7/21/2019 Dabba Wala: How it works?

1/1

Dabbawala: How it Works?

Dabbawala is a person in India, most commonly found in the city of Mumbai, who isemployed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshlycooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office workers, delivering it to theirrespective workplaces and returning the empty boxes back to the customers residence byusing various modes of transport. In 1!", Mahadeo #hava$i #achche started a lunch deliveryservice with about a hundred men. In 1!%", he informally attempted to unioni&e thedabbawallas. 'ater, a charitable trust was registered in 1!() under the name ofNutan

Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. *he current president of the association is +aghunathMedge.

or a dabbawala, the day begins at ! am, with an hour spent collecting all the -"-( dabbasin his area. / collecting dabbawala, usually on bicycle, collects dabbas either from a worker0shome or from the dabbamakers. /s many of the carriers are illiterate, the dabbas have somesort of distinguishing mark on them, such as a colour or group of symbols. *he dabbawala

then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalassortthe lunch boxes into groups. *he grouped boxes are put in the coaches of trains, withmarkings to identify the destination of the box usually there is a designated car for the

boxes2. *he markings include the railway station to unload the boxes and the destinationbuilding delivery address. /t each station, boxes are handed over to a local dabbawala, whodelivers them. *he empty boxes are collected after lunch or the next day and sent back to therespective houses.

The Supply Process of

Dabbawala

(,""" dabbawalasmake about 3"",""" transactions per day for a cost of 43 per month, perdabba. *he defect rate is as low as 1 in ) million5 *he success of the operation, in six sigma

terms, lies in the extreme certainty and predictability of the operation, coupled with anequally simple design. 6ractically nothing changes for months in the entire course ofoperation, except an odd addition7deletion of containers and maybe a few persons. *he only

processes involved are sorting, loading, and unloading and they dont need any technology orqualified personnel to operate. /lthough the number of transactions per day is large, each

person handles a limited number of transactions at a time. In addition, the dabbawalastypically do not deliver to the exact office of the client. Instead, they deliver it to the floor orthe wing of the building and the client identifies his dabbafrom the lot based on his personalmarkings on the container, and puts it back in the lot after lunch.

*he dabbawalas have become icons of hard work and dedication. *hey are here for the longhaul and over time will only get better.

Coding