6 sigma certified Dabbawala Mumbai tiffin carries 0 defects Management theories

1. DABBAWALA’S OF
MUMBAI
PRESENTED BY:

2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• What is of NMTBSA?
• Logistics
• Coding system
• Organizational Structure
• Six Sigma Quality Certification
• Management Learning from Dabbawala
• Six Golden Traits
• Conclusion
• References

3. INTRODUCTION
• A dabbawala is a person in the Indian city of Mumbai
whose job is to carry and deliver freshly made food from
home in lunch boxes to office workers.
• The lunchboxes are picked up in the late morning,
delivered predominantly using bicycles and railway trains,
and returned empty in the afternoon. They are also used
by meal suppliers in Mumbai, who pay them to ferry
lunchboxes with ready-cooked meals from central kitchens
to customers and back.
• For the efficiency of their supply chain it has been claimed
that this virtually achieves a Six Sigma performance
rating, (i.e. 99.9999% of deliveries are made without error)

4. INTRODUCTION CONTD..

5. What is NMTBSA?
(Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers
Association)
• Started in 1890
• Charitable trust : Registered in 1956
• Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling
• Total area coverage : 60 Kms
• Employee Strength : 5000
• Number of Tiffins : 2,00,000 Tiffin Boxes i.e 4,00,000
transactions every day
• Time taken : 3 hrs

6. Working of NMTBSA.
• Error Rate : 1 in 16 million transactions
• Six Sigma performance (99.999999)
• Technological Backup : Nil. Cost of service - Rs. 250 -
300/month ($ 6.00/month)
• Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)
• Rs. 30 Crore. approximately Annual Turnover.
[5000*12*5000=30,00,00,000]
• “No strike” record as each one a share holder.
• Earnings - 4000 to 5000 p.m. per Dabbawala.

7. LOGISTICS
• By using their own logics methods they deliver lacs of tiffins
boxes through many dabba wallas hand.
• Logistics is happening 24 hrs a day,7 days a week and 52
weeks a year
• Logistical competency is achieved by coordinating the
following
– Network Design
– Information
– Transportation
– Inventory
– Warehousing

8. CODING SYSTEM
Lunch boxes are marked in several ways:
• Abbreviations for collection points
• Colour code for starting station
• Number for destination station
• Markings for handling dabbawala at destination, building
and floor

9. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Mr. Ullas
Shantaram Muke

10. Six Sigma Quality Certification
• The Six Sigma quality certification was established by the
International Quality Federation in 1986, to judge the
quality standards of an organization.
• The Six-sigma rating means that they have a 99.99 %
efficiency in delivering the lunch-boxes to the right people.
• According to quality standards the dabbawalla’s are at par
with various companies like Motorola, Honeywell and GE.
• The Economist news magazine reported that dabbawallas
are a model of Six Sigma management, holding a delivery
accuracy rate of “99.9999%.”

11. Management Learning from
Dabbawala
1. Keep operational costs as low as possible.
2. Keep capital investment bare minimum.
3. Just serve your customer- Nothing else.
4. Customer is the king.
5. Never deviate from your core competency.
6. Do not over dependent on technology.
7. Co-operation inside- Completion outside.
8. Commitment matters- Qualification Doesn’t.
9. Know the implication of failure.
10. Build your services around existing infrastucture.
11. Abandon bad customers.
12. Penalize employees for non compliance.
13. Do not transfer your employees very often.

12. 1. Keep operational costs as low as possible.
• Dabbawala use cycle, hand cart, local train-all low cost
• No big office to maintain
• No IT budget and no miscellaneous expenses
• No Ad budget- word of mouth publicity
• Average monthly service cost Rs. 250

13. 2. Keep capital investment bare minimum.
• Only investment is the hard work, honesty, promptness
and time management.
• Low cost offices
• Very cheap hand cart
• Easy to maintain cycles- Fuel is free air (God given fuel)
• Use public space for sorting & no HR department

14. 3. Just serve your customer- Nothing else.
• Dabbawalas always deliver food on time- even during
heavy rains
• On time without wearing a watch
• They do not try impress or bother customer with
unsolicited offer
• Bothering customer with unsolicited offer forces them to
discontinue even existing services

15. 4. Customer is the king
• England King Prince Charles met Dabbawala on 4th Nov
2003.
• He was told to come to church gate station to meet
Dabawalas
• So that the delivery of Dabbas to clients is not affected
• He spent around 20 minutes with Dabbawala
• Virgin Group Chairman, Richard Branson, traveled with
Dabbawala and delivered Dabba to his own employees

16. 5. Never deviate from your core competency.
• Dabbawala are only in the business of delivering home
made food to offices.
• Effort to sell FMCG and other products through
Dabbawala system field.
• Be- “Master of one trade rather than jack of all”
• If required develop product & services around one
competency.

17. 6. Do not over dependent on technology.
• For 116 years, Dabbawalas did not touch technology- yet
got six sigma and ISO
• Today mobile phones are mostly used to communicate-
only incoming
• Website & SMS used to get more customer and give
information
• But logistics is still manual

18. 7. Co- operation inside- Competition outside
• There are 2- 3 Dabbawala group in each segment
• Dabbawala collection is group wise but transport is shared
with other group.
• Competition is only up to collection.
• Profit is shared equally within each group after deducting
expenses.
• Worlds most democratic organization.

19. 8. Commitment Matters- Qualification Does n’t
• About 85% of Dabbawalas are illiterate.
• 15% are class 8 failed
• Still they are able to offer world class services as they are
committed to offer food to customer on time
• If commitment is there, then qualification can be built.

20. 9. Know the implication of failure
• If food is not delivered on time then customer will be angry
and work will suffer
• Knowing the implication of failure makes you more
responsible and serious towards your work.
10. Build your services around existing infrastructure.
• Reliable, fast, efficient and cheap existing local train for
transportation.
• Building new infrastructure increase cost to server.

21. 11. Abandon bad customers.
• When Dabbawala knocks the door, the Dabba should be
ready
• If not then 2-3 days the time is given to adjust
• After that, the services are stopped as it affect the services
to other customer.
• Bad customers affect the operation and profitability from
existing customers.

22. 12. Penalize employees for an non compliance
• Dabbawalas are penalized for not wearing Gandhi Topi,
not pre- informing leave and misbehaving with customers.
• After giving a few warnings, if Dabbawala does not change
then he is expelled from the system
• Discipline is one of the main reasons of Dabbawala success.
13. Do not transfer your employees very often.
• 5000 Dabbawalas remember the address of 2 lack
customers by heart.
• Most have been serving for about 30 years+ on average.
• Fully knows the needs of customer, so customers trust
them.

23. SIX GOLDEN TRAITS THAT AN MBA
CAN LEARN FROM DABBAWALLA
1. Discipline
2. Organization
3. Work Management
4. Time Management
5. Simple, Flexible & Accurate Process
6. Strong Culture of Belonging

24. 1. Discipline
• Dabbawalas are extremely disciplined professionals.
Maintaining accuracy in every 2,60,000 transactions/per
day is not an easy task and there is no place for any
indiscipline.
• For a dabbawala “Error is Equal to Horror”, and they
have maintained 100% track record of on-time delivery.
• Mistakes are extremely rare.

25. 2. Organization
• Each dabbawala collect lunchbox from allocated locality and
delivers the same on assigned location within given timeframe
• Lunch box is then organized and taken to different destinations
via public transportation. It’s once again rearranged and
delivered to given address before lunch.
• Same process is repeated anti-clock wise and lunch box is
delivered to their owners by evening. Just imagine all the skill it
takes to organize and timely deliver around 2 Lakh lunchbox in
mere six hours a day.

26. 3. Work Management
• If a team member is not able to perform his work or fall
sick, someone is always there to manage his task.
• There is no legitimated retirement age of dabbawala, even
a senior worker help others and is paid same salary.
• There is no room for error but a backup is triggered if
something unexpected interrupts the process. Each
dabbawala works in synergy to achieve the same goal of
“on-time delivery”.

27. 4. Time Management
• Time is crucial. Dabbawalas can’t be late.
• They have to deliver lunchbox before lunch on given
address. Hence, their entire work depends on effective time
management.
• Each task has to be completed within given timeframe. If
someone is not able to do so, alternatives are performed
immediately.

28. 5. Simple, Flexible & Accurate Process
• Dabbawalas use zero technology or software to manage their
work. Every code that they use is simple and has basic
information like, street/floor address (office and residence
both).
• They use a standard organization method which does not
change. The tiffin's used for delivers are of same structure and
have standard codes. Visual data is used to remember key facts
like who is the owner of lunch box, etc.
6. Strong Culture of Belonging
• A dabbawala remain in his group for his entire life. Hence,
the essence of friendship, care and bonding is high and it
helps them to work on mutual understanding. Having
same code of conduct and dress make them unique and
easy to find.

29. CONCLUSION
• The concept of dabbawalas comes in one of the biggest and busiest
cities of the world.
• Dabbawalas are a great example of efficient service.
• Great at time management even during floods.
• Shown that illiterate and semiliterate people can also provide
efficient services.
• Hard work and sincerity are the main factors in their success
according to them.

30. REFERENCE
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala
• http://www.thecareermuse.co.in/6-golden-traits-mba-learn-
mumbais-dabbawala/
• "In Pictures: Tiffin time in Mumbai". BBC news
www.bbcnews.com . 16 February 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
• "More lunch box ladies to deliver food cooked with love".
www.thehindubusinessline.com . Retrieved 2 May 2017.