply-chain is a sequence of events intended to satisfy a customer It can
include procurement, manufacture, distribution, and waste disposal, together with
associated transport, storage and information technology .
The application of logistics is essential to the efficient management of the supply-
chain Transport is an integral part of the supply-chain, not only between the
sequence of events but during the processes.
65
Transportation, Containerization and Consolidation

Transportation
Many factors contribute to economic and social progress but mobility is especially
important because the ingredients of a satisfactory life, from food and health to
educationand employment, are generally available only if there is adequate means of
moving people, goods FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER PLACE over lands, rivers,
canals, lakes, seas and oceans by using vehicles moving on road, rail, water and air.
This means “ All biological laws support perishing of human beings with the first ‘Ice
Age’. The mainreason for their survival was development of a healthy habit of
accepting the challenge of nature at each and every step of development. The
discovery of fire no doubt, was an important achievement but it is also right to
mention that all inventions made so far, the wheel is probably the most important
66
with far reaching efforts, Over 5000 years ago, the wheel was first invented in
Mesopotamia. The new invention soon spread over the world like wild fire. At the
outset, the Middle East and Egypt and later Europe and other of Globe module of
wheel were used for different purposes. In true sense, this new invention npromoted
a new concept of development in which “Speed” could receive and over riding
priority.
A well-managed system of transport acts as a catalyst of economic transformation. In
India or elsewhere the greatest revolution in road transport took place with advent
mechanized road vehicle. Of late, we find transport the de-facto barometer of social,
economic and commercial progress. It has been successful in transporting the entire
unit moved on road through sea and air across the oceans and continents. Transport
is not an end in itself but a means to an end that is enabling goods to get to a place
where they will be of a great value. The primary aim of transport is to add utility of
place. In other words each stage of the process from production to consumption
adds value to the product, adds to its utility of place.
Transport is the lifeline of any country. Development of a country to the large extent
depends on the infrastructure and the feasibility to connect places. To achieve
economy in pricing easier availability of goods and products and easy access to far
flung and to distant, places, land transport plays vital role. The fundamentals of
transport economics rely mainly on reduction and elimination of wastage and making
the process of providing transport cost efficient.
Even after 53 years of independence the country’s infrastructure link connecting
business places is yet to develop fully. Road set-up even on the national highways is
not up to international standards. Rising fuel prices, unsatisfactory condition of roads,
environmental hazards of fuel to fire. Need of the hour therefore is to compliment
land coordinate the expertise and experience of all modes of transport to mutual and
social benefits ultimately the customer/consumer (industry in this case) is the king
and his satisfaction should be the only measure, but joining hands pooling resources
and identifying the strength of each mode to develop the transport sector as a whole.
The main operating objective of transport is to move goods from one place to
67
another. Moving goods from place to place should be undertaken safely,

economically and to the proposed time-table (schedule); this does not mean that the
fastest possible speed by consistent with the price and quality of service is readily on
offer.
Given a facility of network and information capability, transportation is the operational

area of logistics that geographically positions inventory. Because of its fundamental
importance, visible cost transportation has received considerable managerial
attentionover the years. Transportation requirements can be accomplished in 3 basic
ways as follows
 Private fleet of equipment.
 Arranging a contract with specialist.
 Common carriage.
These three forms of transportation are typically referred to as private contract

andcommon carriage. From the logistical viewpoint, three factors fundamental to
transportation performance are cost, speed and consistency.
The cost of transportation is the payments for movements between two
geographical locations and expenses related to administration and maintaining in
transit inventory. Logistical systems should be designed to utilize transportation that
minimizes total system cost. This means that the least expensive transportation does
not always result in the total cost of movement.
We can relate it with the Dabbawalla’s since the cost of transportation in here is
nominal as they travel mostly by trains and while on roads they have their own
bicycles, handcarts etc. Speed of transportation is the time required to complete a
specific movement. Speed & cost of transportation are related in two ways. Firstly
transportation firms capable of providing faster service, typically charge higher rates
and secondly, the faster thetransportation service, the shorter the time interval during
which inventory is m transit and unavailable Thus, a critical aspect of selecting the
most desirable method of transportation is to work out a best balance/compromise
between speed and cost of service matched with demand of consumption keeping
68
minimum inventories.
We can relate it with the Dabbawalla’s since they have the maximum speed for
transportation, because it is seen in their efficiency to reach a long route through
minimal amount of time.
Consistency of transportation refers to variations in time required to perform a
specific movement over a number of shipments. Consistency is the reflection of the
dependability of transportation. For years, transportation managers have considered
consistency the most important characteristic of quality transportation. If a given
movement takes 2 days one time and six days the next the unexpected variance can
create serious logistical operational problems. If transportation lacks consistency,
inventory safety stocks will be required to protect against unpredictable service
breakdowns. Transportation consistencyaffects both the seller’s and buyers overall
inventory commitment and risk. With the advent of the new information technology to
control and report shipment status, logistics manger has begun to seek faster service
while maintaining consistency.
We can relate it with the Dabbawalla’s a they have maximum consistency in their
work they do not let the Tiffin’s to pile up at one place for more than 2 hours at one
place as soon as the concerned person receives his own stock of Tiffin’s he
dispatches them accordingly.
Transportation is one of the most visible elements of logistics operation. It noted that
10 - 20 percent of the material cost is transportation cost. The logistician’s view of
transportation services has changed dramatically during the last fifteen years. Prior
tofederal deregulation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, transportation service
offerings were restricted and rates were relatively fixed. In this environment, the
logistician’s role could be likened to a purchaser of any other commodity such as
coal or grain. There was very little differentiation among suppliers of transportation
terms of either quality or price.
De-regulation allowed more pricing flexibility for carriers and also significantly
reduced restrictions on transportation services and relationships require today’s
logistician to be more proactive in identifying the most desirable combination of
69
carrier services and pricing structures to meet the firm’s objectives.

A wider range of transportation alternatives exists today for product or raw material
movement than ever before. For example, a firm may consider for hire
transportation, private transportation, or a variety of f contractual arrangements with
different transport specialists.
Transport Functionality
Transportation is one of the most visible logistics operations, as customers we are
accustomed to seeing trucks and trains moving product or parked at distribution
facility. While this experience provides good visual understanding of transportation
elements, it doesn’t allow the necessary depth of knowledge to understand
transportation’s role in logistics operation. In order to establish the foundation
reviewing the functionality provided by transportation and principles of transport
operations is essential.
Transport functionality provides two major functions: product movement and storage.
Product Movement
Whether the product is in the form of materials, components, assemblies, work in
process, or finished goods, transportation is necessary to move it to the next stage of
the manufacturing process or physically closer to the ultimate customer. A primary
transportation function is product movement up and down the value chain. Since
transportation utilizes temporal, financial, and environmental resources, it is
important that items be moved only when it truly enhances product value.
Transportation involves the use of temporal resources because product is
inaccessible during the transportation process. Such product, commonly referred to
as in transit inventory, is becoming a significant consideration as a variety of supply
chain strategies such as just in —time and quick response practices reduce
manufacturing distribution centre inventories.
Transportation uses financial resources because internal expenditures are necessary

for private fleets or external expenditures are required for commercial or public
transportation. Expenses result from driver labour, vehicle operating cost, and some
allocation for general and administrative costs. In addition, consideration of other
70
expenses resulting product loss or damage must be made.
Transportation uses environmental resources both directly and indirectly. In direct

terms, it is one of the world’s largest consumers of energy (i.e. fuel & oil); indirectly
transportation creates environmental expense through congestion, air and noise
pollution.
The major objective of transportation is to move product from origin location to

aprescribed destination while minimizing temporal, financial and environmental
resourcecost, loss and damage expenses must also be minimized. At the same time,
the movement must take place in a manner that meets customer demands regarding
deliveryperformance and shipment information availability.
As seen in case of the Dabbawalla’s, they have a unique way of transportation by the
maximum use of Mumbai city’s lifeline the railways and also while on roads the
usage of handcarts, bicycles etc.
Product Storage
A less common transportation function is temporary storage. Vehicles make
otherexpensive storage facilities. However if the in transit product requires storage
but will be moved again shortly, the cost of unloading and reloading the product in a
warehouse mayexceed the per diem (daily) charge of storage in the transportation
vehicle. But the costly product storage cost may be justified from the total cost or
performance perspective when loading or unloading costs, capacity constraints, or
the ability to extend lead times is considered.
In circumstances warehouse space is limited; utilizing transporting vehicle may be of

viable option. One method involves loading products on the vehicle and the having it
take a circuitous or indirect route to its destination. With a circuitous, transit times is
greater than with a more direct route. This is desirable when the origin or
destinationwarehouse has limited storage capacity. In essence, the transportation
vehicle is being used, as a temporary storage option but is moving rather than sitting
idle.
71
A second method to achieve temporary product storage is diversion. This occurs

when an original shipment destination is changed while delivery is in transit. For
example, suppose a product is initially scheduled to be shift from Chicago to Los
Angles. However, if during the delivery process it is determined that San Francisco is
in greater need of the product or has available storage capacity, the product could be
diverted to the direct diversion strategies. Today, satellite communication between
enterprise headquarters and vehicle more efficiently handle the task.
As seen in case of the Dabbawalla’s, they normally store the tiffins to be transported
in metal containers, this is temporary storage, then the Tiffin’s are consolidated in a
large wooden box to be transported through railways.
Containerization
The container as the name implies is equipment used to store and carry goods.
Containerization - The Concept of ‘Unit-Load’
Containerization is method of distributing merchandise in a unitized from
therebypermitting an inter model transport system to be evolved providing a possible
combination of rail, road, canal and maritime transport.
With a view to saving time and cost while handling, loading, discharging and
transporting, cargos are consolidated and made as huge a unit as possible (like 5
tons, 40tons etc) so that at every point of handling of the unit time is saved hence
cost is saved. In case of Dabbawalla’s the unit load is maximum 80 Kgs per person.
This system helps to increase many fold productivity in cargo handling by displaying
labour. Moreover when unit load is bigger manual operation is not possible hence
mechanical methods are introduced involving capital investment.
Containers:
The container as the meaning implies is equipment used to store and carry goods. In
shipping the term was to refer to any of box used to carry. Presently also a container
is known as ‘box’ or’ van’ in many countries, particularly in U.S.A.
The international organization for standardization (ISO) defined a freight container
as: An article of transport equipment.
• Of a permanent character and accordingly strong enough by be suitable for
repeated use:
72
• Specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes

of transport, without intermediate reloading;
• Fitted with devices permitting its ready handling particularly its transfer to
another;
• So designed as to be easy to fill and empty;
• Having an internal volume of 1m3 (35.3cu.ft) or more.
Further the general-purpose freight container is defined as follows:

A freight container is rectangular in shape, weatherproof used for transporting and
storing a number of units loads packages or bulk material it confines and protects the
contents from loss or damage it can be separated from the means of transport,
handled as a unit load and transhipped without rehandling the contents.
This was related to containerization in general. If we relate containerization with the
Dabbawalla’s we get to see small metal containers enough to carry a Tiffin. If
thecomparison is made between the two one can say that generally the containers
are much bigger in size due to the products they carry, it also depends on the area of
operations and the weather conditions and also the costs involved.
What is Consolidation?
Among the various definitions available, perhaps the definition given by Mr. P .K. Lim
(ESCAP-Bangkok) is noteworthy:
“Consolidation or Groupage essentially means assembly of small parcels of cargo
from several consignors at one point of origin, intended for several consignees at the
point of destination and dispatching the consolidated consignment to the forwarder’s
agent for delivery to the respective consignees. The forwarder issues his own Bill of
Lading or receipt to the consignor of each parcel against the production of which
delivery to the consignee will be affected at the destination. The individual
consignors or consignees do not deal with the carrier direct.”
Sometimes a distinction is made between consolidation and Group age: Group age
is a form of consolidation initiated by the consignee. When a big importer buys from
several traders, he arranges for consolidation of his goods and the benefit solely
goes to the importer and not to the shipper or the consolidator. The consolidator in
73
this case gets only the service charges. Consolidators do not own vessels or
represent owners of carriers and often they d not own containers or other necessary
equipments. They are known as ‘Non- Vessel Owning / Operating Common Carrier’
(NVOCC) operator. Such operators are numerous in the USA. They are also referred
to as Multimodal Transport Operators (MTOS) when they assume responsibility for
execution of multimodal transport contract, arranging with different modes of
transport to carry thecontainers from the point of origin to the point of destination.
This was related to consolidation m general If we relate it with the Dabbawalla’s we

can observe that due to the area of operations, size of the products and the costs
involved the consolidation of the Tiffin’s is much smaller in nature.
Marketing Strategy
Create Competitive Advantage with Logistics
Why should your customers do business with you? Why should they want to do
business with you? What makes you special? How do you distinguish yourself from
your competitors? How do you position yourself to be a desired supplier? These are
the types of questions businesses must address as they work to grow.
4P’s of Marketing One of the 4P’s, the marketing mix; of marketing management is
the base for developing a dynamic competitive strategy.
Product: This is very much required. Today’s customers want choices, features, and
options. The days of Henry Ford and a black model A are long gone. These choices
create additional challenges with being able to forecast demands for the various
products and options/features. Then once your product is established, then you have
to look at additional incentives for your customers to want to buy from you. In case of
Dabbawalla’s the product is the service, which they are offering, which is indeed
successful here in Mumbai.
Promotion: You have to have a way for others to learn of your products, create
awareness. Advertising is one way. Advertising can be expensive and can be difficult
to measure the direct impact and benefit of this. And customers are often
overburdened with sales promotions that yours may be lost in all the promotional
morass what exactly do you promote and why
74
In case of Dabbawalla’s they do not much need the promotion activity but also can’t
deny the fact that they will never need promotion ever again
Price: This is to establish a value for your product, and for doing business with you.
Price is the way to create revenues and profits. The danger with price is that if it is
emphasized too much, you reduce your product to being a commodity, where price is
the only way to distinguish your product from your competitors. The pricing of the
Dabbawalla’s is very nominal, which is working best for all the people of all income
groups.
Place: This is logistics. Having your goods in the right place at the right time. And
this is the area that has been underutilized in the marketing mix. Logistics
effectiveness can be a way to become a desired supplier, build market recognition,
handle the multiple products and options, create value-added, and set you apart from
your competitors.
In case of Dabbawalla’s the place matters the most as where the Tiffin’s have to be
picked and where to be delivered and also ensure right delivery at the right time.
Reason for Strategy
Make competitive advantage through logistics excellence your strategy. Exploit
logistics service and performance to set you apart from your competitors. It is a
unique approach.
Make it a core competency. Incorporate logistics as a critical element of your
marketing and business strategy to grow your sales. Effective logistics can
significantly contribute to positioning yourself as a Preferred Supplier. Product,
promotion and price have been used for years by companies to develop recognition.
Now it’s time to exploit and incorporatePlace, i.e., Logistics, as the base for a
marketing and business strategy to grow the business and to gain market share.
Customers would perceive that you provide a competitively superior value and
service. That is a strong foundation for growth.
Logistics presents a way to market yourself to customers. There is only so much that
canbe done with promotion and price. A value-added logistics strategy is a strong
way to be apreferred supplier because your customers are saying you are worth
doing business with it. They say, “We want to do business with you.” You will grow
75
maybe even into portions of the market you had not reached before.
Looking at it another way, you may have a great product, sound promotion efforts
and a good price. But if you are difficult in doing business with, in fulfilling orders and
timely and completely meeting customer requirements, you may not achieve
maximum growth. You could even lose sales and market share with a poor logistics
service.
A marketing strategy based on logistics, and the customer benefits and service it
brings, works whether your customers are domestic or international. You can be a
market leader, not a follower. Be aggressive; be an innovator, not a reactor. When
you are only reacting, instead of innovating, you have put yourself in the catch-up
mode. As such, you maynever quite sure of what you should be doing and why.
With this strategy, you position yourself as a valued supplier. Price issues, while
always important, can be balanced with the service you provide. This can create
opportunities for enhanced price opportunities. And if you are a preferred supplier,
your customers recognize that. They promote you and what you bring to the table.
With this strategy, you demonstrate to customers how important they are and how
much you value them.
Approach
To develop the strategy, three assessments must be made--your customers and
their requirements, your competitors and they perform, and your own performance. If
you are in different markets with your products, then assess each market. They may
be significant market and customer differences that must be recognized and
understood.
How do you compare? What are the opportunities to be a leader? How do you
exploit the opportunities? Which customers can you work with to develop your
strategy? With this assessment, you can better analyze and see what must be done
to be a leader in logistics. At the minimum, you will have a better understanding of
how competitive you are at servicing your customers.
Part of this analysis should be a survey. Do not assume you know and understand
what your customers want and need. That is a sure-fire recipe for a failed strategy.
76
With learning what they want, also learn why they want it done that way. That
presents a solid method to develop a strategy that can meet and exceed their
requirements. It is directly aligned to them.
Make sure that, once you have concluded the assessments, you go back to discuss
your findings and plans with key customers. The object here is meeting their needs;
not what you think are their needs. Review your strategy and action plan with them.
Get their feedback. Is your plan excellent? Will it gain you additional business?
Assess your customer’s requirements: Study any and all written specifications
that customers have already given you. Survey your customers. Meet with select
customers. What do they expect and want from their suppliers? How do they want
their orders, shipments and invoices handled? Why do they want it done that way?
How well do you perform, in their eyes and their measurements? Does the service
your competitors provide gain them business, at your expense? Does their
performance impact key customers, a large number of customers, the potential for
new customers? Are customers strongly satisfied with your performance? If so, why?
If not, why not? Where are you strong and why? Where are you deficient and why?
Are you consistently failing to meet customer needs? How serious are your failures,
as perceived and defined by customers?
Assess your competitors: You have to understand what you are up against in
servicing customers. What do our competitors do? Gather market intelligence. Make
your competitors performance part of your survey. How do your customers view your
competitors? How do their logistics performances meet the needs of customers?
How do their logistics performances compare with yours? Are there shortcomings in
how well they service customers? If so, what are they? Are these short comings
serious Are therestrengths m how well they service customers? Is so, what are they?
Are these strengths ones which permit customers to overlook other problems with
these competitors?
Assess your internal capabilities: Self-assessment can be very difficult and
77
awkward Understand what makes a world-class logistics program Look at the

elements needed. Develop an audit checklist then evaluate your operation. Assess
and measure your product flows and information flows across the entire organization.
Look at teamwork, systems, costs, and relationships with suppliers, carriers,
customers and others. The purpose is not negative; the purpose is to know how well
you perform, throughout andacross the organization. It will also help you determine
what investments are needed to upgrade and improve your service to customers.
It may also be valid to search for best logistics practices, regardless of industry
served. Do not overlook them. Leading-edge practices have basis and application in
any industry. Benchmark your performance, capabilities and limitations. It can be
very useful in understanding your operation and to developing a market leader
strategy.
A marketing strategy based on logistics effectiveness should have two parts. First
you must have a solid logistics program, leading-edge. Then you must be able to
tailor to meet the requirements of individual customers. You cannot offer a vanilla
approach. It is not enough to do logistics well. You must do what each of your
customer’s demands. Standardized approaches to individual requirements are not
satisfactory to customers. It must be based on a sound approach, then customized,
aligned and responsive to thespecific needs of each customer. Through your
success in meeting customer needs, you may opportunities to improve their logistics
operation. This is a very good position for a supplier. In such instances, if
youbecome truly good at your logistics performance, it is not inconceivable that
customers may want you to manage some part of their logistics management. It
would be like a category management of the customer’s logistics.
Perspective
Recognize that organizations are built from the inside out. They are designed to
handle internal tasks and needs, purchasing, manufacturing, sales, accounting,
logistics, and others. Some organization internal practices may work at cross-
purposes or counter to theneeds of its outside customers. As such, company
departments may feel attacked by customer comments or internal analysis. They
may rationalize what customers say are problems or shortcomings in dealing with
78
you. You must get past these if you are to progress.

Organizations are not built from the outside in. They were not designed by and for
customers and satisfy their needs. This origin then creates the opportunities to better
service customers by realigning the intent and purpose of the organization, across
functional lines. If this organization genesis is not recognized, then the potential of
this strategy will not be exploited to its fullest.
Remember too, organizations, especially in certain corporate cultures, resist change.
Shifting the focus to the outside, your customers, from inside, internal task, can be a
significant organization change. This must be dealt with in the design and
implementation of a market-leader logistics service capability. Designing the strategy
is not enough. Youmust be able to implement it, put it into action. Everyone in the
organization must participate in and clearly understand the strategy and plans.
Results are the goal here, not just strategy.
A last hint
Position yourself as a preferred supplier. Use logistics as a cornerstone of your
marketing strategy for growth. Understand what customers expect, how well your
competitors perform and how well you operate. Find the ways to develop a strong
logistics program, which meets and exceeds customer requirements.
Reengineering your operation and developing a strong logistics capability is not an
overnight fix. It takes time and commitment. Do not delay and miss the opportunity to
grow customer satisfaction, sales and market share. And once you have begun this
strategy and process, it does not stop Market and customer needs are constantly
changing. Your ability to change, and lead the change, as a market leader is
ongoing. You must constantly work to improve service, reduce time and reduce
costs, as your customers require.
Network Management in Short
The focus of network management is on cooperation and trust and the recognition
that properly managed ‘whole can be greater than the sum of its parts’.
“The management of upstream and downstream relationship with suppliers and
customers to deliver superior customer value at less cost to the supply chain as a
79
whole is actually Network Management”.

Thus, the focus of network management is upon the management of relationships in
order to achieve a more profitable outcome for all parties in the chain. This brings
with it some significant challenges since there maybe occasions when the narrow
self-interest of one party has to be subsumed fore the benefit of the chain as a
whole.
To achieve market leadership in the world of network, competition necessitates a
focus on network management as well as upon internal processes.
The various steps in the process of network management include:-
Network strategy – during the phase, a company decides how to structure the
supply chain. Strategic decisions made by the organizations will include location and
capacities of production of service or manufacturing facility, modes of transportation
involved, storage of inventory or giving tangibility to service and type of information
system to be utilized. Network planning – companies define a set of operating
policies that govern short-term operations. The configuration in the strategy phase
establishes constraints within which planning must be done. Thus, planning
establishes parameters within which a network will function over a period of time.
Demand, competition, environment, growth etc are
Some of the factors that have to be given due importance
Network operations – the goal of supply chain operations is to implement operating
policies in the best possible manner. During this phase, firms allocate individual
orders to the entire chain and the order has to be carried out within the specified
time. The objective is to reduce cost and provide superior customer value.
CHAPTER 18
SIX SIGMA
Six sigma is a highly structured approach to delivering very high levels of customer
satisfaction through disciplined use of data and statistical analysis for maximizing
and sustaining business success. The insistence of six sigma to rely on data rather
than gutfeel for decision making means that counter-intuitive solutions are often
80
found. The goal of six sigma is to achieve very high levels of (internal and external)
customer satisfaction. Better bottom-line performance, higher market share, and
globally competitive positions result as a side benefit. Six sigma applies to all
processes wherever work gets done, manufacturing or transactional, static or
dynamic, linear or nonlinear, whether the work processes are in a university, in a
Government department, or in the private sector. \
A six sigma process or transaction generates very low defect levels (3.45 per million
opportunities for a single-sided specification). A defect is anything that results in
customer dissatisfaction. Six sigma is, however a journey and not a destination
meaning that defect rates will start coming down soon after embarking on six sigma
although it will take many years to reach the six sigma defect levels. Really, six
sigma is for life and so all must work and live the six sigma way. The six sigma
approach, briefly summarized, is to articulate the problem, validate measurement
systems, measure to determine current performance, determine the vital causes of
variation, work on them to reduce defects, and monitor all variables so that problems
once identified and fixed, stay fixed. This is accomplished in five phases: Scope,
Measure, Analyze, Improve, and control. Six sigma has been embraced by a large
number of corporations in diverse areas including Motorola, General Electric, Du
Pont, CITIBANK, Dow Chemical, Conseco Financial Services, Sony, and many
others. Six Sigma is a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. The Six
Sigma process uses data and rigorous statistical analysis to identify "defects" in a
process or product, reduce variability, and achieve as close to zero defects as
possible.
These “Angootha chaaps” (illiterate) who deliver 2,00,000 tiffins every day to offices
and schools, make a mistake only about once every two months, That's one error in
every 8 million deliveries, or 16 million if you include the return trip. This is thus a 6
Sigma performance a term used in quality assurance if the percentage of
correctness is 99.999999(6 nines or more) – the performance which has made
companies like Motorola world famous for their quality. It was an unusual story by
Forbes Global. A marked departure from its sought after macro-economic reviews
and corporate analyses. The US-based business magazine recently zeroed in on
81
Mumbai’s dabbawalla. The lunch logisticians who deliver 1.5 lakh (how much is that
in kilogram?) lunch boxes to hungry office-goers every day have in the past found
mention in the Indian press, but the Forbes story was the first time an international
organization had analyzed them scientifically and rated them as if they comprised a
corporate body. And theconclusions were more than flattering ñ the dabbawalla’s
scored a 6-Sigma performance rating.
We not only launch our own satellites today but those of our foreign customers too,
including Germany and Korea. All this is done for a budget that is just less than 7
per cent of a single company in the US. Shouldn’t we be proud of this feat asked
Dr. Mashelkar? Citing another example to illustrate that illiteracy doesn’t mean that
their innate potential is nil, he asked: What do global giants like General Electric
and Motorola have incommon with a humble Tiffin delivery network comprising
3,500 dabbawalla’s, who deliver 1.5 lakh lunch boxes in Mumbai each day? The
dabbawalla’s have the six-sigma rating or one error in one million transactions.
They are largely illiterate but their business models have become a classroom
study in some management institutes. They necessarily have to innovate to survive
and to succeed he explained
CHAPTER 19
ELEMENT OF STRATEGY, SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH OPTIONS
In this section, a conceptual understanding of competitive strategy of Dabbawalla’s
and its elements is attempted. Based on these observations, the long term
sustainability of Dabbawalla’s is explored. We conclude this section with possible
growth options to Dabbawalla’s and its inherent limitations.
82
The Dabbawalla’s competitive strategy elements include identification of a long

lasting customer segment or need, effective use of public infrastructure, standardized
operating procedures, partnership with customer, motivated and empowered
employees and an appropriate material flow tracking system. A brief detail of these
elements follow.
Perpetual Need: Dabbawalla’s caters to the basic yet perpetual demand of (serving)
delivering home prepared (ethnic) food to Indian middle income executives working
in Mumbai. The need is more acute because of long commuting time, congested
traffic conditions and long travel distances. This market segment would exist for long
time to come. The only erosion to this market size or need is from changing food
habits of Indian middle income group executives. While this is a reality, the change is
surely expected to be slow Therefore, in the immediate future, Dabbawalla’s is
assured of its business so long as it can meet customer expectations on delivery and
price (service charges).
Value Pricing: The core to Dabbawalla’s operational efficiency is the well managed
Mumbai metro rail network. On any scale of comparison, for its wider reach and
frequency of operations, the members of Dabbawalla’s use the rail network for a
nominal price. The 5000 members are paid a reasonable compensation. The entire
sets of operations (Dabbawalla’s) are manual. All these contribute to lower
operational cost and hence a reasonable price (or value pricing) to the consumers.
Complemented by a large customer base, satisfied customers and an ever
increasing working class population at Mumbai, this business model is a passport to
perpetual growth.
Standard Operating Procedures: Dabbawalla’s over a period of time has evolved
as an outstanding example of standard operating procedure. There is no uncertainty
in the delivery model at any stage. The individual member's role is clearly articulated.
The information flow to track material (codification system) is perfect. Members are
empowered in task execution. There is an element of internal competition: multiple
teams in the same geographical location are operational to generate additional
business volume. Fair business practices (equal compensation) and joy of work,
83
pride in activity, fun mixed with work break the monotonicity in the standard operating
procedure in Dabbawalla’s.
Partnership with stakeholders: There are three important stakeholders groups with
whom Dabbawalla’s enjoys an excellent relationship. The first set is its primary
customers. They support Dabbawalla’s in meeting no delay in delivering lunch boxes
and accepting delivery at the floor level in the destination locations. The members
are delighted to work for Dabbawalla’s (supported by empowerment, compensation
and an economic activity for livelihood). The commuting public at large is tolerant to
the inconveniences caused to them by Dabbawalla’s in the already over crowded,
over stretched urban transport system. Over a period of time, Dabbawalla’s has
become an essential element of modern Mumbai.
Operational excellence: Dabbawalla’s has a remarkable and enviable quality
record. This is a combination of flexible infrastructure, adequate buffer in material
handling, reasonable and achievable service level specifications, elaborate and
efficient codificationsystem, self motivated and empowered employees, dynamic and
flexible deployment of members to execute a given task, adopting a variety and mix
of transportation models, and commitment to work ethics.
Structure: Dabbawalla’s operating structure is elegant, appropriate and enhances its
operational excellence based business model. As discussed earlier the 3 tier
structureensures operational details are delegated to the most appropriate level. The
structureprovides for redundancy in team members and hence volume flexibility on
lunch boxes handled by the system. The business integration happens at the group
level. Broadly eachgroup is self sufficient and has to manage its own operational
income, volume and hence profitability. Any other centralized structure to supervise
operations would have made the process inherently ineffective (expensive) and less
responsive to customer needs.
Performance measures: Dabbawalla’s performance measures are real time
transactions based. As a matter of fact every transaction is monitored in terms of its
collection, transportation, and delivery. Revenue collection is periodic and
systematic. Employee (member) productivity is volume based. Compensation is
equal; group based and is a function of revenue generated. Given internal
84
competition at the group level this model is self corrective. Broadly there are no fixed
assets. Therefore assets productivity is irrelevant in Dabbawalla’s. The performance
of Dabbawalla’s is closely linked to the near automation (standardization) of the
process. There are inherent buffers to manage and accommodate unanticipated
risks in the system.
Customer focus: Dabbawalla’s is a service organization focused on customer
expectation management. The service is priced low to attract and retain relevant
customer segment and base. The process is capable enough in the context of
assurances made to customers. The Dabbawalla’s has elevated the purpose of their
business to an opportunity to provide food (higher order objective than transport
logistics support to deliver lunch boxes). The discipline, empowerment, commitment
to work of members are all consequences of this higher order objective in meeting
customer expectations.
CHAPTER 20
What is unique about Dabbawalla’s?

There are several complimentary aspects of Dabbawalla’s which render it as unique
and hence protects it from competition. The first and most critical is a business
proposition based on inexpensive and reliable public infrastructure. This coupled with
a formidable volume (of business) Dabbawalla’s has built up over a period of time,
85
provides an unparalleled advantage to Dabbawalla’s. The topography of Mumbai

(and client locations) and need for home based food (preference) are important
contextual uniqueness.
The Dabbawalla’s model is scalable. The logistics activities are member driven. The
day to day operations are managed at the member level which provides harmony,
synergy and symphony. The tracking mechanism is an innovative (and inexpensive)
variation of online tracking system. Because of its innovation the tracking cost is
negligible The Dabbawalla’s annual revenue is Rs. 360 million. The sheer size,
scalable nature of operations, modular structure, customer service and negligible
errors has kept thecompetition away from this attractive business proposition.
Dabbawalla’s is essentially a homogeneous product flow system in a linear
topography. The present model may not be effective if any of the above conditions
are not valid. There is a tolerance and sympathy shown by (Mumbai rail) commuting
public to Dabbawalla’s which may not be feasible in anotl1er context. The simple
codification system which tracks the lunch boxes would be a serious constraint to
handle multiple products in more than one direction. There is an attempt to use the
Dabbawalla’s infrastructure to do market research etc. This is at best a temptation.
Dabbawalla’s caters to a specific market and customer segment. Therefore any
market research activity based on this would inherently have less universal
applicability. Also, for the members of Dabbawalla’s (because of their limited
educational background) such activities may be a stretch. Therefore in our view, the
growth for Dabbawalla’s would be volume based and is constrained to either Mumbai
alone or cities which are very similar to Mumbai, in terms of infrastructure and traffic
patte.
CHAPTER 21
CONCLUSION
Medge was scheduled to address the faculty and students of the Indian Institute of
Management in Lucknow in early January 2004 on how the dabbawalla meal
distribution network worked. HE was aware that this audience would be interested in
86
the learning that the dabbawalla’s could provide to improve supply chain – and
service-design and execution. He was aware that it was likely that most of the
audience would have concerns about the future of the dabbawalla’s. Since he
anticipated being asked about that concern, Medge already knew what he was going
to say in response:
The dabbawalla is a Mumbai institution that has survived for over a century now. It
will survive for the next century and beyond. There will of course be a churning of
customers. But children will continue to go to school, people will continue to go to
work, everyone feels hungry at lunch hour and, if given a choice, everyone wants to
have home-cooked food delivered personally to them. Dabbawalla’s facilitate that
choice. We will continue to be there as Long as people exercise that choice. We will
continue to be there because no one can provide the kind of error-free service that
we provide.
We have described in detail the Dabbawalla’s. We review the business model,
factors behind such outstanding practices, elements of the business strategy,
opportunities and limitations for its growth.
Dabbawalla’s creates a sense of pride and a source of inspiration to managers and
academicians (world class).
• Dabbawalla’s has perfected its systems and procedures to handle large
volume of operations with negligible errors (six sigma).
• Dabbawalla’s operations are modular; they are scalable and flexible enough
to handle volume (Flexible business strategy).
• Dabbawalla’s operations are customer centric, employee driven, and value
based.
• Dabbawalla’s is an example where flexibility in operational procedure takes
precedence over precision (prioritized objectives).
• The output accuracy (the number of transactions delivered on time) is
supported by flexible infrastructure and time buffers in the delivery system
(Strategy enablers).
• The management practices at Dabbawalla’s are intuition based (codification
system, homogeneous employee background, innovative Human Resource
87
practices etc.).
• Several contextual factors are combined to develop an excellent business
model (inexpensive manpower availability, need for home food, urban
transport infrastructure, unique traffic flow pattern etc.).
• Dabbawalla’s has no unique scientific and or technological breakthroughs or
competences. It is an excellent business model based on an innovative
approach to satisfy a real (and unique) customer need (Innovation based
strategy).
• The Forbes article on the dabbawalla has generated international interest and
added to the visibility of the dabbawalla’s. This article has been translated in
the regional Marathi press and, as conversations with dabbawalla’s reveal,
they have been read by a large number of dabbawalla’s themselves, adding to
their self-esteem. This recognition from the West is perhaps deflecting their
attention away from the threats posed by globalisation. This is, perhaps, also
the explanation for the upbeat mood of people like Talekar of the Mumbai
Tiffin Suppliers Association. This is an excerpt from a speech by R.A.
Mashelkar, Director-General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research,
India at the 80th Convocation of the Delhi University. It reveals how the
dabbawalla system is becoming an icon of national pride in certain circles.
• Faculty member in the Department of Industrial Administration at the Carnegie
Mellon University, Paul Goodman along with Denise Rousseau has made a
film on the dabbawalla system that has become a tool at management
schools.
• The dabbawalla as an icon of national pride and achievement comes out most
strikingly in the fact that the dabbawalla system was listed in India Today as
being among the 55 things that make India proud. (India Today)
• Dabbawalla.com is the website of an Indian lunch service in Manhattan. The
website incorporates the six-sigma rating that the dabbawalla system has
been accredited with along with the picture of a dabbawalla in Mumbai. While
the picture lends authenticity to the Manhattan dabbawalla services, it is
legitimized through the six-sigma rating by Forbes Global. Secondly, the
88
simple meal of the middle/working class client of the dabbawalla gets

exoticised in the more elaborate menu of the Manhattan lunch service, Inspite
of being a cheap $5.00 takeaway.
• This quote from Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses sees the dabbawalla’s
humble task of delivering the lunch-box as a metaphor for the Archangels
purpose of delivering the word of God. If the Satan of globalisation i.e. the
McDonaldisationin this case does decide to interject verses into the Mumbai
dabbawalla’s head thereby affecting their 6-sigma rating, then will it be the
transformative potential of the Varkaris that will come to their rescue.
• In a dabbawalla’s tray, a Brahmins rice jostles along with a low-caste chapatti;
a Hindus vegetable curry with a Muslims mutton korma and thus, in a way, the
dabba system dissolves the barriers of caste, class and community which
haven’t been entirely demolished from Indian society.
CHAPTER 22
LIST OF ANNEXURES
QUESTIONNAIRE
Siddharth College of
Commerce and Economics
89
Anand bhavan, Dr. Dadabhai Navroji road,

Fort, Mumbai - 400 023.
Questionnaire prepared for the study of DABBAWALLA’S at Nutan Mumbai

Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust and Association and their MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES. Project by: Mrs. PRIYANKA.S.N.RAI, as part of the FIFTH
Semester Project work, 2008 — 2009 of the University of Mumbai, under the
guidance of Prof. (Mrs.) DEVIKA.S.SURYAWANSHI
This project study is purely of an academic nature. The information provided
herewith will be used for research purposes.
Information
Name:………………………………………………………………………………………
Place:………………………………………………………………………………………
Designation:………………………………………………………………………………...
1. Who are the dabbawalla’s?
90
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
2. What is the type of service provided by the dabbawalla’s?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
3 What is the history of the dabbawalla’s?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
4. What is the name of the association of the dabbawalla’s?

…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………….
5. What is the organizational structure?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
6. What are the rules and policies of the dabbawalla’s?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
7. What is the function of the organization?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
8. What is the pricing of this service?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
9. Who are the clients?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
10. What is the number of clients?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
11. What is the rate of error?
91
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
12. What happens if the Tiffin gets lost?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
13. What is the distribution network process?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
14. How do you identify the destination and origin of the Dabba’s?
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
15. Does the organization provide any benefits to its members?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
16. What do you do if someone remains absent?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
17. What is the total number of members?
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
18. What are the vehicles used to transport the dabba’s?
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
19. What if the railways are not working?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
20. What is the remuneration system?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
92
21. What are the problems faced by the dabbawalla’s nowadays?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
22. What are the awards and felicitations given to the dabbawalla’s?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
23. What is the effect of all the recognition the dabbawalla’s have received?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
ACHIEVEMENTS, AWARDS AND FELICITATION
Shri Varkari Probhodhan Mahasamati Dindi (Palkhi) Sohala – 4th march 2001
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.
93
CASE STUDY –
ICFAI Press Hyderabad
Richard Ivey School of Business – Ontario
• Invitation from CII for conference held in Bangalore, IIML, IIMA,
CIICochin, CII Delhi, Dr. Reddy’s Lab Foundation Hyderabad, SCMHRD
Pune, SCMHRD Nasik, Sadahana – Pune.
• Included in a subject in Graduate School of Journalism University of
California, Berkeley
• Radio –
 German Radio Network
 Radio Mirchi
 Radio Mid-day
 FM- Gold
 BBC Radio
• Was invited for the Terra Madre World meeting of food communities
between October 20-23, 2004.
• We were part of the “Community of Cooked Food distributors from
Mumbai”.
• Invited to marriage of Hon. Price Charles of England on 9, April 2005.
• Registered with Ripley's “believe it or not”.
WORKING COMMITTEES
Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Suppliers Charity Trust
Reg. No. - A842. P. N
94
Working Committee — 2005 — 2009
1 Raghunath D. Medge President

2 Sambhaji G. Medge Vice President
3 Gangaram L. Talekar General Secretary
4 Damodar M. Pingle Treasurer
5 Jaysingh S. Phapale Member
6 Laxman R. Kadam “
7 Daval B. Tambe “
8 Babanrao M. Bacche “
9 Maruti K. Sawant “
10 Jayram B. Inpure\ “
11 Arjun S. Thakur “
12 Shankarrao D. Kalhatkar “
13 Babanrao D. Jaachak “
Mumbai Jeevan Dabba Vahatuk Mandal

Reg. No.126.68 Regd under Act XXXI of 1860 G.B.C.S.D — F 1940
Association — 2005 — 2009
1 Supanrao L.More President
2 Ramchandra B. Sathe Vice President
95
3 Babanrao B. Valunj Treasurer
4 Balasaheb .B. Khengale Secretary
5 Eknath M. Margaj Member
6 Chiman N. Gole “
7 Dynaeshwar G. Padir “
8 Dhondiba K. Choudhary “
9 Sudamrao M. Sakore “
10 Laxman P. Takave “
11 Yamanaji S. Ghule “
12 Baban J. Talekar “
13 Arjun S. Kumbhar “
Mumbai Jeevan Dabba Vahatuk Mandal

Lavaad (Panch) Committee — 2005— 2009
1 Dattatrya R. Bacche Chief Panch
2 Dattatrya L. Kathatkar “
Chiman N. Gole “
3 Baban N. Kadam “
4 Namdev T. Medge “
5 Dashrath M. Paradhi “
96
6 Sonu D.Aawari “
7 Subhash K. Jachak “
8 Ramu D. Shinde “
9 Narayan V. Jon “
10 Vithalrao G. Dide “
11 Sudam G.Vir “
12 Somnath M. Shirke “
13 Suresh G. Shivekar ‘”
14 Bhagaji S. Yadav “
15 Devram B. Kalhatkar “
16 Govind B. Mandekar Secretary
97
BIBLOGRAPHY
Raghunath Medge enabled me to understand the Dabbawalla’s operations. This
project would not have been possible but for the support and co-operation extended
by him. This is gratefully acknowledged.
BOOKS
1. Logistics and Supply Chain Management – ‘Strategies for reducing Cost and
Improving Service’ by Martin Christopher.
2. ‘Supply Chain Management’ by Sunil Chopra and Peter Meindl.
MAGAZINES AND ARTICLES
1. World Class Logistics Operations: The case of Bombay dabbawallahs by N.

Ravichandran
2. ‘The Charioteers of Meals’ by Maria Shamai, ‘JetWings’ dated June 2003
3. ‘Food Chain Dynamics’ by Dipayan Baishy, ‘Business Today’ dated 19 th
January 2003
4. ‘The Wonder of Tiffin’- Patiwala Network Management in Mumbai by

Devanshu Desai and Mr. Ajit Popat, ‘Chitralekha’ dated 30 April 2001.
th
5. Pizzazz for the Prince, a royal banquet by the bay’, ’The Economic Times’
dated 4 November, 2003.
th
6. ‘Delivering the Goods’ by Sandeep Unithan, ‘India Today’ dated 4 June

th
2001.
7. ‘Midday’ dated 4 November 2003

th
98
WEBSITES
http://www.sixsigmaquality.com
http://web.mid-day.com
http://www.ciionline.org
http://www.hindu.com
http://www.rediff.com
http://www.bschool.nus.edu.sg
www.linny.org/forum
www.managementparadise.com
SEARCH ENGINES
www.google.com
www.yahoo.com
www.askjeeves.com
99

Daba Wala 100 Marks - by ASIF AGHADI

Transféré par

Informations du document

Titre original

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Daba Wala 100 Marks - by ASIF AGHADI

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Dabbawalla’s: Simply Complex

The Mumbai Dabbawalla’s operation .is widely recognized as an outstanding

This is a story of a conventional Indian system of management that is today a

HISTORY OF THE DABBAWALLA’S

The dabbawalla service had begun informally in Mumbai. According to Raghunath

THE NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS CHARITY TRUST

The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association is a streamlined 120-year-old

The dabbawalla’s were a homogenous group in many ways. Its members,

“It is a good earning for a semi-literate by Indian standards,” observed Medge.

INTRODUCTION OF A NEW MEMBER:

welcome to join, nevertheless, most of the dabbawalla’s still remain

REMAINIG TREE DIAGRAM

Business Unit (SBU) concept, way before it was introduced by Peter

RULES AND POLICIES

who don’t pay this contribution at all.)

SAFETY AND WELFARE

just 5-6 groups at stations like Khar and Vile Parle.

The dabbawalla meal distribution network was

REVERSE CHANNEL/NETWORK DESIGN

ONWARD JOURNEY – 8:30- 10:34 am

SORTING AT THE DESTINATION STATION AND DELIVERING - 11:20 to 12:30

COLLECTION PROCESS - 1:15 to 2:00 pm

RETURN JOURNEY – 2:00 to 2:30 pm

(Churchgate). Thecoordination is equally important in either groups and there is total

TRAIN JOURNEY – 2:48 - 3:30 pm

working, dedicated and joyous people.

The disadvantages in this system are:

• Plentiful commuters who go to offices daily.

many numbers based on locations under them.

home-cooked lunches. Home-cooked food delivered by a dabbawalla almost always

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

transactional errors. We now discuss in detail what is behind such an outstanding

NETWORK MANAGEMENT: LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN

marketing channels to consumers. The problem of logistics management becomes

readily drop carriers over rates.

Transportation, Containerization and Consolidation

another. Moving goods from place to place should be undertaken safely,

Given a facility of network and information capability, transportation is the operational

These three forms of transportation are typically referred to as private contract

carrier services and pricing structures to meet the firm’s objectives.

Transportation uses financial resources because internal expenditures are necessary

expenses resulting product loss or damage must be made.

Transportation uses environmental resources both directly and indirectly. In direct

The major objective of transportation is to move product from origin location to

In circumstances warehouse space is limited; utilizing transporting vehicle may be of

A second method to achieve temporary product storage is diversion. This occurs

• Specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes

Further the general-purpose freight container is defined as follows:

This was related to consolidation m general If we relate it with the Dabbawalla’s we

awkward Understand what makes a world-class logistics program Look at the

you. You must get past these if you are to progress.

whole is actually Network Management”.

The Dabbawalla’s competitive strategy elements include identification of a long

What is unique about Dabbawalla’s?

provides an unparalleled advantage to Dabbawalla’s. The topography of Mumbai

simple meal of the middle/working class client of the dabbawalla gets

Anand bhavan, Dr. Dadabhai Navroji road,

Questionnaire prepared for the study of DABBAWALLA’S at Nutan Mumbai

4. What is the name of the association of the dabbawalla’s?

21. What are the problems faced by the dabbawalla’s nowadays?

ACHIEVEMENTS, AWARDS AND FELICITATION

Working Committee — 2005 — 2009

1 Raghunath D. Medge President