Work Ethics, Integrity and Time

Management: success story of

the Mumbai Dabbawalas

Group C- Roll no. 31-45

Trimester 1
Human Resources management
XISS, Ranchi
DISCLAIMER- COMPANY CLEARENCE
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. How to make the best use of the resources available in hand 

2. Strong Principles lay the foundation 

3. Integrating the business values and still maintaining the core 

4. Homogeneity contributing to its work ethics 

5. How to use a regulatory mechanism and make the most of it 

6. Nothing substitutes extreme dedication 

 BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY

“Dabbawalas” in the city of Mumbai, are the people whose work is to carry and deliver
freshly made home cooked food from their homes to the office workers. It all started in
the late 1800s. The British had predominantly taken control over all the prime locations of
India. Due to Mumbai’s proximity to the seas, it became a place of great importance for
the British and their businesses during their rule. , Mahadeo Bachche established a regular
group of such workers in 1890. What seemed like typical “coolie” work soon took on a
different connotation to straightforward delivery work, thanks to the formation of an
association governed by a set of internal rules and with a solid reputation for reliability. In
1998, Forbes Global magazine, conducted a quality assurance study on the Dabbawalas
operations and gave them a Six Sigma efficiency rating of 99.999999.
MISSION, VISION AND OBJECTIVES:-

VISION OBJECTIVES
MISSION
Dabbawala Enterprises Dabbawala Enterprises To provide prompt and
Private Limited has a Private Limited has efficient service
grand mission to create a vision to be a global food providing tasty
world free company. homemade tiffin to all
of hunger and diseases Operating under the office goers at right
by providing high quality entire value chain of time and place.
and tasty food to the research & development,
citizens of the world. production, distribution
and marketing of high
quality food products
that increase the quality
of life of its consumers.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design: A descriptive methodology was used.
Source of Data: Data was collected from secondary sources. It includes data from various books, websites, internet, case studies
etc.
Data Analysis Tools: Descriptive analysis was used for analysis of data.
TEACHING PLAN & METHODOLOGY
The case in question sheds light on the fact that academic and business learning is not only to be found in the formal education
rather, it can also come from the workforce who might be barely literate and whose operations are limited geographically but
whose ethos, ethics and grit is second to none. Even a lot of big corporate houses don't possess the level of accuracy that these
dabbawalas work with, and the reasons being, Honesty towards their work, respect for the value system, determination with
which they operate on a daily basis.
Therefore to decode the exemplary management system and understand the basics behind the success of the organization we
proceed by focusing on the following points:
· 1.Managing cost while keeping customer satisfaction the utmost priority
  2.Maintenance of the supply chain via unique LUNCHBOX CODING SYSTEM
  3.Time Management and retention of work ethics
4.Grievance handling procedures
 CASE PRESENTATION
• “We just don’t carry food in our dabbas, sir. We carry a lot of things in it, like respect, trust and faith. Now let me tell
you a story of a man and his wife. One day, they had a fight. He left his house in a rage, his poor wife got worried.
That day I went to pick the dabba as usual but his wife was in a strange mood. I didn’t think too much about it. I took
the dabba and went to his office. Angry young man had become hungry young man. He took the dabba, he opened it,
he found a little chit which read- Sorry, don’t be angry, eat.. Even he didn’t send the dabba empty. Inside it, he put
two cinema tickets”.
• “We get 10-11 rupees per day, 300 to 350 rupees a month. Even if it rains or floods we deliver our dabbas somehow.
Our customers have a lot of trust in us. Now let me tell you the story of this one gentleman. On the day he would get
his salary, he would get much tensed about taking it home on local trains because of the pickpockets. So you know
what he did he put the salary in his dabba, and we dropped it to his home totally safe. As far it comes to money,
money is not everything in life. What we get, we leave it to the one above. What he will give, he will give.
• And to these angels, who share their goodness of punctuality dedication and trust with us, we at nestle´ helped the
city deliver a little surprise. All 5000 Dabbawalas received a goodness box as a personal show of Mumbai’s
gratitude. Transcribed from: Mumbai Dabbawala Film Nestle´ #ShareYourGoodness
 5W1H OF MUMBAI DABBAWALLAS

WHO WHAT WHEN WHY HOW

WHERE
1.Consists of 1.Home made 1. Started in 1.Travelling for 1. Lunch boxes are
food from the 1.Their 1890 by long hours due transported using
over 5,000 houses of operations Mahadeo to traffic via bicycles, local
individuals customers are based in Bhavaji crowded public
trains with
Bachche. Soon complex coding
2.carrying delivered Mumbai (The the business
transport with system for
homemade lunchboxes is identification of
before lunch Financial flourished
inconvenient. lunchbox
food for over time City of India) 2.With 100
2.The 2. Lunchboxes are
2.Empty tiffin workers Bachche
200,000 2.Their Dabbawala collected, sorted
boxes returned started a lunch and transported to
customers service range delivery service.
service picks-up
destination
post lunch covers a lunchboxes at 9
and return He informally
AM and delivers
stations. Following
hours at just diameter of unionized the Dabbawalas
empty boxes 300 Rs pr to the customers deliver the
60-70 KMS. Dabbawalas in
back month 1930. by 12:30 PM lunchboxes.
 MANAGEMENT LESSONS LEARNED
• Costs are minimized by the use of hand carts and local trains and no office maintenance cost & IT budget.
• Word of mouth publicity keeps the advertisement cost low to negligible.
• Sole business- delivering home food to clients. Always deliver food on time. Diversification in operations
was unsuccessful. 
• Accidents, falling sick, emergency at home, etc. are no excuses. Customers get their lunchboxes on time.
Every external factor, such as, weather, traffic jams, train, etc. are taken into consideration.
• When the dabbawala knocks the door, the dabba should be ready and failure to which for three consecutive
days, the services will be stopped. 
• Dabbawalas are penalized for non-compliance of rules and regulations, which might lead to expulsion. BIG
problem caused if a vegetarian gets a non-veg dabba.
• They differ from organized corporate world, in terms of written policies. They have unwritten rules which
they follow due diligently.
• Reporting to work in an inebriated state is against their ethic and personal grievances does not affect
dabbawala work efficiency.
 OUTCOMES

More than 4000 semi-literate workers The dabbawalas are self-

working together with great
synchronization has kept the association
motivated and encourage self-
running for over a 100 years. discipline

They use economical alternatives like

hand carts, cycles, local trains, low
maintenance office etc. to keep
operational cost under check.
TIME-CHART OF MUMBAI DABBAWALLAS
POST –
Collection LUNCH
8-10 Collection
A.M. 2:30-3:00
A.M.

SORTING
10-11:30
A.M.

RETURN
DELIVERY
4:00 –
6:00 P.M.
 E

3- Code for VLP – VILLE

Dabbawalas Destination
PARLE(MUMBAI)
Station, E.g. Church Gate.
E– Code for
VLP

9 EX12
9 EX12

9 - Code for Dabbawala Dabbawalas

at Destination. Residential Station.
ex – Express Tower.
12 - Floor No.
3
 HR Strategies & Outcomes

Organizin
Planning Directing
g
●
The tight schedule helps synchronize
●
Workers with more than 10 years of
●
The daily schedule determines everyone and imposes discipline in
experience serve as supervisors, or
muqaddams. Every group has one or more
when certain tasks need to be an environment that might otherwise muqaddams, who supervise the coding,
done and the amount of time be chaotic. sorting, and loading and unloading of dabbas
and are responsible for resolving disputes,
allowed for each. ●
If a worker is late dropping off his overseeing collections, and troubleshooting
●
workers have 40 seconds to load dabbas at a station, his delinquency ●
Representatives from among the muqaddams
the crates of dabbas onto a train is immediately obvious to everyone, are selected to serve on two managing
and alternative arrangements then committees that meet monthly to tackle
at major stations and just 20 operational and organizational issues as well
seconds at interim stops. have to be made for transporting his as problems that cannot be resolved at the
dabbas on another train. local level.
 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

PRESIDENT
VICE-
PRESIDENT

GENERAL
SECRETARY

TREASU DIRECTORS
RER (9)
 S.W.O.T ANALYSIS
●
Simplicity in organization with innovative service
●
Co-ordination, team spirit and time management
STRENGHTS ●
Low operation cost
●
Customer satisfaction

●
Highly dependent on local trains
WEAKNESS ●
Limited access to education
●
Limited funds for the association hinders the governing body to implement welfare schemes

Tie up with caterers to serve variety of meals

OPPORTUNITIES
●

●
Expanding network in other cities
●
Generating revenue by promoting other brands

●
Competition from food delivery giants like Zomato
THREATS ●
During high alerts and adverse climatic conditions they face a lot of problems in getting the lunch
boxes checked and delivered which results in wastage of time too.
 REASONS FOR SUCCESS

Flexible Infrastructure
Redundancy

Appropriate Network
Structure

Customer Cooperation

Codification System

Coordination
 ASSUMPTION QUESTIONS
• What role do you think the organizational structure plays in the success of the
Dabbawalas? Do you see any room for improvement in the same? If yes,
elaborate.
• In this new era of social distancing, the dependence of the Dabbawalas on the
Railway Network might prove to be their downfall. Discuss.
• Mumbai is a flood prone area. Since most of the dabbawalas travel on
foot/bicycles, how do they manage to go and deliver dabbas from one destination
to another?
• Does belief in the importance of job and hard work essential to maintain a strong
character result in having strong work ethic?
 CONCLUSION
• Every step in the operational process of this exemplary group involves a number on
management lessons. They stand tall on the four pillars - organization,
management, process and culture; all of which are aligned in perfect synchrony to
maximize productivity, creativity and ease of operation. The Dabbawalas show that
with the right system, an organization doesn’t need extraordinary talent to achieve
extraordinary performance. Proper leadership and self-motivation on the part of the
employees can take any organization to great heights. Their operations are customer
centric, employee driven and value based. Despite having no unique scientific or
technological breakthroughs or competencies, it still manages to put forth an
excellent business model based on an innovative approach to satisfy a real need.
Getting organization, management, process, and culture aligned and self-
reinforcing is one thing.
Question - Critically examine the challenging issues, Strategic decisions and overall performance of this case.

The dabbawalas have rightly established themselves at

the food bearers of the city for more than 130 years now.
With about 5000 driven men intent at delivering home-
cooked meals to the office workers all across Mumbai
on time, this organization has become part of Mumbai’s • Limited use of technology
heritage. With an accuracy of 99.96% of delivering food CHALLENGING • Employee Retention
tiffins to the consumers, this organization has startled ISSUES • Adverse climatic changes
the likes of Richard Branson, Prince Charles, and many • Transportation challenges
other world-class organizations. Today, the Mumbai • Initiative of digital dabbawalas
Dabbawalas deliver more than 2 lac tiffin boxes all STRATEGIC • Flipkart Delivery
across the city without making any error during the DECISIONS
• Reasonable and affordable pricing system
process. Their elaborate tiffin marking system which is
well-versed among each dabbawala doesn’t leave any
inch of doubt in their ability to deliver at the right
address, at the right time. This near-perfect system was
certified by Harvard Business School as a ‘six sigma
system’.
QUESTION:- WHAT LESSONS YOU HAVE LEARNED BY
CONDUCTING THIS CASE?

Technology is
just a
facilitator

Coordination
Self-discipline
and support

Time management

Customer
Ownership
focus

The approach
of
trustworthines
s
 REFERENCES
• Dabbawala. (2004, June 1). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala
• Dabbawalas: Mumbai’s lunchbox carriers. (2015, July 31). Financial Times. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from
https://Ft.com/content/f3b3cbca-362c-11e5-b05b-b01debd57852
• High, P. (2015, February 23). The best logistics organization in India uses no technology and a mostly illiterate workforce. Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2015/02/23/the-best-logistics-organization-in-india-uses-no-technology-and-a-mostly-illiterate-workforce/amp/
• Mumbai Dabbawala: Customer service excellence of Six Sigma QualityWithout technology. (2012, March 20). YourStory | Stories about startups,
entrepreneurship, women, social, SMBs, business, marketing, research. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from
https://yourstory.com/2012/03/dabbawala-customer-service-excellence-of-six-sigma-quality-withouttechnology/
• (n.d.). Mumbai Dabbawala. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from https://mumbaidabbawala.in/
• Mumbai’s models of service excellence. (2012, November 1). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from
https://hbr.org/amp/2012/11/mumbais-models-of-service-excellence
• ELAINE DONG. (2010, November 21). The dabbawalas of Mumbai. The Star Online. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from 
https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/features/2010/11/21/the-dabbawalas-of-mumbai
• Punam. (2020, August 28). The Six Sigma story: Mumbai Dabbawalas. Henry Harvin. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from 
https://www.henryharvin.com/blog/mumbai-dabbawalas/
• Six Sigma and Mumbai dabbawala. (2013, January 17). Share and Discover Knowledge on SlideShare. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from 
https://www.slideshare.net/SandeepMane22/six-sigma-and-mumbai-dabbawala
• Ravichandran N., 2005.' World Class Logistics Operations: The Case of Mumbai Dabbawalas’, Research and Publications IIM, Ahmedabad, Research and
Publications
• Himachali, S. (2019). Management Lessons from Mumbai Dabbawala. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from http://www.sanjeevhimachali.org/top-
indian-hr-blogs/management-lessons-from-mumbai-dabbawala-part-2
• Ganapathy, V. (2017) Mumbai Dabbawalas. Social entrepreneurs who make India proud. Retrieved September 17 2020 from
https://www.grin.com/document/370831
• Phadke, M. (2017, November 8). A year after PM Modi’s endorsement, Mumbai’s ‘Digital Dabbawalas’ bask in success. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from
https://theprint.in/economy/pm-modi-endorsement-mumbai-digital-dabbawalas-success/14907/
 ACKNOWLEGDEMENT

The completion of this under taking could not have been possible without the participation
and assistance of all the team members, so before we get into thick of things, I would like to
express my heartfelt gratitude to my team members who have been a part of this project
since its inception. Writing this project has been one of the most significant academic
challenges and it would not have been possible without the support and guidance of the
people involved. It is to them I owe my deepest gratitude. The success of this project is the
result of sheer determination and hard work put in by the members of Group-C with the help
of our mentor. I take this opportunity to add a special note of thanks for Prof. Shyamal
Gomes who undertook to act as our guide despite his many other academic and professional
commitments. It has been our privilege to be under his guidance. His percipience,
knowledge and commitment to the highest standards inspired and motivated us. Without his
insight and support, this project would not have kick-started and neither would have reached
fruitfulness.
 TEAM MEMBERS DETAIL
Roll No. NAME EMAIL ADDRESS
31LEENA EKKA [email protected]
32RITEEKA SEN [email protected]
33SHUBHAM ASHISH KHALKHO [email protected]
34PRERNA KUMARI [email protected]
35ANNANYO BHATTACHARJEE [email protected]
36KUMAR VISHESH VINAY [email protected]
37ANKIT RAJ [email protected]
38ADRITA DUTTA [email protected]
39SANA ULLAH ZEESHAN [email protected]
40HIMANSHU LAKRA [email protected]
41GARGI PARASHAR [email protected]
42DEEP SIKHA [email protected]
43ROBIN SINGH [email protected]
44AMITESH GAURAV [email protected]
45SHREYA SOMVANSHI [email protected]