...SIGMA AND DABBAWALLAH Delivering The Goods : Forbes rates the lunch-box carriers of Mumbai on a par with Motorola FOOD EXPRESS: The dabbawallahs ferry 1.5 lakh lunches daily with the help of simple codes. It was an unusual story by Forbes Global, A marked departure from its sought-after macro-economic reviews and corporate analyses. The US-based business magazine recently zeroed in on Mumbai's dabbawallah.The lunch> logisticians who deliver 1.5 lakh lunch boxes to hungry office goers every day have in the past found mention in the Indian press, but the Forbes story was the first time an international organization had analyzed them scientifically and rated them as if they comprised a corporate body. And the conclusions were more than flattering. The dabbawallahs scored a 6 Sigma performance rating, a term used in quality assurance if the percentage of correctness is 99.999999 or more. In simple words, this means one error in six million transactions,a benchmark reserved for blue-chip companies like Motorola. For the humble dabbawallah, it was a treasured feather in his Gandhi cap. But the ground realities for him will not change. His story begins every sultry Mumbai morning at 9 a.m. sharp. The doorbell rings at the Bhalekar residence in Dahisar, a far-flung suburb, in a ritual that is being played out simultaneously in thousands of Mumbai homes. Vrinda Bhalekar hands over an aluminum container with piping hot lunch for her husband to a middle-aged man wearing the...
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...students from other management institudes. To gain more information I also watched a few lectures by Professor Pramod Agarwal (PHD on Supply chain management) and other documentaries such as “….” By BBC. Declaration I declare that this report is the result of my own individual efforts and that it conforms to university, departmental and course regulations regarding cheating and plagiarism. No material contained within report has been used in any other submission, by the author, for an academic award. Acknowledgement I would like to thank Chef Shankar Jha for helping me frame the research question for my report and would also like to thank him for his support and assistance in making this report. Introduction “Mumbai Dabbawallah” the word generally used to describe the services of Nutan Mumabai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust (MNTBST). The word ‘Dabba’ in Hindi meaning a box usually a tiffin and ‘walla’ in Hindi is the doer, therefore Dabbawalla in general means ‘a person who carries a box’. The...
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...trying to expand its franchise to India and compete with the local food dealers “Dabbawallahs”. The issue that exists, is that many of the products from a regular McDonald’s menu (Europe/North America) cannot be eaten by Indians, because sacred animal products can be considered offensive to their beliefs and religion. As well, most Indians prefer homemade meals, and express delivery from the Dabbawallahs. Dabbawallahs have fed Indian workforce for a long time, for just a small amount of money. Mcdonald's is competing with the Dabbawallahs pinpoint accuracy and delivery. Analysis Mcdonald’s has 80 restaurants in Mumbai. Assuming Mcdonald’s spread out their restaurants similarly to how they do in North America (based on population density), they are closer to the workplaces than some of the residencies in North Mumbai. Despite this, workers would rather eat home cooked meals, because they are under the impression cafeteria food is not healthy. Mcdonald’s has catered their menu to meet the needs of different religions, but more could be done to match the food Indian people regularly eat. The care needed to offer religion-friendly meals has already been taken by Mcdonald’s, by separating its food preparation inside restaurants, and distribution centres. The upstream food sourcing is all localized, to keep logistics cost low, and ensure food avoids cross contamination. Currently, Dabbawallahs offer accurate, and convenient delivery service. Indian workers see value in not...
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...Case Study on Dabbawallah of Mumbai Submitted by : RIL -MDP Taruna Upadhyaya Pankaj Nimavat Siddhartha Chaturvedi Assignment Questions for the case: 1. What is the basis for the success of the Dabbawallahs of Mumbai? What factors need to be in place for a service like the Dabbawallahs to work effectively? Basis for the success of the Dabbawallahs of Mumbai is that they were all working for a single purpose of delivering a dabba in time for the customer’s lunch. Several distinctive and supporting success factors include: Dabbawallah Profile. • All the dabbawallah were from the same geographical area and spoke the same language. This gave a kind of cultural profile to the Trust and high degree of cohesion amongst each other. • High disciplined staff to ensure timely delivery. No strikes reported so far. • Each dabbawallah considered themselves as entrepreneur and not employee which led to the high level of ownership and cohesive environment to work in. Decentralization • Each group was responsible for the smooth functioning of the day to day activities entirely independent of the trust. • There were no centralized records of incomes and expenses for group clients, dabbawallah or Mukadams. • Decentralization had been instrumental to building cohesion within each group, and operational autonomy helped to provide focus on delivery effectiveness and improvement. Perceived Equality • Each Dabbawallahs in the group earned equal remuneration; irrespective of the...
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...Medge’s confidence in the survival of the Dabbawallah is not misplaced, and several important factors will facilitate the stability and growth of the Dabbawallah for years to come. First, using Porter’s Five Forces analysis, the overall profitability and attractiveness of the market that the Dabbawallahs operate in may be determined. Competition-wise, the services which the Dabbawallahs offer (on-time lunch delivery from home) is not replicated or found elsewhere. In this regard, the Dabbawallahs have a virtual monopoly of sort. Also, although the Dabbawallahs would not be likely to face the threat of new entrants with a service similar to theirs, there are perceived threats from other sources, such as fast-food chains, roadside vendors, canteens, and “ticket restaurants.” However, since these are restaurants and does not serve home-cooked food, the Dabbawallahs’ core offering remains unchallenged. The Bargaining power of sellers is not applicable in this case since the Dabbawallahs are not dependent on suppliers or sellers. The bargaining power of buyers is minimal since the monthly charge for the service is already quite low at around 150 to 200 Rupees a month. Finally, there are no substitutes to the food delivery service, at least for the foreseeable future. Costs would be too high and prohibiting for smaller courier firms, known as angadias in Mumbai, since most of them are small mom-and-pop style businesses, and larger courier services such as DHL and FedEx are...
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...customers (consumer); and it is the science of process having its presence in all sectors of the industry. The goal of logistics work is to manage the fruition of project life cycles, supply chains and resultant efficiencies. Logistics is concerned with getting (or transmitting) the products and services where they are needed or when they are desired. It is difficult to accomplish any marketing or manufacturing without logistical support. It involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. The operating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible. The DABBAWALLAHs of MUMBAI :- The “Dabbawallah’s” or the ‘lunch box delivery people’ of Mumbai pickup and deliver lunch boxes from homes or restaurants and deliver it to the customer’s office – all within a specified time frame – and then...
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...SUMMER INTERSHIP PROJECT REPORT ON “Dabbawala Employee Satisfaction Survey” At Mumbai Dabbawala SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIRMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION BY SHRISH PRATAP SINGH Roll no – (0844370026) (2008-2010) EXCEL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MATHURA (U.P) (Affiliated to U.P.Technical University,Lucknow) ACKNOWLEDEMENT A task undertaken without offering prayers to almighty and taking blessings from the elders is not a good beginning. Likewise the work completed without acknowledging the assistance to those who were always by my sides to make my efforts fruitful in the task left incomplete. In the beginning, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my Institute teachers for giving me an opportunity to take the practical experience of working life. I convey my sincere thanks to Mr Raghunath Medge or providing me the proper guidance and Mrs. Priyankya Gautam for providing me the opportunity to carry out research effectively and efficiently. I would also like to pay thanks to all my classmates and friends and my family members for co-operating with me and helping me to complete the project. (SHRISH PRATAP SINGH) 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 managers posses a wide range of knowledge skills and competencies, as well as sound understanding of management...
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