The journey starts:
Early in the morning a Dabbawala takes bath and do his pooja. Puts a tilak (religious mark) on his forehead and by 9 am he is out on the streets with his bicycle.
These bicycles are heavy. Their carriers are designed with extra iron to be able to take a lot of weight.
He moves through the Mumbai traffic to his assigned area and move up and down the multi-storied buildings to collect the tiffin boxes from homes.
Many old buildings don’t have elevators. But that’s not an excuse!
Just imagine running up and down a building a couple of times. Now multiply it by…10! May be 20, depending on the area!
By the time he collects all these tiffins, it’s already about 10.30
On an average a destination is about 40 Km away!
He carries about 30-40 tiffins on his bicycle, fighting the bad roads, mud, traffic and now even Mumbai monsoons. No excuses!
But thankfully he is not alone. He reaches the nearest railway station where Dabbawalas from different areas gather. The tiffins are sorted as per their destination according to Dabbawala coding system.
By now, most of his tiffins are handed over to other Dabbawala teams going to different parts of the town.
Our Dabbawala joins one of those teams. So he is also carrying tiffin boxes which doesn’t belong to him.
This teamwork and trust is what makes a common Dabbawala do extraordinary things.
He and his teammates pick up tiffin boxes for their assigned destination and transfer them in head crates.
Want to do some calculation? There are about 60 tiffin boxes in one head crate. You keep gussing about the weight. The Dabbawala don’t have the time to pause.
They carry it on the heads and run towards the railway platforms. The Mumbai platforms are jam-packed at the peak time, but the dabbawalas move fast, climb up and down the railway bridges with those crates on their heads.
A Dabbawala must catch the right train. Otherwise the Tiffin will be late. No excuses!
Even on the railway platform some sorting is done if a tiffin is going on a complex route.
There are more Dabbawala teams there. They all help each other to put the wooden crates inside the railway luggage compartment.
Now in the luggage compartment they have some time for each other! They share the news and other information. Each team alights on their assigned stations.
Our Dabbawala alights at Churchgate the last station on the track.
By now, it’s going to be 12 pm! One must hurry. He takes the crates on his head and rushes out.
Outside churchgate it’s like a grand gathering of Dabbawalas. All doing their work. A great example in team working.
Even Prince Charles visited this site to see them in action.
Here you will see them sorting dabbas as per their final destination.
Our Dabbawala once again give away his share of tiffins to other teams.
Once again, he joins one of the teams. They put a large number of Dabbas in trollies and run towards the business centres which are the final destinations for these tiffins.
The traffic is heavy in these centres. They shout and scream and make their way. Pedestrians make way for the dabbawalas. They know Dabbawalas don’t stop for anyone.
Once the dabbawala team reach a business hub, they split once again. Each dabbawala takes the responsibility of delivering the Tiffin boxes for separate buildings.
Now you have to move up and down the skyscrapers. Thankfully most of these buildings have elevators.
By 1 pm all tiffin boxes are delivered. Task done!
Dabbawalas all gather at a place. Pray together and have their lunch!
You think it was a simple task?
Let me remind you, the job is only half done!
Dabbawala will take the empty tiffins from the offices and will go through the same process again, till the tiffin reaches home before 6 pm.
It’s a 9 hour work cycle!
We are doing it diligently for 125 years.
Thanks for being with us on this journey!
Feels good when someone takes pains to understand you.
SWOT ANALYSIS: STRENGTHS:
100% • • • • • • • • • • •
Achievements in-
Teamwork, discipline, honesty
Time management
Ownership & Pride in work
Customer satisfaction
Low operational cost, process consistency Service delivery of six sigma
Service commitment (No strike since inception) Satisfaction of team member (due to low attrition) Full proof delivery model through colour coding Financial independence.
Just in time approach
0 % dependence upon- * Fuel in last mile service delivery * Technology related process complexities * Investment
• Documentation
WEAKNESS:
Highly dependent on Mumbai local trains
Limitedfundflowoftheassociationlimitsthegoverningbodytoimplementwelfareschemes LimitedAccesstoEducation,limitdiversificationofmemberstootherbusinessjobs
OPPORTUNITY : * Tie up with caterers to serve variety of meals i.e. diet food, Chinese/continental food, food for fasting * Opportunity on the expansion of services on the routes of Mumbai metro & BRTS * Generating revenue by promotion of other brands * Expanding networks in other cities * Booking of service through internet & SMS (Recently started – needs to be popularized)
THREAT:
* Threats from fast food joints & small restaurants * Flexi – timing \ work from home culture * Food courts at mall \ mega structures * Catering services offering tiffin services * Paper food vouchers & smart cards i.e. food plus by HDFC * COMPETITORS: The major competitors of Mumbai dabbawala are Magic-o-meal, Food plus by HDFC, Fast Food chains, restaurants, road-side vendors, Udipi chain, food box etc. Competition is different here no manufacturing, only distribution. * CONCLUSION: In this highly technologically advanced time ‘dabbawalas’ are working absolutely without technology. They have an excellent supply chain, despite the fact that they don’t even know what it means. Most of the people working with them are semi-literate but still they read the tiffin code correctly and deliver it. Their attitude of competitive collaboration is equally unusual, particularly in India. Their excellent sense of deep commitment, sense of work ethics and unparalleled time management system are best in place. * No over-reliance on technology. Sure, the dabbawalas are now using Web technology and SMS for orders, but for the most part this is a fairly low-tech operation. It relies on trains and barefoot men. No computer chips. No social networks. Just guys busting their humps and a reliable train service. The lesson for organizations? Don’t expect technology to solve your issues — usually the issue has more to do with process, execution and expectations than it does bits and bytes. * Create an integrated performance chain. In other words, the dabbawala system keeps its eye on the sum — not the individual parts. When you boil it down to simple terms, a performance chain is really just a system of moving pieces. Focus too much on those individual pieces and you get hung up in the details and, as a result, are less efficient. Concentrate on the entire system and flow of products and information and you have a much better chance of success. * Acute visibility. The beauty of the dabbawala-based system is that all of the dabbawalas understand exactly what is happening and when — to the minute. If certain deadlines and hand-offs are missed, people don’t eat. It’s as simple as that. Make sure everyone within your chain understands what he or she needs to do, where they need to be and what needs to happen for the chain to be successful.
Keep it simple. Real simple. One of the key lessons any organization can learn from the dabbawalas is the simplicity with which this system works. The dabbawalas are intimately aware of what their customers value (food delivered on time, every day). And, just as importantly, they don’t try to do anything other than that. They don’t overcomplicate things. They don’t add extraneous value. They simply understand what their customers want, and they focus 100 percent of their time and energy on meeting that need.