Dabawala Marketing Management Project

A PROJECT OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT ON

“DABBAWALA”

(Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association)

[ ] Dabbawala Service Excellence

PRESENTED TO:

SIR JAHANGIR SADDIQ

PRESENTED BY:

Mr Muhammad Tayyab 111405

Mr Ali Yazdani 113511

Mr Waleed Tayyab 102507

Mr Farooq Haider 103119

Mr Abid Nadeem 111509

Institute of Management Science (Pak-AIMS)


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to pay our praises and humblest thanks to AL-MIGHTY

ALLAH, the most Merciful and Beneficiate of all, who bestowed us with the

ability to complete this project. It gives us immense pleasure and honor to extend

our thanks to our kind & cooperative. Sir Jahangir Sadiq from Faculty of

Institute of Management Sciences, Lahore for his valuable advices and

suggestions throughout our semester, in order to perform well & up to mark..

Finally, we pay regards of gratitude to our parents, as they and their prayers for

Our success are always been a pillar of strength for us in our life.

PREFACE

Quality without creativity is meaningless. As changes grow ever more

unpredictable creativity is rapidly becoming recognized a core management skill.

Today’s business environment demands that manager’s posses a wide range of

knowledge skills and competencies, as well as sound understanding of

management process and function. Managers need to be able to make best use of

their time, talent and of other people to work with and through others to achieve

corporate objectives. They also need to demonstrate their ability not merely to

solve problems, but to transform them and design ways through them.

This report concerns needs and changing needs and their satisfaction level, which

are the important function in every organization.



Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................7

THE GREAT DABBAWALA:.............................................................................................................9

We, the Dabbawala never go on strike.....................................................................................................14

SOME BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT DABBAWALS..................................................................16

Some Achievements........................................................................................................................18

ATTITUDE & APPROACH..................................................................................................................18

DISCIPLINES.....................................................................................................................................18

Code of conduct.........................................................................................................................19

DABBAWALA AS MARKETING RESOURCE..................................................................................19

THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE OF THE OFFICIAL ASSOCIATION FORMED IS AS FOLLOWS:....................................................................................................................................20

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITY.............................................................................................................22

PRESEDENT.....................................................................................................................................22

GENERAL SECRETARY..................................................................................................................22

MUKADAM........................................................................................................................................22

MEMBERS.........................................................................................................................................22

CORE VALUES.....................................................................................................................................22

HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES OF THE ASSOCIATION............................................................23

DISCIPLINE...........................................................................................................................................25

HR PRACTICES OF THE ASSOCIATION........................................................................................25

FLAT ORGANIZATION:..................................................................................................................25

NO HIRE & FIRE RULE:.................................................................................................................25

COMMUNITY BASED RECRITMENT:..........................................................................................25

SHARING COMMON BELIEFS, VALUES & ETHICS:...............................................................26

FOLLOWING OF STRICT DRESS CODES:................................................................................26

LOYALTY & TRUST IS THEIR MONOPOLY:..............................................................................26

TRAINING PROVIDED TO NEW EMPLOYEES:.........................................................................26

OWNER + EMPLOYEE ARE THE DESIGNATION OF ALL:....................................................26

QUARTERLY MEETING TO DISCUSS ISSUES:........................................................................27

MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OF THE DABBAWALA..................................................................27

TEAM WORK:...................................................................................................................................27

TIME MANAGEMENT:....................................................................................................................27

INNOVATION:..................................................................................................................................27

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT:..........................................................................28



SIX SIGMA:.......................................................................................................................................28

HRM System of NMTBSA:............................................................................................................28

LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT:.......................................................................28

THE SYSTEM OF SERVICE NETWORK HOW THEY OPERATE............................................29

Leaving Home for the work:..........................................................................................................30

DABBAWALAS' UNIQUE SUPPLY CHAIN MODEL......................................................................31

Supply Chain Management........................................................................................................31

Coding System...............................................................................................................................34

LEAVES..................................................................................................................................................36

Weekly Leave:................................................................................................................................36

Festival Leave:...............................................................................................................................36

THE GROWTH..................................................................................................................................37

PRODUCT ELEMENT OF DABBAWALA.........................................................................................38

Place..................................................................................................................................................38

Time...................................................................................................................................................39

Promotion and Education...........................................................................................................39

Price...................................................................................................................................................40

OTHER PHYSICAL PRODUCTS:...................................................................................................40

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT:..........................................................................................................40

Environment:..............................................................................................................................41

PROCESS..........................................................................................................................................41

RETURN JOURNEY..........................................................................................................................42

SWOT ANALYSIS OF (NMTBSA) DABBAWAL:............................................................................42

STRENGTH.......................................................................................................................................42

WEAKNESS.......................................................................................................................................42

OPPORTUNITY.................................................................................................................................43

THREAT.............................................................................................................................................43

Reliability.....................................................................................................................................43

Basic Service................................................................................................................................43

Service design..............................................................................................................................43

Recovery......................................................................................................................................43

Fair Play.......................................................................................................................................43

Teamwork....................................................................................................................................43

Employee Research......................................................................................................................43



Servant Leadership......................................................................................................................43

Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................44

FOUNDER OF NMTBSA (NUTAN MUMBAI TIFFIN

BOX SUPPLIER AND ASSOCIATION)

Mr. Dhondiba Medge (1923-1980) - the father of Mr. Raghunath Medge

(president of NMTBSA), framed Human Resource Policy of Nutan Mumbai

Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association.

Mr. Dhondiba Medge was educated only to 4th standard. He framed rules &

regulations of the Dabbawalas. He was very stair & disciplined kind of person.

Who was believes on "Time Is Money."

THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

The Dabbawala have two different aspects as considered with the mode actual

operations & mode of organizations formed by the Dabbawalas.

To guide & manage the entire operation procedure.

Acquisition of any new customers & training a new person assigned to the

particular customer.



INTRODUCTION

Dabbawalas the carriers of Tiffin boxes daily deliver lunch boxes to lacks of

office goers in city Mumbai. The practice 119 years old in spite of complexities

this Dabbawalas goes in to the delivery has been appreciated worldwide among

them being BBC, MTV, CIIT, PRINCE CHARLES & BRITAIN

CHAIRPERSON OF VIRGIN AIRLINE COMPANY & OTHER TOP

MANAGEMENT COMPANIES & SCHOOLES. It is believed that system if

applied to other cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc.

will impact a major positive change the lunch delivery system. The system runs

efficiently & is in prestigious position with achievement of SIX SIGMA

RATING.

Dabbawalas fascinating for instance the Berkeley University in California teaches

the logistic system of Dabbawalas as a case study in one of their business


http://www.mydabbawala.org/general/products.htm


management programs and many Indian business schools and industry

associations have the Dabbawala logistics system in their case-study agenda. In

1998 two Dutch filmmakers, Jascha De Wilde and Chris Relleke, made a

documentary called "Dabbawalas, Mumbai's unique lunch service" and in 2001,

the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston-based newspaper, covered the

Dabbawala in an article called "Fastest Food: It's Big Mac vs. Bombay's

Dabbawala." The British Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian

Broadcasting Corporation have done features on the delivery system as well,

while Prince Charles was so impressed with their service that he had even invited

a few Dabbawalas to his marriage with Camilla Parker in London. Yet these

Dabbawalas have remained poor. "Nowhere in the world would you find a lunch

delivery service that costs as little as $9 a month," says Talekar. The charges for

this complex delivery system have remained dirt-cheap ever since its inception

and still the maximum rate that a Dabbawala charges (depending on the distance

carried) is about $11 a month. Which is why technology is needed to improve

their lives, says Tripathy. "No doubt a major driver for establishing a Web-based

and mobile phone ordering system was the need for a central ordering facility

where one can call for a Dabbawalas service by just hitting the Web site or

through an SMS” says Tripathy, "but the other equally important driving force

was to expand business." Until recently business has come just through word-of-

mouth or from contacts made in local railway stations. "But ever since we

introduced the SMS-based ordering service we have been getting about 15 new

orders every day," said Tripathy. The Web site (www.mydabbawala.com) has also

enabled the association to solicit donations and sell merchandise, the proceeds of

which go towards creation of a social security fund to pay for the Dabbawalas' life

and medical insurances. "The use of IT would not stop there," says Tripathy, "we

would be stretching its use soon to enable the Dabbawalas to add additional lines

of business." According to him the next plan is to gear the Dabbawalas with the



ability to sell groceries and other daily necessities, the orders of which could be

taken through their mobile phones.

THE GREAT DABBAWALA:

My time in Mumbai was brief but full. The city itself seems to be about as

different as could be from, Delhi. Clean, full of sky scrapers, bustling, and largely

friendly. Through a contact of a contact I was able to spend some time learning

about one of the stranger aspects of Mumbai life – the Dabbawala.

The term “Dabbawala” means something close to “boxman.” The Dabbawala are

an entire caste of people whose job is to transport home cooked lunches to their

locations at peoples’ places of work. There are 5000, largely illiterate, Dabbawala

who use a complex system of symbols and home-grown business sense to move

260,000 lunches each day. The system is near flawless (one research paper put it

as one screw up in 16 million successful deliveries) and has been going for over a

century. Almost all of these men hail from a small village a couple of hours

outside of Mumbai and because of the small town nature of things, almost all are

somehow related. The unique shape of the city and cheap train network make it

affordable for this system to work here and only here. And while it’s amazing to

watch these men scurry about doing their job, what I was interested in is how this

amazingly Indian concept has held on as long as it has. While fast food is

booming as the only option for office workers in virtually every megacity in the

world, in Mumbai it is the norm to have a fresh home cooked meal every day.

The system works a bit like this (and while I use gendered terms here the system

is becoming less so, again in an interesting way). Man leaves in the morning to go

to work at six to accommodate for the two hour commuter train to work. He wants

lunch, so his wife would have to get up at four to cook it and send it with him.

Instead, in rushes the Dabbawala, making it so that she can send off the lunch at

eleven to get to the office at one, giving her an extra five hours of sleep. You



subscribe to the service on a monthly basis – man on a bike comes by your house

to pick up your tiffin (a stainless steel box or canister which everyone uses to eat

out of), he hands it off to the next fellow at the train station, who hands it off to

someone at the next train, to a sorter, to another bike, to the office. A couple of

hours later the Dabbawala picks up the Tiffin and the whole process happens

again in reverse. The average Tiffin goes through the hands of five or six people

in each direction. It has no writing on it besides a few grease paint marks of x’s,

o’s, and squares. Depending on how far away you live from the office, you can

get deliveries for between 400 and 500 rupees a month (three to ten USD).

Now, while this used to be all men receiving and women cooking, it has expanded

lots over the past couple of decades. Now about a quarter of the office workers

receiving lunches are women. They deliver to schools. If you want to deliver to

your husband, children, brothers, sisters, and cousins, you can send Tiffin’s to all

of them. If you have no one at home to cook for you the Dabbawala have found

homemakers who will be willing to cook extra meals on a subscription basis so

that strangers can also have a home cooked meal and the home cooks can get a

little bit of extra cash.

I am not the first or last person to marvel at this system. The whole organization

organized itself (stemming from a demand during the British rule for home

cooked meals that were British for British workers, then moving to Indians

wanting their own food too) and incorporated during the 1960s. The three heads

of the organization are former runners themselves and now give talks at major

business colleges around the world on a system of organization and efficiency

which came naturally to them.

Moving away from the marvel that it does work, it’s amazing to think about why

people want it to work. In a city which is renowned for its hustle and bustle it’s

amazing to think that something as little as a home cooked meal would get this



much love and care – but it’s a sign of how people are making attempts to adapt to

this way of life while maintaining connections to their roots.

Delivery process of Dabbawala



TOP 10 REASONS TO USE DABBAWALA



Homemade food is best for health and because health is wealth. Outside junk

foods may take your life and makes you sick. Homemade food keeps your doctors

bill down and there are fewer absences from office due to poor

health. In fact bad food is the reason #1 of all the diseases.

Homemade food is cheaper. When you use Dabbawalas

services to deliver your home cooked food to your office you

are actually saving your hard earned pennies. The delivery

charge of Rs 400 - 500 per month is very nominal and

reasonable. It’s simple math’s.

Do you not love your mother or wife and like to eat food made by her?

Even if there is no one at home to cook food for you,

Dabbawala can deliver you good quality home like

lunch through many restaurants. We have quality restaurants

all over Mumbai where cheap and best quality food is prepared

which is delivered at your office or home through Dabbawala

Channel.

Safety - The Local train of Mumbai are always much

crowed and it is very tough to take even small luggage

during peak times. There are instances where the person's

hand got hurt or broken and ones



Belongings destroyed while traveling during peak time.

People leave from their home at about 8 - 9 PM which is

peak time and it’s not possible to carry Tiffin during this

time and Even the food is not ready by this time. By

using our services you are getting hot food safely deliver

in your office.

Dabbawala give reliable services and their performance

and accuracy match six sigma standards. You must be

sure that your home cooked food reaches in time.

We, the Dabbawala never go on strike.

By taking our services you are proving direct

employment to 5000+ Dabbawala and many of their

dependent families. You are actually helping us.



Dabbawala are an icon in their own sense and famous

world over for their efficiency and by taking our services

you are being part of India's image building.

Dabbawala are from the remote villages of Maharashtra

and mostly uneducated. They regularly organize bhajan

and kirtans and spread the essence of Marathi culture,

good will and oneness of India. Being a part of

Dabbawala, you are actually nurturing Marathi culture



SOME BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT DABBAWALS

History : Started in 1890

Charitable trust : Registered in 1956

Employee Strength : 5000

Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling

Total area coverage : 60 Kms to 70 Kms

Number of Tiffin’s : 2, 00,000 Tiffin Boxes

400,000 transactions every day (including return)

I.e. 400,000*25 days*12 months= 120,000,000

(120 million or 12 crore transactions per year)

Time taken: 8 to 9 Hours

Morning 3 Hours Wartime

(9 A.M. to 12 P.M. for the Collection and Delivery)



WORKING OF DABBAWALA

Error Rate: 1 in 16 million transactions

Six Sigma performances (99.999999)

Technological Backup: Nil.

Cost of service: Rs. 400/- to 500/- month

($7-9 £4-5, €6-7 per month)

Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)

Earnings: Rs. 6000/- to 7000/- per month.

($130, £70, €110) per month.

Turnover per Annum (Approx). Rs. 72 to 80 Cr

Diwali Bonus: One month’s extra payment

“No Strike” record since 1890.

“No Police / Court Case” since 1890.



Some Achievements

ATTITUDE & APPROACH

“People study business books and then practice. We practiced first and have now

become case studies” Raghunath Medge (President)

“It’s a model of managerial & organizational simplicity” C. K. Pralhad

DISCIPLINES

• No Alcohol Drinking / Smoking during business hours.

• Wearing White Cap during business hours.

• Carry Identity Cards.

• No Leave without Prior Notice.



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 in 2-3 instances

DABBAWALA AS MARKETING RESOURCE

• Marketing pamphlets with the “Dabba”.

Sticker, Tag and Sample Piece of Goods with “Dabba



THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE OF THE OFFICIAL ASSOCIATION FORMED IS AS FOLLOWS:

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PRESIDENT

MR. RAGHUNATH D. MEDGE

VICE

PRESIDENT

MR. SAMBHAJI

G. MEDGE

GENERAL

SECRETARY

MR. GANGARAM

L. TALEKAR

TRASURER

MR. DAMODAR

PINGALE

DIRECTORS

(9)

GROUP(120)

MUKADAM

1

MUKADAM

M

Dabbawala-1 Dabbawala-n Dabbawla-1 Dabbawala-n


[MARKETING MANAGEMET ]Dabbawala Service Excellence

22

PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

GENERAL SECRETARY

TREASURER

DIRECTORS ( 9 )

MEMBERS ( 5000 )

MUKADAMS (800)

13 MEMBERS

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE


DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITY

PRESEDENT

Taking monthly meeting

Checking accounts of the association

Solving the problems among the members

GENERAL SECRETARY

Drafting the various types of letters

Collecting the trust fees

MUKADAM

Supervising the functioning of the members in his group.

MEMBERS

To deliver Tiffin Boxes to the customers & carry Tiffin Boxes back to

their home respectively.

CORE VALUES Work is Worship

Serving people is Serving God

Annadan is Mahadan

Time is Money

Unity is Power

23


HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES OF THE ASSOCIATION

The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association is registered

institution. Though it is so, it does not function as a commercial institution e.g.

courier company.

The organization is formed by the members. To avoid any disputes &

give each member pride, the employee-employer relationship is avoided. Each

member is a shareholder in the association. He gets his monthly salary from

each of his customers directly.

All the members in a group gather on a particular date of each month

mostly at a nearest local office of the organization or the trust (NUTAN

MUMBAI TIFFIN BOX SUPPLIERS' CHARITABLE TRUST). all the

members collect their salary together, cut down for overheads & travel

expenses. Also each member contributes amount of rupees 10;/- towards for the

charity purposes.

E.g. there is the group of 15 Dabbawalas

They carry 30 dabbas each

They get Rs. 150/- customer

So calculation goes like this:

15×150×30 = 675000/-

So. Gross earning of this group is Rs. 67500/-

Now from this amount, a collective amount of Rs. 4000/- approximately

is deducted comprising expenses for railways pass, expenses for parking the

carts & cycles & overheads the remaining amount is divided equally into all

members of the group.

24


So, suppose now after deductions, group has left with 63500/-; it will be

divided equally among all the members, thus each member getting Rs. 4230/-

each. This salary may not be sufficient compared to the cost of living in

Mumbai also may of have their families back in villages to send money to. To

cope up, with this problem, few of the Dabbawala have started doing some side

business for extra income. Some of them after returning home in evening drive

auto-rickshaws or early in morning before going on work distribute newspaper

or milk.

The association once a month calls a meeting of all the members. In this

meeting. It tries to solve the internal problems of the members.

Such problem & solutions solved till now have laid a kind of unwritten

rules & regulations for the members of the organization to follow in certain

cases.

1. In the case of loss of Tiffin Box of the Dabbawala, if he is found guilty,

then the customer is refunded the appropriate amount for the loss.

2. Each member is supposed to operate in his allocated area only & not

interfere with any of his fellow colleagues, work area. In fact normally no

Dabbawala does this too!

3. In case if the customer is not pleased with dabbawala provided to him for

service, both of them cannot co-ordinate well with each other then the

organization can shift that dabbawala to some other area & replace other

dabbawala in his area.

25


DISCIPLINE

Wearing White cap during working hours.

Reporting to duty on time.

Behave properly & respect the customers

Carry identity cards

HR PRACTICES OF THE ASSOCIATION

FLAT ORGANIZATION:

The president, Vice president, General Secretary, Treasurer & 9 no. of

Directors formed 13 members of board under which Mukadam & other

Dabbawalas work. So due to such Flat kind of organization structure

decisions are taken on the spot. Even the president & other higher

categories members also work.

NO HIRE & FIRE RULE:

Everyone is shareholder of the association. Whatever profits they can

equally distributed within itself. It is democratic type of organization HR

Practices.

COMMUNITY BASED RECRITMENT:

Those who have capacity to job they can apply for the Dabbawala post.

There is no any kind of basis happens related to recruitment process.

26


SHARING COMMON BELIEFS, VALUES & ETHICS:

All the Dabbawalas are from poor background, the aim of the

organization is mutual benefit to all members so they follow certain

values, belief & ethics to run business effectively.

FOLLOWING OF STRICT DRESS CODES:

All Dabbawalas must wear white cap which is called as Gandhian cap on

duty. Also wear white sadara & pyjama (shirts & pants). All Dabbawals

must carry their Identity card on duty. All these rules are bninding on all

cadres of the Dabbawala.

LOYALTY & TRUST IS THEIR MONOPOLY:

All Dabbawalas are loyal & hard working in nature. They follow their

norms & promise which they made their customers.

TRAINING PROVIDED TO NEW EMPLOYEES:

After recruitment they provide complete process training to new joiner

under the observation of Mukadam or any senior member. When they feel

that new employees are capable to work, that time training will

completed.

OWNER + EMPLOYEE ARE THE DESIGNATION OF ALL:

Everyone is the shareholder of the Association. All disciplinary rules &

other ethics follow by all members. So there is no any employee &

employer relationship between each other. All are owners of the business.

27


QUARTERLY MEETING TO DISCUSS ISSUES:

Every quarter all Dabbawalas meet & discuss issues related to service,

salary & future goal. They discuss balance sheet & distribute profits

among them. If any critical issue arises that time they cal immediate

meeting. Also conduct daily meeting to handle day to day problem. All

Dabbwalas can participate in meeting & can contribute his suggestion.

MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES OF THE DABBAWALA

TEAM WORK:

Working with team is the strength of the Dabbawals. Also Team work is

the key aspect of their inner self satisfaction (proved by research). One

Tiffin box goes from many hands of the Dabbawals & finally reaches at exact

destination which shows success of their Team Work.

TIME MANAGEMENT:

They deliver Tiffin boxes before 12 pm at customer's office. There duty

starts from morning 8 am. Same time there is always lots of rush at

railway station, & traffic on the road, in such kind of critical situation

they able to deliver lunch boxes on time. They got Six Sigma because of

their Time management & no. defects in deliveries.

INNOVATION:

Dabbawala promote innovation. They started coding system to Tiffin box

for easy identification, which are one of the examples of their innovation

strategy. They believe on continuous improvement by way of

innovation.

28


CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT:

100% customer satisfaction is the success of their system. They achieved

this level because of maintaining good relationship with customers. They

believe on “Service to Customer Is Service to God”.

SIX SIGMA:

They have got the prestigious achievement of SIX SIGMA RATING

because of their percentage of correctness which is just perfect up to

99.999995 i.e. six decimals or more than that. Not many of the topmost

companies are even near to it. This is simply incredible!

HRM System of NMTBSA:

They achieved six sigma in following aspects.

Simplified coding system

High conformity to the system

Buffer in the lead time

Confirmed by the limits of the human capabilities

LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT:

By using their own logistic methods they deliver lacks of tiffin boxes

through many dabawalas hand: but the final goal is to reach tiffin box

before 12 pm. At customer’s office everyday they achieve their goal.

29


THE SYSTEM OF SERVICE NETWORK HOW THEY OPERATE

The dabbawalas are the whole & soul of the entire system of these

operations. For these dabbawalas to be able to provide prompt & efficient

service, it is very much important & necessary to be always on time. So

you will not see any Dabbawala moving ahead road taking his own sweet

time! They are always in hurry pushing through the crowd carefully to

deliver lunches on time for lacks of mumbaiities

The entire system involves carefully planned, organized & implemented

activities around the hour timings, but they do it with excellent associated

teamwork.

We now take look in the routine course of action Dabbawalas i.e. from

the time they leave their home in the morning till the time they deliver the

tiffin box back to the customers’ home in the evening.

This cycle of operations of delivery takes them nearly 8 hrs a day very

similar to the office timings, as these takes time normally from 9 a.m. to 5

p.m. the day starts around 8.00-8.30 am in the morning.

30


Leaving Home for the work:

The Dabbawalas leave there homes in the morning between 7.50 am

to 8.30 am depending upon from which areas they have to pick up

tiffin boxes.

The Dabbawalas reaches the customers homes according to the timing

fixed between two of them.

The day in home then hands over the prepared & packed tiffin box to

the Dabbawala.

Collecting 30-35 tiffin boxes (from area specified to him) is the

responsibility of each Dabbawala, but there were we can see that

number of Dabbas picked up is also dependent upon the age of the

Dabbawalas. Where young person picks even 40 Tiffin’s each, an

elder person might pick 30!

Also collecting tiffin is not an easy task. Because, Dabbawalas have to

pick up tiffin boxes from various distant location in his area. These

locations may be far from each other located on higher floors of the

building where sometimes elevator may not be available.

These tiffin boxes are then taken to the nearest local station by

vehicle. Usually a bicycle or in long wooden creates carried on the

head! E.g. If a Dabbawala a collecting Tiffin boxes from area of

Ghatkopar then he will carry them to Ghatkopar or Vikhroli railway

station whichever is nearer from his area of collecting Tiffins

31


DABBAWALAS' UNIQUE SUPPLY CHAIN MODEL

Millions in Mumbai commute everyday to earn a living. Banks, colleges,

hospitals, government offices, private offices, factories and ports are all spread

across different parts of the city. In a country where hot and freshly cooked

home food is the most preferred for consumption, carrying of lunch boxes is a

big burden for the working populace. However, this problem is unheard of in

this metro city thanks to the presence of the 100 year old organization of

“Dabbawalas”.

he Dabbawala community has about 5000 people working with them. These

Dabbawalas deliver lunch boxes for about 2 lakh people at their work places on

time. The work doesn’t end here. They also carry the empty lunch boxes back to

the homes of the customers. The unbelievable part is they make only one

mistake in sixteen million transactions and have been consistently good at it for

all the time of their operations. This credibility earned them a six sigma

designation by the Forbes magazine and ISO 9001 accreditation. The three

main reasons for their success are as follows.

Supply Chain Management

Surprisingly there is no use of Information systems or technology for their

Supply chain side. A rigorous level of practice over the years has led to the

unwritten steps to follow for accurate supply chain management and time

precision. There are about 40000 transactions (delivery and return) of lunch

boxes taking place daily. The figure below shows their Supply chain model.

Dabbawalas use cycles or go by foot to every household. The waiting time to

collect a lunch box is maximum 2 minutes. Every Dabbawala has to assemble at

his/her reported collection point at sharp 9. 30 am From these collection points

they assemble at the nearest railway station which is the Aggregation point. The

next mode of transport is the trains where the carriers containing lunch boxes

32

http://www.mbaskool.com/business-articles/operations/2891-dabbawalas-unique-supply-chain-model.html


are transported to the destination railway stations. From every Destination

station the dabbas are carried over carts, cycles and carriers to the destination

zones which are given a specific number

From these zones, the lunch boxes are carried to the offices or workplaces

which reach by lunchtime

From here the reverse process of delivering the empty lunch boxes back to

homes starts

(All through the above process, there is no slack at any point of time)

Traffic Jams, pedestrians, delays in train and signals do not stop the functioning.

The trademark white cap wore by these Dabbawalas are known to everyone

including the police who don’t interfere in their process

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Coding SystemVLP : Vile Parle (suburb in

Mumbai)

9EX12 : Code for Dabbawalas at Destination

EX : Express Towers (building name)

12 : Floor no.

E : Code for Dabbawala at residential station

3 : Code for destination Station eg. Churchgate Station (Nariman Point)

D’souza


Coding System

Coding System is meticulously followed in order to avoid any mistakes

involving interchange of lunch boxes, that is, wrong Tiffin box reaching the

customer.

As given in the above Diagram, the Coding system can be explained as follows:

BVI: Borivali, a suburb in Mumbai. This denotes the residential station

9 RC 14: Code for Dabbawalas at destination. This user code is different for

each customer

RC: Raheja Chambers, name of a building or office

14: Floor Number

E: Code for Dabbawala at Destination station. For example, E is a code for

Nariman Point, Church gate

Jain: Name/Surname of the customer

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LEAVES

NMTBSA has segregated annual leave on two types

Weekly Leave:

All Dabbawala gets weekly leave on every Sunday.

Festival Leave:

All Dabbawallas are devotees of lord Shiv shankaras & vitthalas so NMTBASA only sanctioned leaves for those festivals which are celebrated for their God.

Mahashivaratri (Festival of Shiv Shankaras)

Aashadhi Ekadashi (Festival of Lord vitthalas)

Kartiki Ecakashi (Festival of Lord Vitthalas)

Chaitra Pournima (New Year of Marathi People)

Diwali (2 days) (Festival of Lights)

THE GROWTH37


YEAR NUMBER OF DABBAWALAS NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS

1900 58 1445

1905 75 1965

1910 142 4120

1915 204 6504

1920 321 9675

1925 407 12140

1930 695 22865

1935 1024 43230

1940 1206 4340

1945 1715 64240

1950 2106 82000

1955 2552 105120

1960 3216 140000

1965 4406 198100

1970 4605 176040

1975 4904 215000

1980 5551 27507

1985 5524 190645

1990 5102 130860

1995 5180 142260

2000 5164 16670

2005 5142 175040

2006 5150 175060

2007 5200 187080

2008 5220 190900

2009 5300 200000

PRODUCT ELEMENT OF DABBAWALAThe product Element here is basically a service they provide to the office

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goers by delivering their Tiffin box or more commonly called as ‘Dabba’ in

the city of Mumbai.

There are other ancillary physical products such as Tiffin Box, Gandhi

Cap, and Video CD on Dabbawala, Dabbawala Mug, and Dabbawala T-

shirt. These products are sold by the trust to earn more money and to work

for the welfare of their members.

Place

The Mumbai dabbawallas journey start from Andheri station. At this place

they put all the dabbas collected from different places of houses. They load

the wooden crates filledwith tiffins onto the luggage or goods compartment

in the train.

Generally they choose to occupy the last compartment of the train. After that

they unloading all the dabbas on the Church Gate Station which is there

destination place. They re-arrange the t iffins as per the destination area

and destination building. In particular areas with high density of customers

such as Nariman point, Fort, Cost a special crate is dedicated to the area.

This crate carries 150 tiffins and is driven by 3-4 dabbawallas.

After that return journey start at all destination stations. Here begins the

collection process where they have to collect tiffins from different offices

where they have delivered an hour ago. Then they segregate the dabbas at

destination stations. Finally they again reach to there origin place (Andheri

station) where the final sorting and dispatching takes places according to

their origin area.

Time

The journey of Mumbai dabbawallas start in morning at 9:34-10:30. They

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collect the dabbas from different places between 10:34 to 11:20. They

travel in the local train and choose the last compartment. After that between

11:20 to 12:30 they unload all the dabbas and re- arrange according to

their destination area and destination building. Then the collection process

starts between 1:15 to 2:00. They pick up all the dabbas where they had

delivered an hour ago. Now the group members s t a r t s eg rega t ing

the dabbas acco rd ing to des t ina t ion between 2:00 to 2:30. Between

2:48 to 3:30 the return journey by train takes place after routine of

dispatching and collecting. Since it is more of pleasant journey compared

to earlier part of the day, they lighten up their moment with merry making,

joking around and singing. Finally the stage between 3:30 to 4:00 where the

final sorting and dispatch of dabbas takes place as per their origin area.

Promotion and Education

Dabbawala’s are in Tiffin distribution field since last 125 years hence they don’t need any promotional tool for their business. Though they are used by other business units as promotional tool for their business units Orders through SMS and online is accepted by the organization and they have come up with a site named mydabbawala.com

As reliance power is making best use of them. If you receive dabba it is very possible that you will get IPO application along with it.

Maharashtra government has roped them in to spread of AIDS awareness. Film industry is using them to promote their films. Example at time of movie tashan release they were used and the response to it was very good. 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”. World record in best time management.

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

Price

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The Cost of Service per person is Rs250/month it is Standard price for all

(Weight, Distance and Space). The Dabbawalas Turnover is Approx

Rs 50cr.Total Earning of 20 people is Rs125000. Earning per person

varies from Rs5000 to 6000/month. Maintenance Cost is Rs 35000 per year.

Tiffin Luggage Basket pass is Rs 180 per person. Maintenance Cost of

cycles is Rs300 that is for 2cycles per month .Maintenance of wooden

boxes is Rs100 per person .If any Police robbery of Tiffin is Rs500 yearly.

An organizational fee is Rs 15 per head and Puja held per station Rs50 per

head. They get Diwali bonus one month’s from customers.

OTHER PHYSICAL PRODUCTS:

Dabba (Tiffin box) is Rs.200/- Gandhi cap is Rs 50/-

Video CD is Rs.200/- Dabbawala Mug is Rs.300/- Dabbawala T-shirt Rs

400/-

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT:

Mumbai is the financial hub of the country. It is the most populous city in

India and the second most populous in the world, with approximately 20

million inhabitants. It generates a big part of income generated in India.

The climate of Mumbai is humid between March and October, and rains

lash the Mumbai from June to September. Mumbai is facing high problem

during the rainy season. They are mainly facing the problem of floods from

last three to four years. But still Dabbawala are working their work

continuously.

So we can say that they have to do hard work to survive in the Physical

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Environment:

Providing service in highly populated city. Have to travel 60-70 kms in a

route.

Have to travel by walking, cycle, carts and even by Local trains. Have to

travel from one place to another in hot summers.

Have to face the lot of crowd for the fulfillment of service. Even they have to

provide service in high rains.

The person who serves Tiffin to the customer is well known about the

physical environment of that area and because of that Dabbawalas are

able to serve in every season so this helps a lot to Dabbawalas in achieving

Six Sigma.

PROCESS

This is the process that is being followed by the dabbawalas to carry on their

job eefficiently and with precision.

1 0: 34 - 1 1 :2 0 am

This time period is actually the journey time. The dabbawalas load the

wooden crates filled with tiffins onto the luggage or goods compartment in

the train. Generally, they choose to occupy the last compartment of the train.

In particular areas with high density of customers, a special crate is

dedicated to the area. This crate carries 150 tiffins and is driven by 3-4

dabbawalas!

1:15 – 2:00 pm

Here on begins the collection process where the dabbawalas have to pick up

the tiffins from the offices where they had delivered almost an hour ago.

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RETURN JOURNEY

2 :0 0 – 2 : 30 pm

The group members meet for the segregation as per the destination

suburb.

2 :4 8 – 3 : 30 pm

The return journey by train where the group finally meets up after the

day’s routine of dispatching and collecting from various destination

offices usually, since it is more of a pleasant journey compared to the earlier

part

of the day, the dabbawalas lighten up the moment with joking around and

singing.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF (NMTBSA) DABBAWAL:

STRENGTH

Low operational cost

Customer satisfaction

Low attrition rate

Flat organization

Team spirit & team management

WEAKNESS

Limited access to education

Funds for the association

No social security to members

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OPPORTUNITY

Operational cost is low

Wide range publicity

THREAT

Job satisfaction level of new generations

Competition

Canteen facility provided by corporate firm.

What is service?

A service is any act of performance one party can offer to another party that is essential intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product.

Service Quality

Reliability Basic Service Service design Recovery Fair Play Teamwork Employee Research Servant Leadership

Reliability

Dabbawala is very reliable service for their for their customers they have a record of on time delivery with minimum errors.

Basic Service

Dabbawala delivers the promised basic service to their customers, keep customer informed, and be determined to deliver value to customer.

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Service Design:

Dabbawals have developed a holistic design of their marketing services.

Recovery

Dabbawala have hired extra personal for recovery.

If any Tiffin box gets misplaced the recovery process starts quickly and they try to deliver the recovered Tiffin on time.

Fair Play

Dabbawala make special effort to fair and make special effort to be fair to customer and employees

Team Work

Dabbawala who rang in age from 18-65, tend to remain for their entire working lives. As the result member of team care deeply for one another.

Employee Research

Dabbawala continuously try to identify service problems and solve those problems promptly.

Servant Leadership

Dabbawala have excellent service system design use information effectively and have strong corporate style culture

ConclusionManaging more than 5000

Dabawalas daily is really increased! So

what kind of Human resource policy they

have adopted & how do they implemented

it, was the objective behind these report.

Which are satisfactory completed, & I got

some key formulas, principles of their

effective Human resource management

system from this project work.

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The lacks of office goers, 5000 Dabbawalas & risky job schedules, all

these kind of problems they are able to handle only due to their efficient Human

resource management system. Mr. Dhondiba Medge formed Human Resource

Policy for Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association. He set core values

for the Association, these improved their system.

The key feature of their Human Resource Management is Flat

organizational structure. These are able to maintain no communication barriers

from top level to lower level. All Dabbawalas are employer of the association,

there has no any employee-employer relation. This thing is them motivational

factor behind their job satisfaction. Effective delegation of authority helps them

to do work effectively. From top level to lower level Dabbawalas know their

work & their target which helps to effective job specification.

They have implemented Human Resource Policy in their organization,

these contains strict disciplinary rules of employment, dress code & effective

training & development facility to new

joiners.

They follow management principles

in their organization such as Team work,

Time management, Innovation, Customer

relationship management & six sigma.

Because of these they called as

"Management Guru".

Human resource policy, Manpower planning. Training & Development,

Disciplinary Code of conduct & their Corporate Social Responsibility activity

are the key result areas of their Human Resource Management system.

Their daily earning is not sufficient to fulfill their basic needs but

whatever they earn out of from it some amount they spend in FSR activities.

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'We are the part of society which provides many resources to us, so it is our

prime duty to give back to society'-these CSR principle they follow.

The organization has gained a lot of appreciation from foreign countries

but it still in some ways or other not fully appreciated by its own countrymen.

Organization can do a lot to perform better but it needs support & word

appreciation firm its own countrymen. It so, it will even leave back the top

world running entrepreneurs & give India a place of pride on the world map.

The Dabbawalas organization is a standout

example of efficient Logistics and Supply

Chain Management. Corporate and students

should make note of their functioning in order to

understand their unique structure and

process. Today the Dabbawalas have

welcomed the use of internet technology

only for increasing their customer base and nothing more. Many fast food

chains and hotels in the city will always be competing with the Dabbawalas but

their hope of failure of Dabbawalas system may never materialize.

___________________________

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Dabawala Marketing Management Project

Business

Transcript of Dabawala Marketing Management Project