HISTORY

The origin of the Dabbawalas lunch delivery service dates back to the 1890s during the British Raj. At that time, people from various communities migrated to Mumbai for work. As there were no canteens or fast food centers then, if working people did not bring their lunch from home, they had to go hungry and invariably, lunch would not be ready when they left home for work.

Besides, different communities had different tastes and preferences which could only be satisfied by a home-cooked meal. Recognizing the need, Mahadeo Havaji Bacche, a migrant from

North Maharashtra, started the lunch delivery service. For his enterprise, Mahadeo recruited youth from the villages neighboring Mumbai, who were involved in agricultural work. They were willing to come as the income they got from

agriculture was not enough to support their large families, and they had no education or skills to get work in the city. The service started with about 100 Dabbawalas and cost the client Rs.2/- month. Gradually, the number of Dabbawalas increased and the service continued even though the founder was no more. In the 1950s, the Dabbawalas were delivering 2,00,000 lunches a day. The Dabbawalas became organized after 1954 when the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Charity Trust was established. The Trust had offices in various parts of the city such as Grant Road, Dadar, Chembur, Ghatkopar and Mulund. It was the only body representing the Dabbawalas. The Dabbawalas lost a large group of clients, the mill workers, during the 1980s and 1990s, when the mills started closing down. However, they eventually gained other clients. People who felt that outside food was unhygienic and who wanted to have a specific diet started to use their service. They were not serving school- children earlier. However, later on started because many eateries are springing up all over Mumbai, and parents do not want their children to eat

the roadside stuff. In early 2000, the Dabbawalas were back to delivering up to 1, 75,000 - 2, 00,000 lunches a day.

Most dabbawalas hail from a few places in rural Maharashtra, which are between Lonawala and Pune. These include district and towns such as Audar, Ambegaon, Akola, Junnar, Mulshi, Mavla, Rajgurunagar, Sangamner and Khed.

They follow a strict dress code which comprises of the conspicuous white Gandhi cap and khadi kurtha pyjams:- a loose white dhoti shirt and cotton pyjams.

Governing council

Team of 20-25 headed by a group Leader ((Mukadam)

Individual DabbawalaWorkload = 30 tiffins

Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association

NMTBSA which stands for “NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION” is a remarkably flat organization with just three levels: the Governing council (president, vice president, general secretary, treasurer and nine directors), the Mukadams and the Dabbawalas.

Organization structure

Its 1st office was at Grant Road. Today it has offices near most railway stations. Here nobody is an employer and none are employees. Each dabbawala considers himself a shareholder and entrepreneur. Surprisingly Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association is a recent entity; the service is believed to have started in the 1880s but officially registered itself only in 1968. Growth in membership is organic as the members are from the same villages. New people are recruited only if they have a need for it.

Organization Structure of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association

The governing council consist of 13 members. This includes the president, vice-president, treasurer, and nine directors. Below them they have 120 groups each headed by a group leader named the Mukadam. The Mukadam manages the 5000 thousand members of the society. The Executive Committee is primarily involved in conflict solving, setting the agenda and administering the welfare activities. The system operates using a area system approach. Each area is served by a team of 20-25 dabbawalas and around 4 substitutes so that incase any dabbawala is not able to report they substitute can be sent. However, the team leader should be informed about it before hand.

Each team operates as a separate business unit and the team leader (called Mukadam) is responsible for the efficient coordinated functioning of the team. The Mukadams are familiar with the colors and coding used in the complex logistics process. Their key responsibility is sorting tiffin but they play a critical role in resolving disputes; maintaining records of receipts and payments; acquiring new customers; and training junior dabbawalas on handling new customers on their first day.

Each group is financially independent but coordinates with others for deliveries: the service could not exist otherwise. The teams are thus self administered work units sharing common agenda with each other.Service charges vary from Rs 200 to Rs 300 per tiffin per month, depending on location and collection time. Money is collected in the first week of every month and remitted to the Mukadam on the first Sunday. He then divides the money equally among members of that group. It is assumed that one dabbawala can handle not more than 35 - 45 customers given that each Tiffin weighs around 2 kgs. Each dabbawala is expected to serve 35 - 40 customers towards the collection and distribution fronts respectively. Collection and distribution all depends on the spread of the area. Each tiffin approximately changes hand 4 to 6 times.

Typically, a twenty-member group has 675 customers and earns Rs 100,000 per month which is divided equally among the members after deducting the expense of railway pass, luggage pass, bicycle maintainence & Rs. 50 per month for the puja & worship of God at the railway station. This means everyone in group receives equal income irrespective of age, experience or number of customers. It is equal income for equal efforts not result. Groups compete with each other, but members within a group do not.

From his earnings of between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000, every dabbawala contributes Rs.15 per month to the association. The amount is utilized for the community's upliftment, loans and marriage halls at concessional rates. Association officials resolve all problems. Meetings are held in the office on the 15th of every month at the Dadar. During these meetings, particular emphasis is paid to customer service.

New customers are generally acquired through reference given by old customers. Some customers are pleaded by dabbawalas on railway platforms. Addresses are passed on to the dabbawala operating in the specific area, who then visits the customer to finalize arrangements.

Daily Journey Of A Dabbawala

8:25 am. –The dabba is kept outside the client residence.

Immediately after 5 minutes.

8:30 am –The dabbawala collects the tiffin. In case the dabba is not there he knocks the door. Usually there is no interaction with the client

After 8 minutes. 8:38 am – The dabba is placed on the bicycle or pushcart together with dabba’s collected from other customers.

After 42 minutes.

9:20 am –The dabba’s so collected are brought to collection centre’s to the suburban railway station.

After 10 minutes.

9:30 am –The dabbas are sorted according to destinations and placed in cartages that are specific to each destination.

After 11 minutes.

9:41 am - The suburban train arrives. The cartages, normally numbering 5 - 6, are loaded into the special compartment located next to the driver’s cabin.

After 40 minutes.

10:21 am: The train arrives at one of the major hubs. The cartages are unloaded and bundled with those arriving from other collection centres. They are re-sorted according to destinations.

After 44 minutes.

11:05 am – Cartages are located into the suburban train for onward journey to the final destination terminals.

After 40 minutes.

11:45 am - The suburban train reaches the terminal station. Cartages are unloaded and dabba's are re-sorted, now according to specific delivery routes.

After 25 minutes.

12:10 pm – Dabba's are placed in destinations-specific cartages and hitched, typically on to bicycle or pushcart for delivery to individual clients.

After 20 minutes.

12:30 pm – The dabba is delivered at the doorstep of the client’s workplace.

The delivery process is reversed in the afternoon. The empty dabba is picked up between 1:15 pm. And 2:00 pm. For its return to the client’s home early that evening. (E.g. by 5:30 pm.).

Delivery Code of Dabbawalas

With large amounts of dabba's to handle, It is almost impossible to recognize the dabba of each client. To do that the dabbawalas have come out with a marvelous idea of coding the dabba's. These dabba's are of standard size, shape. Each group has a different color assigned to it. They recognize the dabba with the help of some codes and colors.

It all began with coloured strings to distinguish between one dabba and another. However as the population to be catered increased it became difficult to separate one lunchbox from another with coloured string alone. A set of rules were subsequently evolved. Each dabba lid is now marked with a particular code- Denoting the dabbawala's number, the building, the floor number of that building where the tiffin-box has to be delivered, the railway station where the tiffin-box has to be off-loaded, followed by an alphabet indicating the station of pick up. With this interesting colour-coding scheme, the dabbawalas reach out to the length and breadth of the city, seldom faltering.

The coding system is extremely logical and simple as well. The logic of the coding system is universal. However, each team has the freedom to choose the symbols that is consistent with the logic characters in any language, symbols and/or numbers.

Coding key:

VP- Code for the residential location.

9 VS 12 - Code for the dabbawala to use at the destination station.

9 Is the code for dabbawala at the destination location.

VS Is the code for the building name.

12Is the code for the floor number.

E - Code for dabbawala at the residential railway station.

- Code for dabbawala railway station.

Codes are painted at the top of each dabba indistinct colors of the respective groups.

HRM of dabbawala.

Flat Organization:

Talking about the organization structure and working style as we know that for better communication between top management and employees the institution must not have tall vertical hierarchy. Mumbai dabbawalas follow the flat structure with only 3 layers for better communication between top management and dabbawalas. The first layer is top management, second is governing body and third is dabbawalas itself. Instead of following top down approach they follow the bottom up approach. Each group is also responsible for day-to-day functioning. And, more important, there is no organizational structure, managerial layers or explicit control mechanisms.

No hire no fire rule:

Here nobody is an employer and none are employees. Each dabbawala considers himself a shareholder and entrepreneur. This decentralized organization When a Dabbawala gets a job, first he has to bring a replacement Dabbawala in his place and then only he, may join a company. This ensures that our system works properly.

There are no specific selection criteria like age, sex or religion; however, we have never seen a female dabbawalla. It is interesting to note there is no retirement age, and any person can work till he is fit enough to carry on the tasks required of him.

Community based recruitment :

All of them belonged to the same community ‘Maratha’ and came from few 7-8 villages near Pune. Most of them are having agricultural as their primary occupation. Descendants of soldiers of the legendary Maharashtrian warrior king Shivaji, dabbawalas belong to the Malva caste, and arrive in Mumbai from places like Rajgurunagar, Akola, Ambegaon, Junnar and Maashi. “We believe in employing people from our own community. So whenever there is a vacancy, elders recommend a relative from their village,” says

Madhba, one of a dabbawala. This ensure that they formally belive to their community.

Team work:

The entire system depends on teamwork and meticulous timing. Tiffins are collected from homes between 7.00 am and 9.00 am, and taken to the nearest railway station. At various intermediary stations, they are hauled onto platforms and sorted out for area-wise distribution, so that a single tiffin could change hands three to four times in the course of its daily journey.

Sharing common beliefs,values,ethics:

They belong to same community and are from known villages so they directly or indirectly know each other and follow the same customs and traditions. They belives that this is their own business and they are like the partners. It is assumed that one dabbawala can handle not more than 30-35 customers given that each tiffin weighs around 2 kgs. And this is the benchmark that every group tries to achieve.

Following of strict dress code:

The dabbawallas must be extremely disciplined. Consuming alcohol while on duty attracts a fine of Rs 1,000. Unwarranted absenteeism is not tolerated and is treated with a similar fine. Every dabbawalla gets a weekly off, usually on Sunday. The Gandhi cap serves as a potent symbol of identification in the crowded railway stations. Not wearing the cap attracts a fine of Rs 25. This ensure their strict dress code.

loyalty and trust is their monopoly :

Although these people were not having any training in supply chain management but still their commitment and zeal made sure Mumbai dabbawala kept on increasing its customer base and won hearts of his loyal customers.Dabbawallas are a perfect example of an important principle of both business and management -- the thirst to serve customers in a simple yet effective fashion without falling into the technology trap.The range of customers includes students (both college and school), entrepreneurs of small businesses, managers, especially bank staff, and mill

workers. The service is uninterrupted even on the days of extreme weather, such as Mumbai's characteristic monsoons. The local dabbawallas at the receiving and the sending ends are known to the customers personally, so that there is no question of lack of trust. Also, they are well accustomed to the local areas they cater to, which allows them to access any destination with ease.

Quarterly meeting to discuss issues.

Meetings are held office on the 15th of every month at the Dadar. During these meetings, particular emphasis is paid to customer service. They also discuss about matter like if tiffin is lost or stolen, an investigation is promptly instituted. Customers are allowed to deduct costs from any dabbawala found guilty of such a charge and if they found relevant mistake. They discuss whatever changes they have to do, And also about their day to day problems which they face.

Management Principles Derived

Team work:The entire system depends on teamwork and meticulous timing. Tiffins are collected from homes between 7.00 am and 9.00 am, and taken to the nearest railway station. At various intermediary stations, they are hauled onto platforms and sorted out for area-wise distribution, so that a single tiffin could change hands three to four times in the course of its daily journey.

At Mumbai’s downtown stations, the last link in the chain, a final relay of dabbawalas fan out to the tiffins’ destined bellies. Lunch hour over, the whole process moves into reverse and the tiffins return to suburban homes by 6.00 pm.

To better understand the complex sorting process, let’s take an example. At Vile Parle Station, there are four groups of dabbawalas, each has twenty members and each member services 40 customers. That makes 3,200 tiffins in all. These 3,200 tiffins have to be collected by 9.00 am, reached the station and sorted according to their destinations by 10.00 am when the ‘Dabbawala Special’ train arrives.

The railway provides sorting areas on platforms as well as special compartments on trains traveling south between 10.00 am and 11.30 am.

During the journey, these 80 dabbawalas regroup according to the number of tiffins to be delivered in a particular area, and not according to the groups they actually belong to. If 150 tiffins are to be delivered in the Grant Road Station area, then four people are assigned to that station, keeping in mind one person can carry no more than 35-40 tiffins.

During the earlier sorting process, each dabbawala would have concentrated on locating only those 40 tiffins under his charge, wherever they come from, and this specialization makes the entire system efficient and error-free. Typically it takes about ten to fifteen minutes to search, assemble and arrange 40 tiffins onto a crate, and by 12.30 pm they are delivered to offices.

Time management:

Before cutting to the management mantras, let's understand a few facts about our dabbawallas. Their mission is to serve their customers -- who are mainly office goers -- by delivering their lunch boxes at their doorstep on time.

They have 5,000 people on their payroll to ensure the prompt delivery of lunchboxes within Mumbai; these 'delivery boys' travel by local trains and use bicycles or walk to reach every nook and corner of Mumbai.

The lunch boxes are delivered exactly at 12.30 pm. Later, the empty boxes are collected and taken back to the homes, catering services or hotels before 5 pm. In fact, the next time you forget to strap on your watch before leaving for office, don't be surprised to find it in the lunchbox container brought by the dabbawalla from your home!

On an average, every tiffin box changes hands four times and travels 60-70 kilometres in its journey to reach its eventual destination.

Each box is differentiated and sorted along the route on the basis of markings on the lid, which give an indication of the source as well as the destination address.

Innovation:

: Reliance Money, the financial services and products distribution company of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has latched on to a marketing innovation. The firm has roped in the Six Sigma perfected dabbawalas to get an edge in their run-up to the Reliance Power IPO, among a host of other tradeable financial services. The dabba which arrives on the dot at most office desks with home-cooked food, will have other steaming offers in a bulging paper envelope. Apart from the full bouquet of mutual funds, insurance products and money transfer services, Reliance Money expects to push demat accounts, and IPO application forms through this channel, beginning with the Reliance Power application forms. The dabbawalas will not only carry Reliance Money’s messages across the city, they will even pick up requests and completed forms from customers back to the company.

“Its a dedicated two-way communications channel,” says Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director of Reliance Money. “The idea is to reach out to a maximum number of retail investors.” According to recent estimates, the dabbawalas move around 1.6 lakh lunch boxes everyday across the length and breath of Mumbai, with a workforce of around 5,000.

The alliance ensures that Reliance Money gets access to the most sought after segment of 24-60 year old professionals in the city, “each of who is individualistic enough to insist on fresh, hot home food every day. Reaching out directly to this segment makes more marketing sense than acquiring impersonal mailing lists,” says the director.

Given that some parts of this segment may not qualify as traditional equity investors, putting across a customised value proposition for each individual is an added bonus. According to reports, though the average dabbawala has no formal education beyond class eight on an average, their work practices draw upon a 120-year old logistics system. That means the familiar workforce on Mumbai streets – for whom even the unruly Mumbai traffic stops to let pass – misses no more than one delivery in every 10 million.

Though the deal with the dabbawalas is to be an event-based deal, Reliance Money is also looking at alternate channels to sell its services. It has also tied up with coffee chain Barista, where each outlet has a trading kiosk. Many travel agencies (like Kuoni) as well as courier offices (like DTDC) too will distribute the company’s financial products.

Reliance Money is the electronic transaction platform associated with Reliance Capital, a private sector financial services companies.

Costumer relation management:

Our friendly dabbawallas are a perfect example of an important principle of both business and management -- the thirst to serve customers in a simple yet effective fashion without falling into the technology trap.The range of customers includes students (both college and school), entrepreneurs of small businesses, managers, especially bank staff, and millworkers.

They generally tend to be middle-class citizens who, for reasons of economy, hygiene, caste and dietary restrictions or simply because they prefer whole-some food from their kitchen, rely on the dabbawala to deliver a home cooked mid-day meal.

New customers are generally acquired through referrals. Some are solicited by dabbawalas on railway platforms. Addresses are passed on to the dabbawala operating in the specific area, who then visits the customer to finalize arrangements. Meetings are held office on the 15th of every month

at the Dadar. During these meetings, particular emphasis is paid to customer service. If a tiffin is lost or stolen, an investigation is promptly instituted. Customers are allowed to deduct costs from any dabbawala found guilty of such a charge.

If a customer complains of poor service, the association can shift the customer’s account to another dabbawala. No dabbawala is allowed to undercut another.

The service is uninterrupted even on the days of extreme weather, such as Mumbai's characteristic monsoons. The local dabbawalas at the receiving and the sending ends are known to the customers personally, so that there is no question of lack of trust. Also, they are well accustomed to the local areas they cater to, which allows them to access any destination with ease. Occasionally, people communicate between home and work by putting messages inside the boxes. However, this was usually before the accessibility of instant telecommunications.

Logistic and supply chain management:

Supply chain model

Forbes magazine recently awarded it a six-sigma performance rating, which ranks the dabbahwallahs alongside the likes of GE and Motorola in terms of efficiency and quality of service. 175,000 boxes are transported every day, it has to go to the right person, it has to start from a point of origination, go through transshipment in the infrastructure which is the public infrastructure in the trains of Mumbai in all seasons including the monsoon and it has to arrive on time in the right place in the right box.

Many of the dabbawallahs are semi-literate, and in a city in which many observe religious dietary rules an errant delivery could easily cause offence. To get over that, each tiffin box is colour-coded and marked with simple acronyms such as ‘HO’ for hospital according to its final destination. There’s nothing new or complicated in this supply chain model, which works much like a courier company. Logistics is the new mantra for building competitive advantage, the world over. Mumbai’s dabbawalas developed their home grown version long before the term was coined

Their attitude of competitive collaboration is equally unusual, particularly

in India. The operation process is competitive at the customers’ end but united at the delivery end, ensuring their survival since a century and more.

In the dabbawalas’ elegant logistics system, using 25 kms of public transport, 10 km of footwork and involving multiple transfer points, mistakes rarely happen. According to a Forbes 1998 article, one mistake for every eight million deliveries is the norm. How do they achieve virtual six sigma quality with zero documentation? For one, the system limits the routing and sorting to a few central points. Secondly, a simple color code determines not only packet routing but packet prioritizing as lunches transfer from train to bicycle to foot.

Financial view of Dabbawallas

All the financial activity is supervised by Raghunath Meghe, president of the organisation & controlled by 25 Mukadams

Turn over : 72 crores annually

Every month Rs 15 is taken from each dabbawalla. Total amount generated through this : Rs 9 lakhs (per year)

Diwali bonus : one month’s from customers

Tie up with Co-operative banks for raising the funds for organisation

Micro financing for members of organization

Invitations from :

CII for conference held in Bangalore, IIML, IIMA, CII Cochin, CII Delhi, Dr. Reddy’s Lab Foundation Hyderabad, SCMHRD Pune, SCMHRD Nasik, Sadahana – Pune, Rotary Club – Bangalore, NIQR at Chennai

Radio:

German Radio Network, Radio Mirchi, Radio Mid-day, FM – Gold, BBC Radio, Radio City

Others:

World record in Best Time Management with Six Sigma rating

Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”.

Registered with Ripley's “ believe it or not”.

Participated in “Deal Ya No Deal Contest” by Sony Entertainment Television

Invited for marriage of Hon. Prince Charles of England on 9th April, 2005