Dabbawalas of Mumbai-

Large Service Supply Chain

 Leading without Suits and Ties
• Talks on Best Practices at CII, IIMs, IITs,
companies Regularly sought by print media and
electronic media
• Common queries
– How do they recruit?
– Working of incentive system with “equal pay for all”?
– Do they know their clients?
– Robustness of distribution channel?
– Dealing with growth?
– Competitors?
– World is changing! Not dabbawalas?
 Facts
• 2003: 5000 recruits, 175, 000 clients
• 350,000 deliveries
• 75 kms of public transport
• Failure: once in two months, one in 15
million
• Rs 380 million per annum
 Structure
• Three tier structure:
– Executive committee
– Mukadams
– Dabbawalas
• Role of Groups (a profit centre with 8
mukadams)
• Culture similarity of the staff
• Distinct local entity of dabbawalas
– Known for reliability and work ethic
– Helped by commuters
 Distribution Network
• Baton relay system
• Hub and spoke arrangement
• No historical, theoretical legacy in the design
• No use of computer technology
• Coding system
– Decentralized at the group level
• Workday schedule
• 30-35 deliveries (manageable)
• Sorting, loading and unloading at peak rush hours
• 4 handlings of a dabba in a day- coding essential
 Distribution Network
• K-BO-10-19/A/15
• Clients name is not even existing
• Easy coding scheme as the level of
literacy is not very high
 Operating Environment
• Competitors: Fast Food chains,
restaurants and road-side vendors, Udipi
chain etc.
• Competition is different:
– NO MANUFACTURING, ONLY
DISTRIBUTION
 Success Factors
• Low cost delivery
– Rs. 150 -200
• Delivery reliability
– Entrepreneurs, not employees
– No strikes
– Flat structure
– Referrals from friends and relatives
– No dilution of service culture
 Success Factors
• Decentralization
• Perceived equality
– Effort different, same remuneration
• Suburban Railway Network
– Foodline of the city
 Future
• Key concerns
– Shrinking customer base and loyalty
• Loss of textile mill workers in 80s amd 90s
• Each group authorized to target new customers (school
children etc.)
– Lifestyle changes
• Not a major damage for the business
– Workforce management
• Next generations do not seem to be greatly interested
• Not many incentives for good workers
• Not many disincentives wither (no firing)
 Future
• Sales and Marketing reps of companies?
– Approach
• Only for sample products, flyers
• Not for products with billing
• Want to keep meal delivery simple and
manageable
• Replicate to other cities
– Distribution network
– Working population
– Preponderance of long commuting times