MUMBAI DABBAWALA..CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

1. By
Sukla paul
IIEST , SHIBPUR
Roll no : 07

2. Introduction:
 Mumbai Dabbawala - carrying and delivering freshly
made food from home in lunch boxes to office
workers.
 Dabba- “box".
 125 years old and growth 5-10% annually .
 Highly specialized trade.
 Represented Maharashtra – Republic day 2010.

3.  Three point formula:
 Discipline.
 Code of conduct.
 Hard work.

4. Supply Chain of Dabbawala
Pick up Dabba from
Residence/Caterer
and bring it to
Andheri Station.
*Journey in Local
Train*
Unloading and
Sorting at
Destination
Station.
Delivery to
respective
customers.
Collection of
Empty Dabba.
Sorting at
Destinations
station.
Returning Dabba to
Residence/Caterer.

5. Economic analysis
 Everyone gets paid about two to four thousand rupees
per month.
 More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunches get moved every
day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawala.
 Only one mistake in every 6,000,000 deliveries.
 The New York Times reported in 2007 that the 125 year
old dabbawala industry continues to grow at a rate of
5-10% per year.

6. Uninterrupted services
 The local dabbawala at the receiving and the sending
ends are known to the customer personally.
 They are well accustomed to the local areas they cater
to.
 People communicate between home and work by
putting messages inside the boxes.
 Known for time management and accuracy

7. Management learning from
Dabbawala
 Keep operational costs as low as possible.
 Keep capital investment bare minimum.
 Just serve your customer – nothing else.
 Customer is not the Raja but Maharaja.
 Complexity opposes compliance.
 Never deviate from your core competency.
 Do not be over dependent on technology.
 Flat organization – fast decision making
 Co operation inside – competition outside.

8. Contd…
 Keep extras for fault tolerance.
 Commitment matters, qualification doesn’t.
 Know the implication of failure.
 Build your services around existing infrastructure.
 Abandon bad customers.
 Strike means suicide – labor means life.
 Penalize employees for non compliance.
 Do not transfer your employees very often.
 Keep your employees emotionally united.
 High salary alone cannot retain employees.
 Be humble and do not boast your success.

11. Why BDO is unique :
 There are several complementary aspects of BDO
which render it as unique and hence protect it from
competition . the first and most critical is business
proportion based on inexpensive reliable public
infrastructure . BDO has build up over a period of time
, provide a unparallel advantages . The topography of
Bombay and need for home based food are important
contextual uniqueness .

12. conclusion
 It keeps operational cost as low as possible
 It keep capital investment bare minimum and give
first priority to the customer because they think that
customer is not the Raja but Maharaja
 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.
 There is flat organization.