Inside the Dabba
Unlocking the secrets of the
Mumbai Dabbawalas
Who are these Dabbawala’s?
Dabbawala, literally translated means “man with
the box” and is the popular name given to an
unique, daily lunch delivery service in Mumbai’s
central office district.
For the past 113 years, a community of villagers
from Mumbai’s hinterland has been running a
low cost, low technology, manually operated
daily service delivering hot box lunches from
suburban homes to Mumbai’s office workers
using manual push carts and riding the local
train service.
What is their Mission?
• Work is Worship
• Customer is a KING.
• To reach the customer on time so that
they could have hot home made food.
So, what’s the Big Deal?
Without computers, operating manuals or
any other sophisticated management
system, they work together as a team to
collecting lunch boxes from all over
Mumbai’s suburbs and reaching them
within 180 minutes to their clients. An hour
or two later, they collect the empty box
and return it by mid afternoon back to
each home. They deliver on an average
about 200,000 such boxes everyday!
What is their core strength?
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Brand Loyalty – 3 generation of family.
Team work with outstanding co-ordination.
Everyone is an entrepreneur.
Stamina, value and ethics.
Delivering fast hot home cooked food is their objective.
Humility personified.
Unique logistic with railways.
Use only bicycles and pushcarts to deliver.
How did the business start?
It started 113 years back with this Parsee
gentleman who had asked one of the coolie if he
could deliver home food in his dabba to his office
everyday. The coolie agreed and then slowly
had more join him and soon they became a
chain of people doing the same job.
Most of the Dabbawala are from Rajgurunagar,
Akola, Ambegaon, Junnar and Maashi.
4 factors of Social
Service
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Efficient service at low cost.
No pollution or congestion.
Do not cause accident or morcha.
No cost burden to the state.
History
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Started in 1890.
Charitable trust: Registered in 1956
Employee strength: 5000
Average Literacy Rate: 8th Grade schooling.
Total coverage: 60-70 km
No. of tiffins: 200,000 tiffin boxes.
i.e. 400,000 X 25 days X 12 months
= 120,000,000 (120 million or 12 crore
transactions per year)
• Time taken: 8 hours, war time 3 hours (9am12pm) for collection of dabba.
Organization Structure
President
Vice President
General Secretary
Treasurer
Directors (9)
Mukaddam (Group Leaders- 800)
Members- 5000
Working NMTBSA
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Error rate: 1 in 16 million transaction.
Six Sigma performance (99.999999)
Technological backup: Nil
Cost of Service: 300 – 350 per month.
Std price for all: Weight, Distance, Space.
Earnings: 5000-6000 per month.
72 – 80 Crore turnover per annum approx.
Diwali bonus: 1 month’s extra pay.
No Strike- record since 1980.
No Police/ Court Case since 1890.
Approach
• Discipline
 No Alcohol drinking or smoking during
business hours.
 Wearing white caps
 Carry Identity cards.
 No leave without prior notice.
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Code of Conduct
Rs. 500 – Drinking on duty
Rs.100- Smoking on duty.
Rs.25- Not wearing white cap.
Rs.25- Not carrying ID Card
Rs.1000-Leave without intimation, sacked
if repeated 2-3 instances.
• Marketing
 Marketing pamphlets in the “Dabba”.
Working Co-ordination
• 8am-10am – collection of dabbas
• 10.34am-11.20am- Load the dabbas onto to the luggage
or goods compartment
• 11:20am-12.30pm- Unloading happens at the destination
station
• 1.15pm-2.00pm-Collection process starts
• 2.00pm-2.30pm-Segregation as per destination suburb
• 2.28pm-3.30pm-Return Journey
• 3.30pm-4pm- Back to origin station.
Coding structures are done with the place from where the
dabba is picked and by whom it needs to be delivered
and where it needs to be delivered.
But that’s not all
They work at six sigma levels of efficiency and this
amazing logistics miracle even caught Prince Charles’
attention and is now a business school case study.
Why, even Sir Richard Branson the chairman of
Virgin Atlantic paid them a visit. Out of the 5,000
dabbawallas about 85% are illiterate and remaining
educated only up till the 8th grade. But owing to their
dedication, hard work, time management skills and no
strikes in their 100+ years history they have carved out
a niche for themselves earning the awe and respect of
the society they selflessly serve. Among the
recognitions, they have a Six Sigma certificate from
the Forbes group and ISO 9001:2000. The dabbawalla
story is without parallel anywhere in the world.
So, did you learn something from the Dabbawalla
inside the dabba.