mumbai dabbawala six sigma case study ppt

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Mumbai’s Models of Service Excellence

• Stefan Thomke

What the city’s dabbawalas can teach your company about quality

Reprint: R1211K

Think you need exceptional employees, advanced IT, or rigid controls to build a high-performance organization? The dabbawalas of Mumbai prove otherwise. Six days a week, these 5,000 self-managed, semi-literate workers deliver upwards of 130,000 lunches from customers’ homes to their offices with astonishing precision—negotiating the crowded city by train, bicycle, and handcart, without the aid of any technology or even cell phones. The 100-year-old service is legendary for its reliability: Despite monsoons, floods, riots, and terrorist attacks, mistakes by the dabbawalas are extremely rare.

Thomke, an HBS professor, studied the dabbawalas to find the keys to their success. He uncovered a unique system with four pillars: organization, management, process, and culture. A flat structure, consisting of autonomous units of 25 people each, is well suited to providing low-cost service. The tight schedule of the train lines over which meals are ferried regulates everyone’s work. Buffer capacity is built in to address extremely thin margins of error; each unit has extra workers who fill in wherever they are needed, and members are cross-trained in all activities. Variations that might derail the works are discouraged; the lunchboxes used, for instance, are all a standard size. A simple coding system helps workers quickly sort lunches and get them where they need to go. And democratic decision making and deep emotional bonds among workers promote a high degree of cooperation.

The dabbawalas show that with the right system, even ordinary workers can achieve the extraordinary.

In July 2005, Mumbai was battered by unusually heavy monsoon rains. In just 12 hours, more than 25 inches deluged India’s business capital. That, combined with record high tides, wreaked widespread havoc, bringing the city to a virtual standstill. As the water rose waist-high in many areas, people found themselves stranded at railway stations, in trains, and on roads and sidewalks.

• Stefan Thomke is the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is a leading authority on the management of business experimentation and innovation and has worked with many global companies on product, process, and technology development. He is the author of Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments (HBR Press, 2020).

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Six Sigma: A case study on Mumbai Dabbawala

The complete case study on six sigma implemented by Mumbai Dabbawalla : A food chain for delivering packed tiffins

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Sangita Ghodake

In a metropolitan city like Mumbai, a city that moves on wheels, a city that gives pan local and pan global experience, often gives feeling of isolation and alienation to her citizens. The absurdity of fast moving life in a metro often leads to universal question, 'why do we exist?' The answer lies in optimistic attitude of Mumbai Dabbawalas/ Tiffinwalas whose coping mechanism teaches us how to live and enjoy every single moment of life. They flow with the flow of life by maintaining self respect and dignity. The city plays a role of a protagonist who steers us to 'never say die'. The Dabbawala or Tiffinwallas have crossed the boundaries of publicity. Right from Prince Charles of Wales, England to a case study of Harward management students have shown their keen interest in the management skills of the semi-literate and non-technical dabbawalas. The present paper is a humble attempt of describing Mumbai city in brief. Life of Mumbai dabbawalas would be described through socio-cultural and financial aspects. Being a teacher of literature, I would like to describe Mumbai and dabbawalas through a Bollywood movie The Lunch Box that has won accolades in national and international film festivals. The movie is a bittersweet romantic comedy in which Mumbai city life is portrayed with her special attribute 'dabbawala'. The movie depicts a story of two unknown people who get connected through misplacement of tiffin and their romantic letter friendship finally helps them to transcend life in the search of the 'self'. Their journey started from absurdity and boredom of cactus land that gradually turn into lands of roses and finally transcends them to spiritual quest for 'know thyself'. Key Words: Mumbai, alienation and isolation, dabbawalas, the lunch box, spiritual quest, transcendentalism TRANSCENDING LIFE THROUGH ROMANCE: MUMBAI TIFFINWALAS AND THE LUNCH BOX A journey of all rational and sensible human beings starts from ignorance to knowledge. Romanticism and transcendentalism are the steps that one has to come across in his/her life. Transcendentalism is closely associated with an individual's identity, temperament, philosophy and spirituality whereas romanticism was an intellectual and artistic movement of eighteenth century that deals with emotional upheavals. Every individual's journey of life moves from romanticism to transcendentalism. Immanuel Kant's transcendental philosophy shows strong faith in power of divinity and individuality. Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy of transcendentalism deals with wisdom and self realization. The present paper is a humble attempt to describe a life in metropolitan cities in general and Mumbai city in particular. Mumbai Dabbawalas/ Tiffinwallas are management Gurus (masters) of the hi-tech world of today. The researcher would like to describe socio-cultural aspect of Dabbawalas. The life of Mumbai inhabitants and the Dabbawalas will be described through a Bollywood movie The Lunch Box. The protagonists' romantic association led them to find their real self that

Sara Roncaglia

Abhishek Chakraborty , Akshay Hargude

The dabbawalas (tiffin carriers) of Mumbai are a unique community of around five thousand people who efficiently serve up to 2 lac (0.2 million) customers every day. They have been delivering daily lunches from homes to offices for over a century and any kind of error in their delivery process is almost negligible. They have maintained their heritage working process since the inception of the service and therefore any kind of technology has not been incorporated in their work. They are currently facing numerous business sustainability challenges such as reaching out to new customers and also in maintaining their existing customer base. In 8-10 years, the number of customers a dabbawala serves a day has reduced from 50 to around 20 now. Bachelor employees working for MNCs rarely rely on home cooked food and thus don't employ their services. Through our research we have understood that they might lose their current customer base soon as similar food delivery businesses with faster and better services are continuously emerging. To empower them we introduce Dabbawala — a mobile application that enables partnership between dabbawalas and food services around the city and directly connects them to their combined customer base. This application enables the customers to order lunch from anywhere from the city. Customer registrations and any kind of money transactions are all handled through the application. The application is also

In a metropolitan city like Mumbai, a city that moves on wheels, a city that gives pan local and pan global experience, often gives feeling of isolation and alienation to her citizens. The absurdity of fast moving life in a metro often leads to universal question, 'why do we exist?' The answer lies in optimistic attitude of Mumbai Dabbawalas/ Tiffinwalas whose coping mechanism teaches us how to live and enjoy every single moment of life. They flow with the flow of life by maintaining self respect and dignity. The city plays a role of a protagonist who steers us to 'never say die'. The Dabbawala or Tiffinwallas have crossed the boundaries of publicity. Right from Prince Charles of Wales, England to a case study of Harward management students have shown their keen interest in the management skills of the semi-literate and non-technical dabbawalas. The present paper is a humble attempt of describing Mumbai city in brief. Life of Mumbai dabbawalas would be described through socio-cultural and financial aspects. Being a teacher of literature, I would like to describe Mumbai and dabbawalas through a Bollywood movie The Lunch Box that has won accolades in national and international film festivals. The movie is a bittersweet romantic comedy in which Mumbai city life is portrayed with her special attribute 'dabbawala'. The movie depicts a story of two unknown people who get connected through misplacement of tiffin and their romantic letter friendship finally helps them to transcend life in the search of the 'self'. Their journey started from absurdity and boredom of cactus land that gradually turn into lands of roses and finally transcends them to spiritual quest for 'know thyself'.

Journal of Organisation & Human Behaviour

Dr. Harsh Sharma

International Journal of Value Chain Management

Marie Percot

Tiffin carriers of Mumbai (Dabbawalas) are a well-known figure of the Indian metropolis. So “typical” is their profession that important foreign guests –like recently Prince Charles- are offered to visit them at Victoria Terminus or Churchgate Station where they meet in order to deliver the lunch of their 100.000 customers. The existence of their activity is closely linked to Mumbai geographical specificities, but it is also a result of the multiple differences concerning food habits which exist between Indians. This paper will, in a first part, presents how the Dabbawalas system is an actual answer allowing the respect of the different food habits. The second part is devoted to the explanation of the Dabbawalas system of delivery: sort of a relay race which has been developed by these rural migrants showing a remarkable knowledge of the metropolis.

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Six sigma: A Casestudy on Mumbai's Dabawala

The industry of delivering tiffin boxes in Mumbai began in 1890. Mahadeo Bhavaji Bachche was the first dabbawala to deliver tiffin to a British guy who requested it. Demand rose from all directions as a result of this incident. A minimum of 5,000 dabbawalas are currently employed in the industry. They are a part of a well-organized cooperative enterprise that also provides job security to its employees. 

Best MBA colleges in Kolkata , and in other states have taken into consideration their six sigma approach and are teaching their students how to go about it. To understand how Dabbawalas use the six sigma approach, let us understand what it is.

What is six sigma?

The standard deviation is represented by the Greek symbol "sigma" in mathematics. Six Sigma may seem Greek to you, but there's more to the tale than that. Six Sigma is a technique and a collection of tools for improving processes. It aims to raise the process's quality by detecting and eliminating the causes of errors or predicted flaws that lead to failure in the final product. A six-sigma process is one in which 99.99966 percent of all potential flaws are quantitatively measured and managed.

In an Industry-Integrated MBA , it is important to understand the objective behind everything as it gives you a more clear picture. The objective of putting an organization into Six Sigma Approach is to gain the following

• Boost your performance
• Increase profits
• Reduce the variance in the process
• Defects and faults should be kept to a minimum.
• Improve the ultimate product or service quality.

How did dabbawala put the six sigma approach   

The Six Sigma Approach has six concepts, which are followed like a ritual by the Mumbai dabbawalas. 

DPMO-Defects per million opportunities

Six sigma means there are fewer than 3.4 flaws per million chances, which means that out of every million lunch boxes that must be delivered from a million residences to various workplaces in Mumbai, only three will not arrive at the correct desk at the appropriate time.

Critical to quality

The quantifiable features of a product or service that must fulfill the customer's need for the product or service are referred to as critical to quality. In the case of dabbawalas, they follow this approach very swiftly as they deliver the tiffin boxes straight from the homes of the people and deliver it to their workplaces.

Customers reject a product or service if it has a flaw. Mumbai Dabbawalas assist individuals in taking advantage of the availability of home-cooked food that is picked up and brought to offices prior to the start of the launch. Even while the city is submerged to waist level by the filthy monsoon, not a single Dabba is delayed. So there is no defect in their delivery of service.

Process Capability

It refers to providing or producing a service or product that meets the needs of the consumer. Unlike in the corporate world, this organization has a clear and compelling mission that is closely aligned with the business's goals and against which each employee is evaluated on a daily basis. They have a 4-to-5-hour shelf life on the food dabbas they deliver. The entire delivery time is 6 hours, including 3 hours between the house and the office and another 3 hours between the office and the house. During transportation, each box changes hands six times before being returned as an empty tiffin. In transportation, 2.4 million people move manually. A total of 400 000 clients are served. One worker travels 60–70 kilometers every day. They are able to retain their service quality by handling the boxes with speed and precision and delivering them to the correct owner on time.

Variation refers to the difference between the final product or service given to the client and the customer's expectations. As change is necessary for every organization, dabbawalas also have various variations wherever required to boost their organization

Stable Operations

Stable operations refer to the business process's continual efforts to close the gap between what customers see and what they experience. To keep their operations stable, they follow discipline in full force. During business hours, all staff must wear their white caps to be easily identified, stick to duty reporting times, respect their clients, and carry their identity cards. The collecting of things is the first and most critical phase in every supply chain. If someone fails to deliver the dabba on time three times, they are no longer served.

A management lesson that we must learn from the dabbawalas is time management and teamwork. Without any technology and with simple things they build such a great team of over 5000 dabbawalas and are working hard every day without any delay. As the Dabbawalas, The Bengal Institute of Business Studies also is ranked as one of the Top 10 MBA colleges in Kolkata , as it also trains its management aspirants to work in an industry-friendly way and work with teamwork and dedication.

Posted on Jan 18, 2022

Categories Industry Integrated

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Sigma is a Greek letter used in mathematics to represent the standard deviation. Six Sigma definitely sounds Greek to you but the story goes beyond Greece.

Six Sigma is a set of technique and tools to improve the process. It seeks to improve the quality of the process by identifying and removing the causes of defects or expected defects leading to failure in the final outcome. A Six Sigma is process were 99.99966% of all opportunities of producing defects are statistically measured and controlled upon.

Six Sigma Story started at Motorola, a telecommunication company, by an American engineer Bill Smith, to measure and control defects to improve overall quality.

The ultimate objective of implementing  Six Sigma  in any organization is to –

• Increase performance
• Increase profits
• Decrease process deviation
• Minimize defects and errors
• Improve quality of final products or services.

In general, the term Six Sigma quality is measured in bell shaped curve graph. It follows a process limits ±3s from the center line in a control chart, and extends to the requirements or tolerance limits ±6s from the center line. As you may see below is a standards six sigma normal distributed curve indicating mean, standards deviation and defects to indicate the final six sigma quality of the process.

Success of Six Sigma implementation is based upon following principles:

• Focus on customer’s requirements and increase customer ‘s satisfaction
• To do error-less statistical analysis to understand improvement opportunities.
• Efficiently eliminate variation to lower the defects
• Involving manpower to build teamwork.
• Reducing Costs
• Increase Profitability
• Uses well-trained, independent teams to handle well-defined projects
• Uses independent teams and worker participation pioneered by the Japanese with quality circles and the gemba methodology.

What are the main concepts in Six Sigma?

• DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunities)
• Critical to Quality:

Critical to quality means the measurable characteristics of a product or service which must be matches the customer requirement of product or service.

The defect is defined as a product or service characteristics which are rejected by customers

• Process Capability:

It means to to deliver or produce a service or product which is meeting the customer demands.

In a Six Sigma story, variation means  mearusing of difference between the final product or service delivered to the customer visa-vis expectation of the customer.

• Stable Operations:

Stable operations means to ensure that the process of business makes consistent efforts to reduce the gap between what customer sees and feels.

Some of the additional features that set Six Sigma story apart from previous quality-improvement initiatives are –

• Focus on maintaining a quantifiable and measurable financial return from a Six Sigma project.
• Emphasis to be increased on strong management leadership and support the cause.
• Most importantly commitment to make decisions on the basis of verifiable data and statistical methods, rather than assumptions and guesswork.

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The Mumbai Dabbawalas

Mumbai never sleeps!! Mumbai never stops!!

Mumbai, an archipelago at one time, is now connected to be the one of the most populous city of India. It is stretched for about 603 square kilometer running on one track from Andheri to Kurla

Along with Mumbai, an army of Mumbai also never stops. An army of around 5000 people dressed in white dhoti or payjama, white kurta and a white Gandhi topi moving all day long on the roads to assist lakhs of people to enjoy fresh and healthy homemade food. This saves there time as well as money.

Yes. You guessed it right . I am talking of the famous Mumbai Dabbawalas !! There is system of providing Tiffin services to lakhs of offices in Mumbai.

This battalion has been serving people of Mumbai since more than 125 years. With an impressive style of work management and dauntless work ethics they supply launch boxes for almost 2 lakhs working professionals in one of the busiest city of India – Mumbai. They pick up launch boxes from the house in morning, drop them to offices and drop the lunch boxes back to the house before evening.

The Golden status of a Mumbai dabbawala at Haji Ali station will make you to stand still and force you to think upon and  re-learn all your management lessons. The journey started way back in 1890 when Shri Mahadu Havaji Bachhe started to pick and drop tiffin box for a parsee banker.He saw the business and service opportunity of tiffin service in the locality. He started the lunch delivery service and from one man, one customer, with one dabba it increased to 100 dabbas.

The history of Mumbai dabbawals go hand in hand with historical and geographical development of Mumbai city.

They are the Maratha of Varkari sect of interior village in Maharashtra. They are ancestors of legendry warrior Chatrapati Shivaji. Staff lives a simple life. They are pure vegetarian and worshiper of lord Vithaldev of Mumbai. They find happiness in simplicity. As a Varkari clan service is in their DNA and they consider work is worship.

How can a semi-literate,  decentralized workforce perform so exemplarily  in constantly changing environment that can be described as unpredictable and challenging?

The concept — “Mumbai Dabbawalas”

The average travel time of working professionals in Mumbai is 3 hours. They leave as early as 8 am in the morning and return never before 8 in the evening. The mornings of a mumbaikers are generally deprived of breakfast. In Mumbai you cannot carry your own tiffin box of over-crowded local trains and the distance to be travelled. This is when the Mumbai dabbawalas come into picture.

They help people enjoy the availability of home cooked food being picked and delivered to offices before launch time. Even with dawn of muddy monsoon, submerging the city to waist level, not even a single dabba gets delayed.

Culture and Ethics

Resilience, strength and ingenious are so symbolic to Mumbai dabbawalas .

Belonging to the warrior ancestral, they believe that being a part of dabbawala they are actually nurturing Marathi culture, a culture of goodwill and oneness. They carry their believe system at work:

* Work is worship * serving people is serving God * time is money * unity is power

Average age of a Mumbai dabbawala ranges from 18 years to 65 years. There is no official retirement age. Most of them have the same culture, language, values, work ethic, diet, and religious beliefs.

The concept of uniformity plays an important part in the sustenance of the organization.

One Mission – One Vision

“Spread Excellence Everywhere and Always Delight the Customer”

Unlike the corporate this organization has a very powerful  and straight forward mission which is well aliened with the goal the organization on the basis of which each worker are measured on daily basis.

The food dabbas that they carry has a shelf life of 4 -5 hours. The total delivery time is 6 hours – 3 hours from house to office and 3 hours from office to house.

Each box shifts hands in transit 6 times and same in return as an empty tiffin. 2.4 million manual movement in transit. Four hundred thousand end customers. On daily basis one worker covers a distance of 60 – 70 km.

Speed and precision handling the boxes, timely delivery to the right owner helps them maintain their service quality.

Dabbawala minus discipline ‘is zero’

All workers must wear their white cap in business hours making them easy to identify, adhere to duty reporting times, respect their customers and must carry their identification cards.

They operate in a group of 20 – 30 people. Each dabbawala is responsible for 30 – 40 tiffin boxes for collection and distribution, all through the three major suburban rail routes.

Their journey starts from morning 9 am. Any leaves are to be prior informed so as back is arranged well in time to not obstruct the system. The workforce has not gone on strike since inception.

Staffs do not spend any extravagant life. They live a simple life. They do not indulge into any bad habits like drinking, smoking and tobacco consumption. They not just monitor their staff discipline but also monitor their customer discipline. If a customer delays in giving the dabba three times, they stop serving them. They abandon bad customer.

Being disciplined, help them to become planned and focused which creates an environment of concentration on work to uplift their productivity. It may look like a chaotic situation but instead discipline is the only factor which helps them synchronize even in tight schedule.

Keep it simple – Management Lesson

There is no chance that a dabbawala would make a mistake. Even in harsh weather conditions or circumstances, we deliver a home-cooked meal on time. They beat out all such practical hindrances like – unpunctual customers, long physical distances, large number of dabbas, Mumbai Traffic, Crowded trains, network co-ordination, multiple hand shifts, scattered pick up and drop off destinations.

It never happens that a Parsi chicken curry gets mixed up with Jain dal-roti.

In this era of wifi and high end technology, the organization till date believe in their simplicity All the tiffins are picked and carried in bicycle, hand cart and local train. Except the local train every step is handled manually and no technology is involved.

They stay true to their purpose and have one point focus which is service to mankind. They promote community living and thus have inbuilt qualities of a good team work.

Full of passion and value they believe in building trust in their customer’s heart. TRUST that travels from one pick up point to destination point. This is the most uncommon and difficult synergy that a manager strives for in this corporate world.

Each and every single step of their process involves some management lessons and still they work on only four basic pillars – organization, management, process and culture. All of them are so perfectly and mutually aligned so as to maximize productivity and creativity.

A Flat Organizational Structure

An employee who gets 10 years of experience as dabbawala is appointed as mukadams – supervisors to the members

They follow a three layer organizational structure – the President, the Mukadams and the Members. Organization follows no complex hierarchy or managerial structure which not only reduces operational costs but also empower-s employees to perform at their best.

The so called “decentralized organizational structure” provides a flexible work environment at all levels.

Logistics is happening for 2,60,000 transaction in six hours a day, six days a week,52 weeks a year; but rarely any mistakes. Supply chain managment,Logistics managemnt, customer satisfaction, hiring new workforce and dispute resolution are all managed by dabbawals themselves.

Average literacy standards of a traditional dabbawala don’t go beyond grade 8 thither are largely uneducated and probably only 15 % might have attended to senior secondary school. They don’t know what is six sigma, what is the meaning of six sigma and how and why of six sigma.

The question arises how they nailed this Six Sigma Story ?

In an interview the workers said “error is horror” we don’t want to think of it. They added that we don’t work for six sigma, we work for customer satisfaction .

They work with the motto – “ Customer is King”

Dabbawala got Six Sigma Certified, which means, error ratio is 1 in 16 million i.e. 1 mistake in 1,60,00,000 tiffin. In 1998, Forbes Global magazine, conducted quality assurance study on operation of dabbawala and gave a six sigma efficiency rating of 99.999999.

Mumbai Dabbawalas are ISO 9001:2000 certified by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand. They have shown an exemplary performance in servicing customers.

Intelligent coding system and use of bicycle, hand pulled cart as well as local train is what remarks the successful journey of an efficient time management to fall in line with six sigma quality service standards by the Mumbai Dabbawalas.

99.9999% performance and 100 percent customer satisfaction. This means the margin of error in their work is less than 0.1%.

It is so hard to demarcate between the Six Sigma Story and Mumbai Dabbawalas story.

The tour of accuracy and time management starts from the pickup point at 9.30 a.m. form the residence. In next step, they bring the boxes to the nearest common location where the tiffins are shuffled as per travel route and destination station. The wooden crate loaded with tiiffin boxes is then loaded in the goods compartment of the local train preferably the last compartment to avoid chaotic situation. Unloading takes place at the destination station.Re-shuffleing of tiffins again takes place as per the destination area and destination building. For distribution purpose hand pulled wooden cart is used which can carry around 150 tiffins and is driven by 3-4 dabbawals.

Amazingly, all dabbas gets distributed and delivered between 11:00 p.m. to 12:p.m… Which means them delivery tiffin from one corner of Mumbai to another in a time span of just 2 – 3 hours? By virtue of their cultural values, dabbawals never break for launch till all boxes get delivered to destination.

From 01:30 p.m. the collection process begins. Dabbawalas pick the tiffins from the offices where they had delivered an hour before. Each dabba travel through the same route before being returned to the original residence. By 4:00 p.m. the group again meets at the original station where the final sorting and dispatching happens. Finally tiffin boxes reaches to their original owner. Mumbai Dabbawals do this exemplary work without any error.

Cracking the Dabba Code

If you a pick a dabba from the wooden caret of a dabbawala, you can see on the lid of the dabba, there are some alpha-numeric codes written or painted in different colours.

From the days of inception, when the dabbas increased it became difficult to remember all address of offices and houses for all dabbawalas. With the low level of education standards it made it all the more difficult to set the process in place.

They evolved with the colour coding system. Very initially only different colors were used to denote the locations. With increase in business and client base, they introduced the alpha numeric coding system with different colors. They started to use symbols, which were explained to each worker as a part of training. Now a days Mumbai Dabbawalas make code using numbers, alphabets in Hindi, English and Marathi also.

This intelligent coding system helps them to drop and deliver the tiffin boxes at the correct location without even referring a list or maintaining a database with them.

The coding system includes following major definition in code-word:–

• Code for house address for pick up or drop of tiffin
• Code of office address to be delivered, where even the floor of the office is mentioned
• Code of the destination rail route
• Code for the route to which the tiffin will be carried.
• Code for the which dabbawala will carry the transit work
• Symbols and signs are used for identifying station of origin and delivery

This super innovative coding system uses the concept of  re-engineering  and  re-designing  to attain the six sigma mark. They keep transforming the coding system as per the expansion of geographical coverage of client base and also with the increasing number of client which keep adding every day. With the development of city structure and increase in client base supply chain makes necessary changes to expand the dabbawala system. Color coding system is the key contributing factors for Mumbai dabbawalas 99.99 % work efficiency rate.

Stick to basics

The total business runs in an eco friendly mode. They have zero fuel, zero modern technology, zero investment, and zero disputes. Even after lots of suggestions from big corporate they simply turned them done stating they are better off with the basics. They use bicycle and hand-pulled wooden cart. This eases their business in many ways –

• They don’t have to stuck and wait in city’s traffic
• No fuel expenses by using modern vehicle.
• No expenses in training staff to run the vehicle
• Low cost of maintenance

The organization runs with a remarkable approach to mitigate practical problems. They aim at sharpening their most important tool to ensure negligible defects with increased accuracy and efficiency in service.

They use age old strategy of marketing. They do not flash any contact number nor do they adopt any modern or technical means of marketing in order to acquire new customers. Once an organization tried to help in advertisement, dabbawalas tried to follow. But sooner they surrendered and said that it’s a waste of time and if one customer like their work automatically more customers will add on.

No Extraordinary talent for an Extraordinary Performance

The Mumbai Dabbawalas have taught many big corporate that – organization do not need extraordinary talents to achieve extraordinary performance rather they need to reinforce right system. With the flat organizational structure, they have proved that complexity in system will only lead the organization to default in compliance.

With the humanistic approach, they have laid a trend of not hiring highly educated work force and so no high salary structure. Employee satisfaction here is not monetary rather they have strong service commitments.

So for the big brothers around, it’s the commitment that matters and not the qualification.

As is so true in today’s practical world, higher pay package cannot retain employee at least not for long term.

One of the most important decision of the organization was to focus on their core job their core competency and do not let any other kind of activities distract them. The thumb rule of the organization is to minimize the operational cost and maximize their working with minimal capital utilization.

The training strategy of old guys teaching the new entrants and sharing their experience provides a holistic picture to working environment and circumstances.

Since this job is voluntarily chosen by them, the love and dedication for the job never goes missing. When they receive appreciation it becomes their status and pride.

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• February 2010 (Revised January 2013)
• HBS Case Collection

The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time

• Format: Print
• | Language: English
• | Pages: 23

About The Author

Stefan H. Thomke

Related work.

• October 2012 (Revised September 2013)
• Faculty Research
• The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time  By: Stefan H. Thomke
• The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time  By: Stefan H. Thomke and Mona Sinha

Dabbawala Case Study: How Mumbai Thrives On This Model?

Aashita Singh

Updated on: March 22, 2024

Mumbai dabbawala service has made it easy for the people to have and enjoy freshly home cooked meals either at their offices or other working places.

This service has led many people who hail from different parts of the country come to Mumbai to work and live, to have a meal which is home cooked and healthy.

Let’s start with our discussion of the Mumbai Dabbawala Case Study and how Mumbai has been living on this model since decades! 

(A) Mumbai Dabbawala Profile 

Mumbai Dabbawala or the name by which is famously called, “The Dabba Service” started from the late 1800s i.e. 1890, serves freshly cooked meals to people either from their homes or from the dabba service places. 

The Dabbawala service was initially started by Mahadeo Havaji Bachche in 1890 as a small business, and now has become one of the world recognized businesses. 

Apart from being a prominent dabba service in Mumbai, it also offers various services and facilities like, Ted talk in various business schools, seminars, lectures, a day with dabbawala, app service, etc. all the factors which contributes to its key position as the leading player in the dabba service in Mumbai. 

Beyond all this, Mumbai dabbawala has been awarded with various recognition like the Six Sigma.

That narrates the tale of Mumbai Dabbawala of not only showcasing an unparalleled service but have also earned their place in the global standards of operational efficiency by achieving Six Sigma certification, which translates to an error ration of just 1 in 16 million, or simply translated as a single error in 1,60,00,000 lunch boxes.

(B) Dabbawala Business Model 

The business model used by Dabbawala is a blend of simplicity, user-centric approach, efficiency, and dedication. The dabbawalas work on a single aim, i.e. to serve the people and the society with their best services. 

The Mumbai Dabbawala service operates their business mainly on four pillars, i.e. organization, management, process, and culture. 

The above four principles are core elements of the Dabbawala Service, which has been crucial for the business which has been opening for many years now. 

(B.1) How Did the Idea of Dabbawala Originated? 

Around 130 years ago, a Parsi Banker working in Fort Branch only wanted to have his home cooked meal in his office. For that he hired a young man named Mahadeo Havaji Bacche, who would daily get his lunch from his home in the afternoon.

That is how the concept and the first dabbawala emerged. 

With time, with the vision and hard work of Mahadeo Havaji Bacche, the business started growing and thriving in the city and has a large workforce to operate. 

(B.2) How did this business become an exception?

• The dabbawala service delivers over 2,00,000 tiffins on a daily basis from their homes or dabba service to their offices. 
• It delivers all its services and transactions in almost 6 hours, six days a week, before lunch time, without any mistakes.
• All this success has been achieved by Dabbawalas without the intervention of any technological tool at low cost and in an eco-friendly manner.
• Later on, they have made their own app for catering to more people and offering more services. 

• It has been awarded with the title of “ Six Sigma” from the study conducted by the Harvard Business School, which means that the dabbawalas made less than 3.4 errors per million transactions.
• Mumbai Dabbawalas have employed around 5,000 people for delivering its services, and many of them are less educated, or have not appropriate reading knowledge, but they operate efficiently and provide their best services. 
• A force of hardworking people has led them to achieve this success and become a prominent name all over the world. 
• The Mumbai Dabbawalas were also visited by Mr. Richard Branson, a british entrepreneur and adventurer and Prince Charles during his visit to India.

(B.3) Major Events of Mumbai Dabbawalas  

(C) Marketing Mix Strategy 

One of the key factors of Dabbawala case study is the marketing mix which it has been following for years. The dabbawala operates on 6 P’s of marketing mix, which is Product, Place, Price, Promotion, and People. 

(C.1) Product 

The primary service of the Dabbawala is to provide the freshly home cooked meal lunch boxes from the customer’s home and deliver them at their offices. Along with that they also collect their tiffin boxes after lunch and deliver them back to their home. 

With that they also offer advertising facilities with them, workshops, seminars, and more of it. 

(C.2) Place

Mumbai Dabbawala, an Indian business organization, primarily operates its services in Mumbai. The dabbawalas also take their service orders through SMSs. It has a wide distribution network and a workforce of nearly 5,000 workers.

(C.3) Price 

Mumbai Dabbawala has a turnover of around Rs.36 crores annually, and its services cost within a range of Rs.300 to 1,000.  The affordable pricing for its services, the annual subscription model for payments, the uniform pricing strategy, no hidden costs, all contribute to an easy marketing mix. 

(C.4) Promotion  

The organization that has been operating from decades now has been well famous and a prominent name in the city Mumbai. They have mostly adopted the mouth publicity for their business.

They rely on their exceptional service model and quality assurance of operations. Many production houses, companies, promote their messages and movies through dabbawala. 

(C.5) People 

The success and growth of Mumbai Dabbawala largely depends on the people it serves. They are the backbone and the key elements of the entire operation of Dabbawalas. The business has high skilled workers, teamwork, coordination, training, and has good customer relations. 

(D) Unique Coding System 

Instead of putting names for different stations, tiffin deliveries, office place, etc. they have a unique full proof coding system of delivering dabbas. Some of them are- 

Let’s have a look at the other factors constituting the Mumbai Dabbawala case study!

(E) Other Factors Analysis 

Above were some other factors which contributed to its growth and overall success over the years. It’s a mix of its teamwork, coordination, delivery systems, returning facility, coding system. 

Over the years, the Mumbai Dabbawala has kept their services simple and unique. With time they have developed their own app and site which has helped to connect to more customers and make a more simplified process. 

Summing Up: The Dabbawala Case Study

The Mumbai Dabbawala Service , one of the most famous things of Mumbai. The dabbawala service that has been operating and providing its best services to the people since 1890, is one of most anticipated case studies to look at. 

Note: We do have case studies of other famous names like

• Taj Mahal Case Study ,
• Zara Case Study ,
• Starbucks Case Study ,

Be it providing the on time tiffin delivery service, doing seminars, unique coding system of tiffin’s, exceptional service over the years, delivering ted talks, etc. all constitute as the major key elements of the dabbawala case study. 

Mumbai Dabbawala service believes in the simple working techniques which offers high quality in low prices. 

Related Posts:

Apart from being many tiffin services available, this Dabbawala service still remains everyones favourite and on top. Have been using this service from a long time now!

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SIX SIGMA AND MUMBAI DABBAWALA

WELCOME TO SIX SIGMA PRESENTATION

Sandeep ManeAnkitSonam ThakurMadhuri LotankarPratik Mane

PRESENTED BY

DISSATISFY YOUR CUSTOMER

• Satisfying the customer through quality products and services only but trying maintain long term relationship through perfection in every thing they do to be world class

• It is better to eliminate defect in our product & service delivery quality rather than trying to minimize final defective out put

CUT THROAT COMPETITION

• We need not only satisfy our external customer but all employee, shareholder, supplier, etc.

• Need to have quality product & service at lower possible cost & zero defect

• Total Quality Management means that the organization's culture is defined by and supports the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through an integrated system of tools, techniques, and training. This involves the continuous improvement of organizational processes, resulting in high quality products and services.

WHAT IS SIX SIGMA

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

• Six sigma is represent a statistical measure and a management philosophy

• The Greek letter Sigma, used mathematically to designate standard deviation is the measure used to determine how good or bad the performance of a process is

• Means how many mistake company commits while accomplishing task

SIX SIGMA = PERFECTION

• 1 Six Sigma = 700,000 Defects/ million opportunities

• 2 Six Sigma = 3000,000Mistake/ million opportunities

• 3&4 Six Sigma = 67,000 & 6,000 Mistake / million opportunities

• 3.8 Six SIGMA = 99% right of the time

• 1% Error can add up lot of mistake pretty fast

• Getting it right 99% of the time is equal of 20,000 lost articles\Hour

• 5,000 bitched surgical procedure/ Week

• 4 Accident\day at major airport

WHAT SO GREAT ABOUT SIX SIGMA?

• Six sigma gives employees well defined roles & clear structures to their task

• Six sigma project are usually run by guys in the middle of the organization

OPERATE IN MARKET PLACE IN TWO WAY’S

• Make more money by coming up with great invention, hiring away some real star

• Buying other companies

TWO MISCONCEPTION ABOUT SIX SIGMA

1.QUALITY WITH MISSING THE POINT

• The goal is not simply to improve quality for the sake of improvement quality, but to make customer happier & add more to the bottom line

• If you are improving quality but sill upsetting customer or losing money you are missing the point

2.QUALITY SAVE MONEY

• Most company thinking improving quality cost money

• Six sigma companies turn that thinking around

• Quality save money because there fewer throw-outs, fewer warranty payouts & fewer refund’s & doing all that increase profit’s

CRUCIAL DIFFERENCES

BETTER TO FIX LEG OR GET NEW HORSE

• Some program still focusing on only on the end product where they spend all their time trying new way to identify the bad product you have already made and make Shure they get throw out before they get to the customer

FIRST GO FOR BIGGEST PROBLEM

• In six sigma first pick the one problem to solve at a time as a project

• First go to the biggest problem then put some one in the middle like Black belt

• Black belt has only one job to complete the project given to them

• & they also get all help they need from champion their supervisor & the Green belt their support staff

METHODOLOGY

SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGY

• Six Sigma is a process oriented methodology designed to improve business performance by improving specific areas of strategic business processes.

• Improvements can be of two types: improving the existing process or designing a new process altogether. When we have an existing process and we want to improve the process we deploy the DMAIC methodology. While designing a new process or completely revamping the existing process the Design for Six Sigma or IDOV methodology is deployed.

Structured and iterative process improvement methodology

Rigorous approach to designing processes that will exceed customer expectations

Focus on defect reduction

Focus on defect prevention

DMAIC v/s DFSS

Define Define the problem.Define the customer(s) and the requirements.Define the current capability.Define the key processes that will have the greatest impact on customer.

Measure Identify the statistical measures to monitor the key process.Set up the data collection plan.Measure the process

Analyze Determine the analysis tools and methods to be used.Summarize the data measured.Run the analysis and determine the root causes, effects, etc.

Improve Improve and Implement.Focus on developing process/technology to improve the root cause.Test the method on sample process and validate the improvement.

Control Standardize and document the process and implement the plan.Monitor the process and feedback the results back to the process for continuous improvement.

DMAIC Methodology

Identify Develop a team.Create team charter.Gather VOC.Perform competitive analysis.Develop CTQs and formally tie design to VOC.

Design Identify functional requirements.Develop alternative concepts.Evaluate alternatives and select a best-fit concept.Deploy CTQs and predict sigma capability.

Optimize Determine process capability.Develop detailed design elements.Predict performance.Optimize design.

Verify Test and validate the design.Share feedback with manufacturing and sourcing to improve future manufacturing and designs.

DFSS (IDOV) Methodology

REQUISITE FOR SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION

• LEADERSHIP/TOP MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT IS ESSENTIAL • ALL LEADERS SHOULD BE TRAINED AS SIX SIGMA CHAMPIONS• INCLUDING SIX SIGMA PLANNING WITHIN THE BUSSINESS OPERATING PLAN • SELECT THE RIGHT CONSULTANT TO TRAIN YOUR BELTS • ENSURE THAT RETURN ON TRAINING INVESTMENT IS AT LEAST 20 TIMES • GET THE MOVMENT GOING AT THE SHOP FLOOR LEVEL • CREATE A CERTIFICATION PROCESS• DEVELOP A MENTORING PROCESS• ENSURE FINANCIAL VALIDATION OF PROJECT S• NEVER ALLOW SIX SIGMA TO BE CLASSIFIED AS A QUALITY MANAGER’S JOB

REWARDS OF SIX SIGMA

• IMPROVED RELIABILITY & PREDUCTABILITY OF SOFTWARE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

• INCRESED VALUE TO THE CUSTOMER AND SHAREHOLDERS• IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANIZATIONAL MORALE• INCREASE MARKET VISIBILITY• ORGANIZATIONAL RECOGNITION• SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN DEFECT • INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF A “PROCESS” MINDSET

CHALLENGES AND CRITICISM

• IT IS NOT QUICK FIX OR RECIPE FOR SUCCESS• IT REQUIRES TRAINING AT ALL MANAGERIAL LEVELS• IT REQUIRES CULTURE CHANGE IN THE WHOLE ORGANIZATION• IMPLEMENTATION TEND TO BE UNEVEN AND LAPES OCCURE FREQUENTLY• PEOPLE MUST NOT FEAR GIVING “BAD NEWS”• DESIGN IS CRITICAL & YET MANY it ORGANIZATION CNTINUE TO GO STRAIGHT

FROM POOR REUIREMENTS INTO CODING WITHOUT THE BENEFITS OF EVEN ONE DESIGN REVIEW

MUMBAI DABBAWALAS REDEFINE SIX SIGMA THEORY

WHAT IS NMTBSA?

(Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association)

History : Started in 1880 Charitable trust : Registered in 1956 Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling Total area coverage : 60 Kms Employee Strength : 5000 Number of Tiffin's : 2,00,000 Tiffin Boxes i.e 4,00,000 transactions every day. Time taken : 3 hrs

WORKING OF NMTBSA

Error Rate : 1 in 16 million transactions•Six Sigma performance (99.999999)•Technological Backup : Nil.•Cost of service -Rs. 300/month ($ 6.00/month)•Standard price for all (Weight, Distance, Space)•Rs. 36 Cr. Turnover approx. [6000*12*5000=360000000 i.e Rs. 36 crore p.a.]•“No strike” record as each one a share holder •Earnings -5000 to 6000 p.m.•Diwali bonus: one month’s from customers.

• Zero % fuel Zero % investment• Zero % modern technology Zero % Disputes• 99.9999% performance100 % Customer Satisfaction

CODING SYSTEM

Initial Coding System used colored threads to mark 7 Islands

Then Utilized thrown away cotton waste from tailors

Now using color markers:

E :: Code for Dabbawala Street at residential stationVLP :: Residential Station Ville Parle3 :: Code for Destination station.E.G :: Church gate9 :: Code for Dabbawala at Destination.Ex :: Express towers ( Building name)12 :: Floor no. in the building.

JOURNEY OF DABBAWALA

Pick up Dabba from Residence/Caterer

and bring it to Andheri Station.

*Journey in Local Train*

Unloading and Sorting at

Destination Station.

Delivery to respective customers.

Collection of Empty Dabba.

Sorting at Destinations station.

Returning Dabba to Residence/Caterer.

9:30 A.M- 10:30 A.M 10:34- 11:20 A.M 11:20- 12:30 P:M

12:30 - 1:00 P.M 1:15- 2:30 P.M2:48- 3:30P:M

3:30- 4:40 P.M

SIX SIGMA CERTIFICATION

In 1998, Forbes Global magazine conducted a quality assurance study on the Dabbawalas' operations

Gave Rating of 99.999999

Dabbawalas made one error in six million transactions.

Stood High along with MNC’s like Motorola, GE etc…

Dabbawalas got ISO 9001- 2000 for Excellence in service

ACHIEVEMENTS

Documentaries made by : • BBC ,UTV, MTV, ZEE TV, AAJ TAK, TV TODAY,

SAHARA SAMAY, STAR TV, CNBC TV 18, CNN, SONY TV, TV TOKYO, NDTV.

CASE STUDY made by : • ICFAI Press Hyderabad & Bangalore• Richard Ivey School of Business – Canada• Also, Included in a subject in Graduate School of

Journalism University of California, Berkeley

Invitations from : • CII for conference held in Bangalore, IIML, IIMA, CII

Cochin, CII Delhi, Dr. Reddy’s Lab Foundation Hyderabad, SCMHRD Pune, SCMHRD Nasik, Sadahana – Pune, Rotary Club – Bangalore, NIQR at Chennai

• World record in Best Time management.

• Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”.

• Registered with Ripley's “ believe it or not”.

• Invited for marriage of Hon. Prince Charles of England on 9th April, 2005

• Documentary called “Dabbawalas, Mumbai's unique lunch service”

• by two Dutch filmmakers in 1998.

LETTER FROM PRINCE CHARLES

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