Subject: - Principle of Management.

Topic: - A Management Analysis On the working

Of ‘Dabbawala in Mumbai’

Guided By: - Vivek Saurav.

Submitted By: -#25 FYBBA-E

Anil Surendra Modi School of

Commerce, NMIMS Mumbai

Introduction

Since 1890, dressed in white outfit and traditional Gandhi Cap, Mumbai

Army of 5,000 Dabbawalas fulfilling the hunger of almost 200,000

Mumbaikar with home-cooked food that is lug between home and office

daily. For more than a century our team have been part of this grime-

ridden metropolis-of-dreams.

About 125 years back, a Parsi banker wanted to have home cooked food

in office and gave this responsibility to the first ever Dabbawala. Many

people liked the idea and the demand for Dabba delivery soared. It was

all informal and individual effort in the beginning, but visionary Mahadeo

Havaji Bachche saw the opportunity and started the lunch delivery

service in its present team-delivery format with 100 Dabbawalas.

As the city grew, the demand for Dabba delivery grew too. The coding

system created by our forefather is still prominent in 21st century.

Initially it was simple colour coding but now since Mumbai is widely

spread metro with 3 local train routes, our coding has also evolved into

alpha numeric characters.

Lunch boxes are marked in several ways:

1. Abbreviations for collection points

2. Colour code for starting station

3. Number for destination station

4. Markings for handling Dabbawala at destination, building and floor

A colour-coding system identifies the destination and recipient. Each

Dabbawala is required to contribute a minimum capital in kind, in the

form of two bicycles, a wooden crate for the tiffin’s, white

cotton kurta-pyjamas, and the white Gandhi cap (Topi). Each month

there is a division of the earnings of each unit. Fines are imposed for

alcohol, tobacco, out-of-uniform, and absenteeism.

A collecting Dabbawala, usually on bicycle, collects Dabbas either from

a worker's home or from the Dabba makers. As many of the carriers

are of limited literacy (the average literacy of Dabbawalas is that of

8th grade), the Dabbas (boxes) have some sort of distinguishing mark

on them, such as a colour or group of symbols.

The Dabbawala then takes them to a sorting place, where he and other

collecting Dabbawala sort the lunch boxes into groups. The grouped

boxes are put in the coaches of trains, with markings to identify the

destination of the box (usually there is a designated car for the

boxes). The markings include the railway station to unload the boxes

and the destination building delivery address. Some modern

infrastructure improvements such as the Navy Mumbai Metro are not

used in the supply chain, as cabins do not have the capacity for

hundreds of tiffin’s.

At each station, boxes are handed over to a local Dabbawala, who

delivers them. The empty boxes are collected after lunch or the next

day and sent back to the respective houses. The Dabbawala also allow

for delivery requests through SMS.

Managerial Principles Applied

1. Six Sigma Principle-

1) What is six sigma?

Focus on the customer.

Identify and understand how the work gets done (the value

stream).

Manage, improve and smooth the process flow.

Remove Non-Value-Added steps and waste.

Manage by fact and reduce variation.

Involve and equip the people in the process.

Undertake improvement activity in a systematic way.

2) Implementation of six sigma in working Of Mumbai Dabbawala

Error rate in working of Dabbawala is 1 in 16 million i.e. the Six

sigma performance of Mumbai Dabbawala is (99.9999%)

Which is why Mumbai Dabbawala are rewarded by six sigma

2. Levels of Management-

1. President

2. Vice President

3. General Secretary

4. Treasures

5. Directors (9 member) (middle level management)

6. Mukadam (Head of group of Dabbawala)

7. Dabbawalas(5000 workers)

The Dabbawala are divided into group of 20-30 people and each group

is headed by 2-3 mukadam.The main work of mukadam is to sort the

tiffin, collection of payment

15th Day of Each month a meeting is conducted by the top level

management. Mukadam and Dabbawala are entitled to be present in the

meeting. At the meeting Dabbawalas and Mukadam can discuss their

problem with top level management. The trust collect Rs 15 from each

member every month for the welfare fund of employees. The trust

provide various facilities to its member like loan facilities for

emergency, Education loan, health care etc.

3. SWOT Analysis-

Strength

1. Simplicity in organization with innovative service

2. Coordination, team spirit and time management

3. Low operational Cost

4. Customer Satisfaction

5. Low Attrition Rate

Weakness

1. High dependability on local train

2. Funds for association

3. Limited Access to education

Opportunity

1. Wide Range Publicity

2. Operational Cost is Low

3. Catering

Threats

1. Indirect competition is being faced from caterers like maharaja

community

2. Indirect threat from fast foods and hotels

3. Change in timing

4. Company Transport

5. Ticket Restaurant

4. Managerial Principles to learn-

1. Keep Operational costs as low as possible

‘Dabbawala use cycle, hand cart, local train- all low cost.

. No Big Office to maintain.

. No IT budget and no miscellaneous expenses.

‘ No Ad budget- word of mouth publicity.

. Average monthly service cost Rs.250.

2. Keep Capital investment bare minimum.

.Only investment is the hard work, honesty, promptness and time

management.

. Low cost offices.

. Vet cheap hand cart.

. Easy to maintain cycles- Fuel is free air (God given Fuel)

. Use public space for sorting.

. No IT or HR department.

3. Just serve your customer-Nothing Else

. Dabbawalas always deliver food on time- even during heavy rains.

. On time without wearing a watch.

. They do not try impress or bother customer with unsolicited offer.

. Bothering customer with unsolicited offer forces them to discontinue

even existing services.

4. Customer is not the RAJA — But Maharaja

. England King Prince Charles met Dabbawala on 4tt Nov 2003.

. He was told to come to church gate station to meet Dabbawalas.

. So that the delivery of Dabbas to clients is not affected.

. He spent around 20 minutes with Dabbawala.

. Virgin Group chairman, Richard Branson, traveled with Dabbawala and

delivered Dabba to his own employee.

5. Never Deviate From your Core Competency

. Dabbawala are only in the business of delivering homemade food to

offices.

. Effort to sell FMCG and other products through Dabbawala system

failed.

. Be- “Master of one trade rather than jack of all”.

. If required develop product & services around core competency.

6. Do not be over Dependent on Technology

. For 116 years, Dabbawalas did not touch technology- yet got six sigma

and ISO.

.Today mobile phone are mostly used to communicate-only incoming

.Website and SMS are used to get more and more Customers

. But logistics is still manual.

7. Co-operation inside- Competition Outside. . There are 2-3 Dabbawala group in each segment.

. Dabbawala collection is group wise but transport is shared with other

group.

Competition is only up to collection.

. Profit is shared equally within each group after deducting expenses.

. World’s most democratic organization.

8. Commitment Matters- Qualification Doesn’t . About 85% of Dabbawalas are illiterate.

. 15% are class 8 failed.

. Still they are able to offer world class services as they are

committed to offer

Food to customer on time.

. If commitment is there, then qualification can be built.

9. Know the implication of Failure . If food is not delivered on time then customer will be angry and work

will

Suffer,

‘Problem with Boss and wife.

‘If vegetarian gets non vegetarian Dabba, then Big problem.

. Knowing the implication of failure makes you more responsible and

serious

Towards your work.

10. Build your services around existing

Infrastructure.

‘Dabbawala use reliable, fast efficient and cheap existing local train

for

Transportation.

. Many food companies in Mumbai use their own infrastructure which is

tough to

Maintain and costly as well.

. 3 sigma, out of six sigma that Dabbawala got, should be given to local

trains

System.

. Building new infrastructure increase cost to server.

11. Abandon Bad customers.

‘When Dabbawala knocks the door, the Dabba should be ready.

. II not- then for 2-3 days the time is given to adjust.

. After that, the services are stopped as it affects the services to

other customer.

. Bad customers affect the operation and profitability from existing

customers.

12. Penalize Employees for non-compliance

. Dabbawalas are penalized for not wearing Gandhi Topi, not pre-

informing

Leave and misbehaving with customers.

. After giving a few warnings, if Dabbawala does not change then he is

expelled

From the system.

. Discipline is one of the main reasons of Dabbawala success

13. Do Not Transfer Your Employees Very often.

. 5000 Dabbawalas remember the address of 2 lack customers by

heart.

. Most have been serving for about 30 yea Rs+ on average.

. Fully know the needs of their customers.

. So customers trust them.

Conclusion Thus the working of Mumbai Dabbawala is a

perfect example of how the management should work in the

organization. It shows how the worker at lower level work for the

efficiency of organization. It is perfect scenario where the work of

Lower Level is appreciable and with the minimum cost the organization

works efficiently. Thus the working of Mumbai Dabbawalas is awesome.

The SWOT analysis of organization shows us that the strength and

opportunity of Mumbai Dabbawalas is much more than that of threat

and weakness. The principles followed by upper level has helped them

to minimize the operational cost and maximize the working using

minimum capital, The upper level management has made their

Dabbawalas to focus on the consumer satisfaction, which is an

important factor they treat their consumer as maharaja which is an

appreciable part of the Dabbawala, One of the decision of the core

team was to focus on the delivering mechanism and do not focus on

various activities.

The Top level management has decided to use the

traditional method of logistics instead of using new methods which has

helped to minimize the cost of working, the advance Technology is used

in taking the order on website, app and sms. The management don’t

focus on qualification while recruitment of staff. Dabbawala use

reliable, fast efficient and cheap existing local train which is an

important contributor in achievement of 6 sigmas. The discipline of top

level has led to implication of penalties to Dabbawalas if they do not

follow and conduct. The Top level focuses that they don’t transfer

their employee frequently.

Thus the smooth working of Dabbawalas is possible because of

the hard work of top level management and Dabbawalas

THANK-YOU