Dabbawallas

They don’t use intelligent transportation system ITS or a GPS tracking software to determine the position of their workers in the field. If you think there is a control center somewhere monitoring operations, you are in for a surprise! No cloud based supply chain technology or management gurus either to drive the business.

Their error rate is an astounding 1 in 6 million deliveries, well above the qualifying mark for “six sigma certification”.

They are the “Dabbawallas” who provide home cooked lunch to the hungry office goers in Mumbai. Way back in 1890, Mahadeo Havaji saw an opportunity for a lunch delivering service in Mumbai. A Parsee banker wanted home cooked food delivered to his office & Havaji took up the responsibility. He became the first Dabbawalla to introduce a new line of business. Today5000 Dabbawallas dressed in immaculate white with the trademark Gandhi cap, crisscross western, central & harbour lines and deliver food to 200000 customers within a radius of 150 -200 km.

How does the end - end process work ?

The tiffin boxes are picked up from houses/restaurants and delivered to the station. A color code on the box reveals details about the offloading station, badge number of the local Dabbawala along with the building and floor number of the receiver. Food is delivered on time. Post lunch, the tiffin boxes are collected and delivered back to the owner. The Dabbawallas use trains, cycles and pushcarts for their service which starts at 9AM and ends at 5PM.

They have been around for more than a century, the original backbone of Mumbai’s food delivery system. The men in white have fired the imagination of professors from Harvard to Ahmedabad, trying to explain the model of service excellence without the use of technology.

‘Speed, precision and unfailing commitment are the defining features leading to a zero defect delivery system’, observes Raghunath Medge, President Mumbai Dabbawallas.

What is the secret behind the success?

THEY KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Pic Credit - Atlas Obscura

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