SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT:

 A “dabba,” in local Indian parlance, is a lunch box or tiffin with home cooked food; the person who delivers it is called the “dabbawala.” The name, however, has long lost its generic connotation and is associated with one of the most innovative organizations worldwide in supply chain management: the dabbawalas. With a fan club that includes Prince Charles and Richard Branson, the dabbawalas are a brand to reckon with. What started as a service during the British colonial rule has evolved into a brand that symbolizes low cost innovation, teamwork, and brilliance in operational efficiency.

As the day begins in the commercial capital of India-Mumbai, the doughty dabbawalas strut across the hustle-bustle of busy streets collecting tiffin boxes. The dabbawalas deliver warm lunches from the homes of customers, and the women who work in those households usually decide what is being served. Traditionally the process has been conducted via personal networks, but today dabbawalas have websites in place to facilitate the process. A total of 5000 dabbawalas move almost 200,000 lunches everyday, an activity that has been carried on with utmost precision and punctuality for over a decade now. Little wonder, then, that at the recent Mumbai Marathon, Standard Chartered applauded them, “The dabbawalas keep the city moving.”

The organization has become symbolic of Mumbai’s culture, and the dabbawalas themselves have structured their own narrative as an indigenous brand that thrives on little technology and basic infrastructure. They claim to be the descendants of soldiers of the legendary Maharashtrian warrior-king Shivaji, and belong to the Malva caste—a legacy that is well in sync with their highly indigenous operations. Donning Gandhi caps and regularly getting together for cultural ceremonies, the dabbawalas both draw upon and contribute to the cultural fabric of Mumbai.

The local trains of Mumbai are the mainstay of the dabbawalas' impeccable supply chain process. Having become indispensable to the quotidian activity of office goers and businessmen, the brand has come to acquire tremendous goodwill amongst its customers and employees alike. In the last 125 years of existence, they have never gone on a strike. Raghunath Megde, president of the Nutan Mumbai Charitable Trust which manages the dabbawalas, says that after the railway strike of 1975—which caused huge losses to the dabbawalas—the organization realized the importance of abolishing the employer-employee relationship and instead put in place a structure where every worker is a shareholder. So today, part of the goodwill and mindshare that the dabbawala brand enjoys can be attributed to their ideology of inclusive growth—what branding industry professionals commonly refer to as "living the brand."

The mainstay of the entire organization is these workers-turned-shareholders. This uneducated workforce of men, with very little exposure to technology, has become the most potent brand ambassadors of the organization, with unflinching standards of teamwork and customer service. There is only one error in every 600,000 deliveries—a service standard which has earned them the Six Sigma Certification for Quality. Such has been their impact that leading business schools like Stanford and the Indian Institutes of Management (the premier Asian B Schools) invite them for lectures and workshops on supply chain management and teamwork.

The dabbawalas have never carried out self-branding exercises via advertisements or promotions to build their brand. The credibility associated with the brand has largely been acquired through word of mouth and buzz (again, this was never part of a formal strategy) because of their high standards of legendary customer service.

Leading brands in India—in an effort to increase their own brands' outreach and goodwill within the local consumer marketplace—have started exploring synergies with the dabbawalas. Microsoft, for example, used the dabbawalas to promote its Windows package for a campaign called “Asli PC,” meaning “Genuine PC.” Microsoft could not have found a better channel in Mumbai for reinforcing the value of authenticity associated with its brand. Media conglomerates and financial and telecom service providers have also used the dabbawalas as agents for direct marketing. Airtel, India’s leading telecom provider, used the network of dabbawalas to deliver and promote handsets, new connections, and pre-paid user cards.

According to the Trust’s President, these campaigns have been successful because “The dabbawalas are a brand that is synonymous with trust and commitment. I believe this is the reason why most reputed organizations like to associate with us.” For instance, in a gesture that underscores the trust and credibility that these workers carry on their shoulders, the Mumbai State owned Corporation Bank appointed the dabbawalas as its brand ambassadors and entrusted them with the task of account opening activities. Furthermore, Reliance, one of India's top most companies, recently used them to promote its Reliance Power IPO.

Indeed, this is considerable acclaim and brand muscle for an organization that has only recently learned to a create website in order to keep pace with the changing world. But for the dabbawalas, nothing seems impossible. As their Chief Information Officer told me recently, “If the commitment is there then qualification can be built.”

Mumbai, India’s financial capital, received worldwide attention back in 2003, with the release of the book ‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts, and more recently by the Academy Award (2009) winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. 

With a population around 19 million when counting the suburbs, Mumbai is ancient yet modern. The city is home to some of the world’s wealthiest people, yet also to some of poorest. Indeed, Mumbai is a miniature copy of urban India – a microcosm. Super-rich industrialists, classy movie stars, renowned artists, general workers, teachers, transport workers, clerks and of course beggars all reside in Mumbai – the select few in beautiful mansions, but most in soaring skyscrapers or sprawling slums, including Dharavi, said to be Asia’s largest and featured in the aforementioned movie blockbuster.

Half of Mumbai's residents commute everyday from the outlying suburbs to downtown offices, factories, banks, mills and factories in order to earn a living. A large number of these prefer fresh home-cooked meals for their lunch. 

… and that’s where the Mumbai Dabbawala takes up the challenge.

Every working day, some 5000 men (and 4 women at last count) pick up fresh hot meals packed in tiffins (lunch boxes) from the homes of close to 200,000 of these workers and deliver the same to their places of work, just in time for lunch. After lunch they reverse the process by picking up the empty tiffins and taking them back to the workers’ homes. Incredibly, they only make one mistake in 16 million transactions, thus earning themselves Six Sigma designation by Forbes Magazine and ISO 9001 accreditation. It’s no surprise that HRH Prince Charles visited the Mumbai Dabbawala in 2003 while visiting Mumbai, and that Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic did the same in 2005. In fact, Sir Richard spent a day with the Dabbawala similar to the one described in the photo feature inside the

book. They are also registered in ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’.

While other books have been written about the Dabbawala, the main author of ‘Dabbawala of Mumbai – Masters of Supply Chain Management’, is a gentleman who rose from the rank-and-file of the Mumbai Dabbawala to earn a PhD in business. Dr. Agrawal’s book delves into this system that has often been described as a phenomenon. More than simply a ‘how they do it’ the book is the first to demonstrate how the Dabbawala system relates to the principles of supply chain management, and for the first time, studies the socio-economic factors of the men and women of the Mumbai Dabbawala and their customers.

SIX SIGMA :

The Dabbawalla’s of Mumbai have been into existence since the 1890s. During the time when India

was still under the British rule. It was during those times that many people from different communities

came to work in Mumbai. The tiffin box delivery service was started by Mahadeo Havaji Bacche. He

recruited people from villages who were not able to earn a good living. And thus started the legacy of

The Dabbawalla’s of Mumbai.

The transport of lunch boxes from home to office. Thats all nothing much. Daily 4000-5000

dabbawallas carry 1,75,000 – 2,00,000 tiffin boxes everyday .

Taking a look into how they work will give an insight into the whole system

i)Tiffins boxes are collected by dabbawalla from a specific are and then he takes them to the nearest

railway station.

ii)The Tiffins are sorted depending on destination and and then are put in luggage carriers.

iii)Then the tiffin boxes travel in train and are taken to the railway station nearrest to their destination.

iv)Then the tiffins are collected and then taken to their respectives offices.

Finally end of the journey and just in time to the offices for lunch. 12:30 pm is the time of delivery.

The steps mentioned above are nothing but basic steps of logistics in raw form. The biggest thing to

be noted is that the whole system is manual and the average literacy of the workers is 8th grade

schooling.One thing to be noted about dabbawalla’s is the way they make use of the resources. Local

Railways networks in Mumbai is wonderful, it provides great connectivity. And this resource is

exploited by dabbawalla’s in the best way.The tiffin boxes are collected from houses or caterers by

dabbawallas and taken to railway station.The dabbawallas either walk or use bicycle.The silver

bicycle of dabbawalla’s is famous in Mumbai. The batching of tiffin boxes according to their

destination is done according to the numbers, the proper loading into luggage carriers in kind of crates

and then they are sent in local trains with dabbawalla escorting the boxes.

The silver bicycles of the Mumbai dabbawalla's

The dabbawalla’s follow a just in time methodology. The tiffins boxes are delivered just before lunch,

neither too early neither too late. And thus the dabbawalla’s know that “Error in Menace”. They are

well aware that even a small mistake is capable of setting a chain reaction and might lead to chaos in

one of the routes.However improper batching can lead to complete confusion. One mistake might

even put them out of business.The workers or the dabbawalla’s need to be reliable people, they are

kept on a 6 month probation period before they can become permanent workers.

Also the dabbawalla are given a day off, that is on sundays. The dabbawalla’s must be extremely

disciplined. Any alcohol or drug consumption during duty hours attracts heavy fine . Apart from this

they dabbawalla’s need to wear white Ghandhi Cap for identification in the crowded stations. Not

wearing a cap attracts a fine too. Thus we see that the Mumbai’s dabbawalla’s are on of the best

examples of a logistics supply chain. Also the discipline among them is what makes the whole system

impeccable in its operation.

At the evenings the process is revesed, destinations become source and sources become destination,

the tiffin boxes travel back to the homes. This in the supply chain management jargon is called

Reverse Logistics. On large commercial scale this process is used by bottling industries. Thus we see

that the dabbawalla’s of Mumbai set one of the best examples for an efficient supply chain. Working 6

days a week and throughout the year delivering tiffin boxes just in time for a delicious luch, home

made food in office !

A Mumbai dabbawalla, or lunch-box deliveryman, sorts a crate of tiffin boxes in Mumbai, 15 November 2007. Using the Mumbai commuter rail network, lunchbox carriers or "dabbawallas" pick up hot food from homes and deliver it to some 200,000 hungry office workers in time for lunch. The

5,000-strong army of "dabbawallas," a century-old service, has long been studied by business schools around their world as a model for their great time management and organisation skills. AFP PHOTO/

Sajjad HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)

Like any other enterprise the dabbawalla’s too face major competition. Especially from the various fast

food joints spread all over Mumbai. But one thing that makes them special is that no food joint can

give people home made food. Thus they are ahead of the food joints in the very core of their business

process. The delivery cost per month is around Rs 200-400, which is minimal. People can’t expect

any low prices. Its the lowest price depenind on various market forces and dabbawalla’s offer that

price. No matter how extreme the weather, especially due to the monsoon in Mumbai, the

dabbawalla’s are with the tiffin boxes right in time.Also the local dabbawalla’s know the people in

sending and receiveing end personally, so there is no question of breach of trust.

The dabbawalla’s have become high tech with time. They have booking on their website

mydabbawalla.com and also booking can be done by sending SMS.

The Six Sigma quality certification was established by the International Quality Federation in 1986,

to judge the quality standards of an organisation.The Six-sigma rating means that they have a 99.99

% efficiency in delivering the lunch-boxes to the right people. According to quality standards the

dabbawalla’s are at par with various companies like Motorola, Honeywell and GE. Apart from this the

dabbawalla’s have been called to various CII Conferences and leading institues like IIM’s to deliver

speech. Secretary of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust Gangaram Talekar

and M Medge, a tiffin carrier contractor – in a raw form both are essentially dabbawalla’s have been

called to speak at various leading institutes, FII Conferences, WTC etc. 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. In its

July 11, 2008 issue, The Economist news magazine reported that dabbawallas are a model of Six

Sigma management, holding a delivery accuracy rate of “99.9999%.”

Many movies have been made by various filmmakers showing the taste of different communities and

how dabbawalla’s deliver home made lunch.In 1998, two Dutch filmmakers, Jascha De Wilde and

Chris Relleke made a documentary called ‘Dabbawallahs, Mumbai’s unique lunch service’.

In July 2001, The Christian Science Monitor, an international newspaper published from Boston,

Mass., USA, covered the Dabbawalas in an article called ‘Fastest Food: It’s Big Mac vs. Bombay’s

dabbawallahs’ .

In 2002, Jonathan Harley, a reporter, did a story on the Dabbawalas with the Australian Broadcasting

Corporation (ABC). In 2003, BBC also aired a program on the Dabbawalas, which was part of a series

on unique businesses of the world.

In 2003, Paul S. Goodman and Denise Rousseau, both faculty at the Graduate School of Industrial

Administration of Carnegie Mellon University, made their first full-length documentary called ‘The

Dabbawallas’.

HISTORY OF DABBAWALLA: The closest meaning of the Dabbawala in English would be the "lunch box delivery man".

Though this profession seems to be simple, it is actually a highly specialized service in

Mumbai which is over a century old and has become integral to the cultural life of this city.

The concept of the dabbawala originated when India and Pakistan were under British rule.

Many British people who came to the colony did not like the local food, so a service was set

up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. Nowadays,

although Indian business men are the main customers for the dabbawalas, increasingly

affluent families employ them instead for lunch delivery to their school-aged children. Even

though the services provided might include cooking, it primarily consists of only delivery either

home-made or in that latter case, food ordered from a restaurant.

The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust This service was originated in 1880. In 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche , started a lunch

delivery service with about 100 men. In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize

the dabbawallas. Later a charitable trust was registered in 1956 under the name of Nutan

Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968

as Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association. The present President of the association is

Sopan Laxman Mare. Nowadays, the service often includes cooking of foods in addition to the

delivery.