THE DABBAWALLAS : HOMEMADE WONDERS OF MUMBAI

1. THE DABBAWALLAS : HOMEMADE WONDERSOF MUMBAI
GROUP MEMBERS :
 ARATHY ROBERT
 ANKHITHA VINOD
 ANTU K GEORGE
 ARUN PHILIP
 ANUJ MATHEW GEORGE
 ANISH VARGHESE
 ANSA ELSA PHILIP
S4 MBA MACFAST THIRUVALLA
KERALA

2. : A person in India, most commonly in Mumbai, who is part of a
delivery system that collects hot food in lunch boxes from the
residences of workers in the late morning,
 delivers the lunches to the workplace, predominantly
using bicycles and the railway trains, and returns the empty boxes to
the worker's residence that afternoon.
They are also used by meal suppliers in Mumbai, where they ferry
ready, cooked meals from central kitchens to the customers and back
Dabbawala

3.  History : Started in 1890
Mahadeo Havaji Bachche
 Charitable trust : Registered in 1956
“Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust”
 The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968
as Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association
 Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling
 Employee Strength : 4500- 5000
 Number of Tiffin's : 2,00,000 Tiffin Boxes i.e. 4,00,000
transactions every day.
 Total area coverage : 60 kms.
 Time taken : 3 hrs.
 Current president of the association is Raghunath Medge

4. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
Vice President
Mukaddam
President
General Secretary
Treasurer
Directors(9)
Members(5000)
13
members

5. DELIVERY MODEL
 Dabbawala work like a post office with hub and spoke
operations and an efficient relay system.
 Start work at 9 am
 Its network divided in to cooperative units of about 15
to 40 men with 2 units assigned to each of the local
station.
 Delivery Cycle
 Delivery time 12:30 pm and pick up time 2:30pm
THE SPEED
 Dabbawala work with clock like precision and speed.

6. SERVICE PROPOSTION
Clients get several Benefits :
1) Freshly same day prepared home cooked meals, with its
properties of being healthy, nutritious and personal taste.
2) Food of own choice, including special dietary needs and
preferences, based on health, religious factors.
3) Food of assure taste which they are accustomed to.
4) Do not need to carry weight and volume of the Tiffin while
commuting in crowded trains
5) Guaranteed delivery on time, with near zero error rate and a
delivered cost less than the cost of eating out.

7. JOURNEY OF DABBAWALA
9.30 A.M-10.30A.M:- Pick up dabba from Residence/Caterer
and being it to Andheri station.
 10.34A.M-11.20A.M:- Journey in local train.
 11.20A.M-12.30P.M:- Unloading and sorting at destination
station.
 12.30P.M- 1.00P.M:- Delivery to respective customers.
 1.15P.M- 2.30P.M:- Collection of empty dabba.
 2.45P.M-3.30P.M:- Sorting at destination station.
 3.30P.M- 4.40P.M:- Returning dabba to Resident/ Caterer.

8. •A majority of the dabbawallas are Illiterate, and
may not be able to read the addresses.
•They use colors and code to identify the
destination.
•During the sorting process, each dabbawalla will
locate the tiffins that he is responsible for, usually
10-20 at a time.
KNOWLEDGE

11. •They deliver up to 200,000 Tiffin's every working day
or 4 million per month.
•As dabbawallas note, “we make a mistake perhaps
once in 2 months. Our livelihood depends on delivering
efficiently”.
•Thus, the system error rate is 1 per 1.6 trillion
transactions.
•The best in the world practices allow an error rate of
up to 3.4 defects per million or what is termed as 6 -
sigma
QUALITY

12. ECONOMICS
 Works on the power of human creativity & sincerity with
low capital and without any technology
 For 1,75,000-20,00,000 boxes Rs. 200/box
 Monthly revenue is of about 35 million
 An average dabbawalla earns 7000 per month, by
spending less than 5% on associate dues,crate,railway pass
& bike maintenance.

13. ORGANIZATION
 Started in 1890, Nutan Trust(corporate body) with
5000 members
 Flat organizational structure-
i. Governing Council
ii. Mukadams (mentors)
iii. Dabbawallas
 Each group polls in collections and distribute equally.

14.  Each dabbawalla is an independent entreprenuer and a
shareholder in Nutran Trust.
 Their distinctive uniform :
 Long white shirt
 White dhoti
 white oval cap

15. FUTURE
 Rise of double income families, free cafeteria meals,
local & global food chain limited growth of
Dabbawallas
 Customer satisfaction & loyalty in services is high
Pollution, diseases, weight gain,etc
 Replicate in Delhi and Bangalore

16. CONCLUSION
 Dabbawallas have turned to be the most promising
business unit in Mumbai giving timely delivery of
food to their clients
 It is an excellent route to advertise any product using
these services with samples & circulars across tier
clients, it gives a space for a new business strategy.

17. 1. DABBAWALLAS are not employees Each dabbawalla is an
entrepreneur & an equal shareholder in the Dabbawalla Trust.
2. Each dabbawalla is an entrepreneur & an equal shareholder in the
Dabbawalla Trust Yet there is a team lead for every 25-30
dabbawallas, chosen from the team, by the team!
3. Strict code of conduct : Always carry ID, No alcohol, Gandhi topi,
NO undercutting.
4. 5,000 DABBAWALLAS cover 60 sq. km.in & around Mumbai.
5. 200,000 deliveries 400,000 transactions everyday.
6. ERROR RATE 1 in 16 million
7. 98% on-time many-to-many combinations
8. Say NO to motor vehicles, Avoid pollution SAVE COSTS
9. 35 clients each Everyone makes the same money!
10. Annual turnover is INR 50 crores