The Dabbawala is a 125-year-old lunch delivery service in Mumbai that transports home-cooked meals from customers' houses to their offices and back using a complex coding system. Run by 5,000 workers organized in a flat structure, the Dabbawalas have an extremely low error rate of just 1 in 16 million deliveries despite relying on minimal technology, paperwork, or equipment. They have been certified as a Six Sigma quality process due to their reliable and trust-based service. While successful, the Dabbawalas' operations are constrained by capacity and could implement techniques like Drum-Buffer-Rope to better manage bottlenecks.

2. What is the Dabbawala?
 A 125 year old food delivery service in Mumbai, India.
 Dabbawalas carry and deliver home cocked meals
 From costumers’ houses to their offices, and back.
 Price: $6-8 monthly
 Do not relay on:
 An error rate of 1 in 16 million deliveries (99.99%)
• Technology
• Paper work
• Equipment
• Offices

3. Structure
 Flat organizational structure
 Profit - sharing model
 5,000 Dabbawalas or workers
 Ages between 18-65
 Divided in groups of 25 - manage their own
operations

4. The Process

5. The Coding System
An example of the coding system is this:
 BVI: Borivali, a suburb in Mumbai. Pick
up station
 9 RC 14: Destination code, different to
each customer
 RC: Raheja Chambers name of a
building or office at the destination
 14: Floor number
 E: Code for the dabbawala at the destination railway station
 Jain: Name/Surname of the customer

6. The Process - Matrix

7. The Quality

8. The Quality
Certified with the 90001 as a Six
Sigma with an error of 1 in 16 million
transactions.
 Trust
 Social
 Psychological
 No use of modern technology
 An integrated performance chain
 High transparency
 Spill proof packaging – dabbas

9. Bottlenecks
Capacity Constrained
Resource
Bottlenecks

10. Suggestion
Implement the Drum – Buffer – Rope
technique to starve
bottleneck
Drum – Control point
Rope – Follow up activity
Buffer – Empty space/gap
Similar to Kanban

11. Share a sticker initiative