Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology

P-15, Pune Infotech Park, Hinjawadi, Pune – 411 057

Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology

Report entitled

A Study on the MUMBAI DABBAWALA Process with particular reference to

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Submitted by
Name :RAHUL YADAV PRN #07030244015

Name : KSHITIZ GOEL PRN #07030244004

Name : ADITI CHAPLOT PRN #07030244001

Name : POONAM BHASIN PRN #07030244011

Name : SANDIP SINGH PRN #07030244021

Stream : SDM

Batch : 2007 - 09

Subject/Code : Business Process Analysis (P101)

Semester : II

Date : 07.01.08

For Office Use only

Marks out of 20 :

Name of the Faculty : S. Vijayakumar Bharathi

Signature of the Faculty :

 INDEX

S.N.O Contents Page No.

1. Introduction to business Process 1
and Objective of the Study
2. Purpose 2
3. Business Process Logic 4
4. Workflow Diagram 6
5. RAD (Role Activity Diagram) 8
6. Learning 10
7. Bibliography 11
 INTRODUCTION
Delivering meals might not sound a cutting edge, but the runners of Mumbai,
popularly called “Dabbawallahs”, are a huge phenomenon. A dabbawala (one who
carries the box), is a person in the Indian city of Mumbai whose job is to carry and
deliver freshly made food from home in lunch boxes to office workers, students in
colleges and schools, and boxes back to the source.

They are a also a charitable trust that was registered back in1956 and they
cover a area of 60 to 70 kms of Mumbai. It is nevertheless interesting to note that a
job belonging to the informal sector, whose actors highly claim their rural roots, has
been elevated to the status of model of Mumbai entrepreneurship. From helping
Management gurus to Prince Charles, everyone has marvelled at their efficiency.
They have been in the business of delivering lunch for the past 110 years.

More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunches get moved every day by an estimated
4,500 to 5,000 dabbawallahs, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost
punctuality. They are one of the few organizations in the world to achieve a Six
Sigma rating. According to a recent survey, there is only one mistake in every
6,000,000 deliveries. All of them, around 5,000 individuals, come from the same
community ‘Khor Maratha’ and same rural area: a few villages near Pune,
Maharashtra. They belong to families of small farmers of this region and they still
participate to the work in the fields from time to time; most of them leave Mumbai at
harvest time, stopping then the service to the customers for a week.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

We study any process with the perspective of studying how well that system works or
what can be done to improve the process. With this perspective we studied the
Dabbawallah process to understand how well they apply concept of Supply Chain
Management in their process. We know the theoretical concept of the supply chain
management but to understand Supply Chain Management of any process we need to
understand that practically.

Supply chain can be defined as the physical, financial and information networks for
the logistic movement, process of materials, funds and related information.
Participants of supply chain include all vendors, service providers and customers.

Success of any company in the logistics field depends on planning and facilitating
movement of the right things, at the right time, at the right place, and at the right cost.
 REASONS TO CHOOSE THIS BUSINESS
The central theme of this work is to present a detailed analysis of Bombay
Dabbawalah’s Operations (BDO) from a management perspective. BDO is a
home grown model, conceived, developed and perfected by a group of individuals
who have very little or no formal education in the area of Logistics.

BDO is recognized as an outstanding example of excellence in service delivery. BDO

is the most talked about Indian example of excellence in logistics operations.

Being a symbol of the megalopolis, while running in its trains and streets, most of the
Dabbawalas continue to dream of the countryside. It is nevertheless remarkable that
they have been able to find their place in an astonishingly manner in the megalopolis.
Having found an economical niche that they have strictly secured as a monopoly, they
give the chance to their villages to live in a better condition.

The men who form part of the organisation are not employees. This is the reason why
there is so much of unity and teamwork that is they share equal rights. The earning is
divided equally among all the Dabbawalas. Also due to such a system there are no
petty issues coming up , no fights , no strikes etc come up. This is the reason they
provide such an efficient service to their customers.

We have chosen this business as a target of our study because of these

reasons:

1) This business has proved match the six sigma record-

• Dabbawalas give reliable services and their performance and accuracy match
six sigma standards, ISO and many other certificates given to them by
external agencies. these have further corroborated the high quality of work
being done by them and many other quality certificates even being so not
well educated.
• According to a recent survey, there is only one mistake in every 16,000,000
deliveries and the system has registered a Six Sigma performance at
99.999999 rating.

2) Zero % investment –

These Dabbawalas are working without any investment .their business is just based on
day to day earnings which are distributed among the entire Dabbawalas just keeping
back some money to fund the people at the time of some emergency or for the school
fees of their children.
It is just that if some person wants to be a working partner then he may invest Rs
60,000 for the welfare of all the Dabbawalas e.g. to buy bicycles, to buy tray. Then he
may earn Rs 7000 per month as a fixed salary.

3) Rs. 36 Cr. Turnover approx. –

[6000*12*5000=360000000 i.e. Rs. 36 crore p.a.]

4) The success of the system depends on teamwork and time management

5) Uninterrupted services:

The service is uninterrupted even on the days of extreme weather, such as Mumbai's
characteristic monsoons.
For example, in a group of 30 dabbawallas catering to an area, five people act as
redundant members; it is these members who take on the responsibility of delivering
the dabbas in case of any untoward happenings.

6) The Dabbawalas are extremely adhered to strict rules and regulations which
even many big organizations lack-

Wearing of cap is mandatory, if not wore calls for a fine of Rs 25 .if found to be
involved in a fight a fine of Rs 500 is to be paid. Consuming alcohol while on duty
attracts a fine of Rs 1,000. Unwarranted absenteeism is not tolerated and is treated
with a similar fine.

7) Discipline trends beat even the best organization’s trends-

This means that the Dabbawalas carry out close to a million transactions every day
with very little error .this is a testament to the discipline off all the members, who
carry out these transactions year round come monsoon or heat wave

8) The Dabbawalas never go on strike-

They have never gone on strike for past 116 years , some times they are invited to
address the employees in sharing the harm of strike.

9) Generating employment-

Their services you are providing direct employment to 5000+ Dabbawalas and many
of their dependent families.

10) Achievements-
They have received many awards for their excellent performance .Some of them
include:
• World record in best time management.
• Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”.
• Registered with Ripley's “ believe it or not”.
 BUSINESS FLOW LOGIC
Information flow logic:
• A new customer asks dabbawala for delivering their dabba to their office daily.

• Customer details customer name, ph no., address is input to customer master file.

• The destination address and picking up address generally home address are given to
dabbawala.

• The coding on the dabba is done according to destination, receiving address and the
dabbawala who is going to pick that daily.

• Dabbawala also suggest the reference to regional messes, which provide food at a defined
cost. The customer can also use that if required.

Control flow logic:

• At 10.00 AM, the first dabbawala picks up the tiffin from home and takes it to the nearest
railway station.

• At railway station between 10.30-10.45 AM, the second dabbawala sorts out the dabbas
at the station according to the destination and puts them in the luggage carriage called
crates which carries about 30-36 dabbas.

• At 11.00 AM all the dabba are loaded to their respective fixed local trains in the fixed
coaches generally first, middle and last and the third dabbawala travels with the dabbas to
the railway stations nearest to the destination.

• At 11.30- 12.00 PM, all the dabbas are again sorted at the destination station according to
their sub-areas and the building.

• At 12.00 PM, the dabbawala takes a number of dabbas and rushes to deliver these dabbas
at their destination.

• All the dabbas reach destination between 12.30 – 1.00 PM.

• After an hour, i.e. at 2.00 PM, the dabbawala again collects the empty tiffin boxes from
the offices and schools and the whole process goes again in reverse order.

• By the evening i.e. 5.00-6.00 PM, dabbawala delivers all the dabbas back to the houses.
Transaction Flow Logic:
• Decision about the cost of dabba is taken. The cost of dabba depends upon the weight,
size of the dabba and the distance of destination from the home.

• Another important factor of deciding cost is how many dabbas are being supplied to that
area. If there are very less dabbas then the cost will rise.

• In general, the cost of each dabba ranges between Rs 350- 400 per month.

• The money collection is done by the dabbawala who collects the tiffin from the home in
morning, the one who delivers the tiffin does not get anything in this transaction.
Coding Process on the Dabbas:

• VLP/VP : Vileparle, the area from where the dabba/tiffin is collected.

• 3 : Code for destination Station eg. Churchgate Station

• E : Code for dabbawala at residential station

• 9EX12 : Code for Dabbawalas at destination.

• 9 : Refer to area number at that particular station

• EX : Express towers (building name), where the dabba would be delivered.

• 12 : Floor number of the destination building.

• R’ Patil: the name of the dabba owner.

 Start Dabba Collection

Dabba Collection
Dabba Collection From Dabba Collection From
From Residential
Residential Area 2 Residential Area 3
Area 1

Dabba Collection At Source

Station (say Vile Parle station)

Sorting of Dabbas
according to
destination

Dabbas Stored on Dabbas Stored on Dabbas Stored on

Destination Crate Destination Crate Destination Crate
1(say Churchgate) 2 (say kurla) 3 (say Borivali)

All Crates
loaded on
appropriate
trains

On Page
2
 From
Page 1

Dabba Crates
Unloaded on
Destination station

Dabbas Crate Unloaded Dabbas Crate Unloaded Dabbas Crate Unloaded

at Destination Station 1 at Destination Station 2 at Destination Station 3
(Say Churchgate) (Say Kurla) (Say Borivali)

These also follow the

flow same as that for
Churchgate

Sorted and Arranged

by Code of Destination
Place (say at
Churchgate)

Loaded on Destination
Loaded on Destination Crate Loaded on Destination Crate
Crate 1 (say Nariman
3 (say fountain)
pt.) 2 (say fort)

Dabba Delivered
at Destination by
Code

NOTE
This is for Delivery Process reverse process is similar
 LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE CASE
The Mumbai Dabbawala story had a lot to offer in terms of our learning from the subject
“Business Process Analysis” and after learning about their case we could actually relate
what we had learnt in the subject and the process model they follow.

Let’s start from the definition of a Business Process, “a business process is a collection of
related structural activities that produce a specific outcome for a particular customer”. The
“Dabbawala” case carries out a series of related activities in an extremely efficient fashion
that portrays an excellent example of an efficient Supply Chain. Without the use of any
technology or education, these people carry out the process with 99.9% efficiency and error
free service. This would not had been possible without the utmost discipline and the
teamwork with which the process is carried at every phase of transition in the entire process.
Like every business process has a specific goal of satisfying a particular need and creating
some value for the customer ,The Mumbai Dubbawalas have very well identified the
customer’s need of having” home cooked hot food” in office that too without any hassles of
carrying the “dabba “ in the crowded trains of Mumbai. These dabbawalas satisfy this need
dutifully with the aim of customer satisfaction in mind. While studying their case we found
out that they provide this service at the rate of 1 defect /16million.ie they are above par of the
six sigma record.

Roles, Actions, Interactions and Responsibilities of “Mumbai Dabbawalas”

• Every business process has certain roles, actions and interactions among those roles.
Each role has certain responsibilities and those responsibilities are fulfilled by
carrying out the actions that a specific role is responsible for. In the “Mumbai
dabbawala case” we found out various roles namely the” Housewife”, who is
responsible for preparing the food and packing the “dabba”. The” Dabba- wala”
who is responsible for collecting the packed dabbas from various homes and carrying
them to the station. There on the station a severe sorting of the “Dabbas” takes
place according to the destination. This sorting of the dabbas is again the
responsibility of the dabbawalas .Apart from the dabbawalas there is another role on
the station i.e. the “Mukadaam”, who takes the responsibility of supervising
dubbawalas on the stations and also helps them in sorting the dubbas. He performs
the role of a “team leader”. Loading and unloading of the crates on the various
stations is done according to the destination types. This is again the responsibility of
the dabbawalas and is done with excellent coordination and mutual cooperation
amongst the team members.

• Every business process is carried out with certain rules, and the Mumbai dubbawalas
follow the rules of the process very religiously and with utmost discipline .Their
discipline is such that no one is allowed to break the rules of the process not even the
customer. They are fined if they do not follow or fail to follow the rules. These rules
have become their culture., Rules like 100% punctuality on work, proper dressing
while on work(wearing a Gandhi cap is a compulsion else a fine of 50 rs,if a person is
 absent from work he has to pay a fine of 1000),no informal conduct or drinking or
smoking is allowed while the working hours. Duty and Teamwork is given prime
importance. Breaking of any of these rules can lead to severe consequences. Each
person involved in the process knows his responsibilities very clearly and the actions
and the interactions required for fulfilling those responsibilities, Even their
interactions in the working hours is according to the rules. This is their strength as the
responsibilities very well justify the role these dabbawalas play.

Every business process is divided over certain process types, In a particular business
, there is a case process, a case management process and a case strategy process.

• A case is a unit of work or a episode that needs to be dealt in some standard way.
Here in the Dabbawala case, a unit of work is a “dabba” that is dealt in a standard
way i.e it goes through a certain process before reaching its ultimate customer. Every
dabba goes through the same standard process. Here every dabbawala is responsible
for handling the unit of work “dabba” and ensuring its safe and timely delivery.

• This dubbawala is responsible for managing the flow of various case process
instances i.e. the “ dabbas”. He monitors their flow and manages scheduling among
them. Managing, planning, organising and monitoring the flow of dabbas is the case
management process here.

• Above these case processes and the case management processes there is a case
strategy process that is responsible for taking a strategic view and driving the case
processes (dabbas) and the case management process (Dabbawala) accordingly. This
is done by the organizing committee, that consists of 5 members .The committee
drafts out the policies and rules of the business process according to which the
Mumbai dabbawalas have to work.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
 REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. http://mydabbawala.com/general/presentation.htm

2. Mr. Raghunath D. Medge - President

Off. : RESI:
3, Raghunath Pathak Chawl, 254/4, Sai Ashirwad
Sambhaji Nagar, Sahar Road, Sher-E-Punjab Society
Near Fly-over Bridge, Andheri(E) Near Gymkhana,
Andheri(E)
Mumbai-400 069. Mumbai – 400 093
Email: [email protected] Website :
mydabbawala.com

3. http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/publications/data/2005-09-01ravichandran.pdf