The document describes the Mumbai dabbawala system of delivering home-cooked lunches to office workers. It began in the 1890s when a Parsi banker employed someone to bring food to work, and others followed. It has since grown to a network of over 5,000 dabbawalas who deliver 200,000 home-cooked meals across Mumbai each day with nearly zero errors. The system relies on sorting dabbas at collection points and railway stations then transporting and distributing them using bicycles, carts, and local trains.

1. Mumbai dabbawala
Prepared by:
Amit Kumar
Pankaj Kumar
Samvedna Kumari
Vibhanshu Kumar 1

2. HOW THE DABBAWALA SYSTEM
STARTED?
 It was the time when English were ruling
the India
 New Government offices, Post Offices,
Bridges etc. were being Constructed.
 No McDonald or Pizza Hut
 A Parsi Banker employed a person to bring
home made food to site of work
 His Colleagues too liked this idea and
Started availing this service.
 Slowly this evolved into the present 5000
strong Dabbawala System.
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3. Credits:
 5000 Dabbawalas No strike for 116 years
 2,00,000 Dabbas Prince Charles Friend
 Six Sigma Certified India’s Top Brand
 ISO 2000 Certified
Pride Of Marathas
 Most are Illiterate
Icon Of Hard Work
 Lecture MBA’s
A management Guru
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4. NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX
SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (NMTBSA)
 History- Started in 1890
 Charitable Trust- Registered in
1956
 Education:- 85% Illiterate
 Total area Coverage:- 60Kms/ 70
Kms
 Employee Strength:- 5000
 Mukhadhams:- 635
 No. of Dabbas:- 2,00,000 Dabbas
i.e. 4,00,000 transactions every day.
 Time Taken:- 3 Hrs.
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5. Organizational Flowchart Of Dabbawala
President
Vice president
General Secretary 13 Members
Treasure
Director (9)
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6.  Error Rate:- 1 in 16 million
transaction
 Six sigma Performance (99.9999)
 Technological Backup:- Nil
 Cost Of service:- Rs. 250- 300 per
Month
 Standard price for all (Weight;
Distance; Space)
 Rs. 30 Crore approximately
Annual Turnover.
 “ No Strike” records as reach one
a share holder
 Earnings:- 4000 To 5000 P.m 6

7. MAJOR FEATURES OF SUPPLY CHAIN
 0% Fuel
 0% Modern Technology
 0% Investment
 0% Disputes
 99.9999 Performance
 100% Customer satisfaction
 Food is taken from home or
mess & is delivered at office
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8. Prototype…
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9. Supply Chain
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10. Supply Chain(Forward)
DW1 Residential
Area1 VILE PARLE Station
DW2 Residential
Area 2
NARIMAN Point DW NARIMAN P
CHURCH GATE
Station FORT DW FORT
FOUNTAIN DW Fountain
BANDRA THANE
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11. Supply Chain(Backward)
DW1 Residential
Area 1
VILE PARLE Station
DW2 Residential
Area 2
NARIMAN Point DW NARIMAN
CHURCH GATE POINT
Station FORT DW FORT
FOUNTAIN DW Fountain
BANDRA THANE
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12. Distribution Network
D
H Railway E
O System S
U T
S Classified Carried by I
The DABBAS Distributed to
E based on appropriate N
are Collected various
H Region Transportation Destination A
O T
L I
D O
N
Collection, by Sorting at Transportation Distribution
Bicycles-70% Railway by Train-80% by Cart &
Foot-30% Station Bicycles-20% Bicycles
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13. Vertical Structure of Supply
Chain
Suppliers Sector of Focal Organization Consumer
Activity
Sorting Central Railway Deliver D
H E
O S
U T
S I
E HARBER Lane
Deliver N
H Railway
A
O T
L I
D O
Western N
Deliver
Railway
Sorting
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14. 14

15. SWOT
 Strengths:
 Simplicity in organization with Innovative service
 Coordination, team spirit, & time management
 Low operation cost
 Customer satisfaction
 Low Attrition Rate
 Weaknesses:
 High dependability on
local trains
 Funds for the association
 Limited Access to Education
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16.  Opportunities
 Wide range publicity
 Operational cost is low
 Catering
 Threats
 Indirect competition is being faced from caterers like maharaja
community
 Indirect threats from fast foods and hotels
 Change in timings
 Company transport
 Ticket restaurant
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17. The Dabbawala and Michael Porter
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18. SIX SIGMA CERTIFICATION BY
FORBES GROUP
 Dabbawalas got six sigma
 Dabbawalas were invited to collect the six
sigma certificate they did not know what it
is made of Gold or Bronze..
 Dabbawalas were invited to collect the
six sigma certificate they did not know
what it is made of Gold or Bronze.
 They got ISO 9001- 2000 for Excellence
in service.
 The only think that a “ Error is Horror”
 Dabbawalas work with Great efficiency
without caring for any certificates.
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19. Awards and Felicitation
Shri. Varkari Prabhodhan Mahasmati Dindi (palkhi) sohala – 4th
march – 2001.
Invitation from CII for conference held in Bangalore.
Documentaries made by BBC ,UTV, MTV, and ZEE TV
Dabbawalla services are popular with the Indian IT developer
community in Silicon Valley, California, USA
In literature
One of the two protagonists in Salman Rushdie's controversial
novel The Satanic Verses, Gibreel Farishta, was born as Ismail
Najmuddin to a dabbawallah. In the novel, Farishta joins his
father, delivering lunches all over Bombay (Mumbai) at the age
of 10, until he is taken off the streets and becomes a movie star.
Dabbawalas feature as an alibi in the Inspector Ghote novel
Dead on Time.
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20. Some Achievements
 World record in Best time management.
 Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”.
 Registered with Ripley's “ believe it or not”.
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21. Learnings & Conclusions
 Keep operational costs low
 Do not invest unless it gives you assured returns and you
will almost certainly loose out if you don’t
 Customer is not the Raja but the Maharaja
 Complexity opposes compliance
 Deviation from your core competency can reduce focus
and affect current sales and profits negatively.
 Technology is to support business and business is not
there to support technology.
 keep your organization as flat as possible
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22.  Promote cooperation inside to take on competition from
outside
 Let the leaders emerge rather than get nominated.
 Build extra cushion for exigencies and emergencies..
 A word of caution though
 Commitment matters
 Your most talented and educated people are no good if
they keep networking for pastures greener and use
company infrastructure for scouting higher paying jobs
 One committed employee can do more for the
organisation than 50 educated ones who are looking for
options outside.
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23.  Educate employees about the importance of what they
do..
 Use existing infrastructure
 Abandon bad customers
 Good money can’t be chasing bad money as simple as
that.
 Promote self discipline rather than discipline and don’t be
shy when it comes to penalizing wayward behaviour. Bad
behaviour gets imbibed faster
 Rules are meant to be broken.
 Multi tasking is another name for screwing up a lot of
stuff all at one time.
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24.  Unless proven to be ready for the next level an employee must
demonstrate potential rather than flash his fancy degrees.
 Human beings are emotional and that is what differentiates them
from animals. What a hundred HR workshops can’t do can be
achieved by a simple lunch together everyday. Money can’t buy love
but it certainly can buy lunch once in a while when you want to
celebrate the group’s success.
 If one man in a team can stand up for the other with a belief that
when it comes to my partner even he would do the same, you know
that you are ready to take on the world.
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25.  High salaries can attract mercenaries and pigs but not
dedicated,inspired and motivated people. Narayan Murthy of Infosys
was once asked that how he retained talented people during initial
phases of the company and he said
” Everyone was giving them a job, I was sharing my dream with them”
 Money takes care our bodies but it is our mind which moves the
body. The choice is clear – a pat on the back at the right time and at
the right place can do more to motivate and inspire than a wad of
notes in the pocket which no one knows about.
 The humble improve.Humility has to be promoted as religion in your
organization.Fullness is an enemy of growth and one who thinks he
knows all perhaps does not know that there so much more.
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26. Green learning…
 fast-food diet is not a
necessity for today’s
busy big-city office
worker and commuter.
 food containers and their
environmental impacts,
there is a continuum of
food packaging that we
all should consider
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27. amit.naarm@gmail.com
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