The Mumbai Dabbawalas

Lee este artículo en español | 25-07-2008| Business & Investing

Mr. Rao had woken up at 5 a.m., had worked hard all morning and was about to spend the afternoon interviewing the 10 young ladies waiting outside his office. They wanted to become his new secretary but the pangs of lunchtime hunger were threatening Mr Rao’s concentration!

Breakfast had been hours ago and the last cup of coffee had long since disappeared. He could march all the way down to the ground floor to one of the nearby restaurants but that would take too long and cost too much.

He could phone McDonald’s to send him a Big Mac (McDonald’s in Western India does that) but that wasn’t going to give him enough energy to last all afternoon either.

Then the Dabbawala arrived and Rao smiled.

His wife had sent his midday meal 60km from their home via Mumbai’s century-old lunchbox delivery service.

After 125 years without a single strike, Mumbai’s 5000 or so Dabbawalas make great efforts to get nearly 200,000 lunches to work on time everyday.

And they hardly ever make a mistake, which means they’ve become a global business school example to follow.

Origins of the word ‘Dabbawala’

The word Dabbawala (Dabbawalah, Dabbawallah or Dabbawalla, depending on which article you read) is a composite of Dabba (lunch box) wala (person) which means something like ‘lunch box delivery man‘.They’re also called Tiffinwala – tiffin is an old fashioned English word for lunch.

The Dabbawala Brand

The Dabbawalas are successful because they put their customers first, offer a quality service and charge a decent price.

Committed, trustworthy and charge less than 5 USD / month for their lunch delivery service, they even apparently pass marriage offers and business propositions down the Tiffinwala communication lines.

With their 125 year old history and reputation, Warren Buffet might say they had a wide moat.

They also seem to attract the right types: becoming a Dabbawala is not easy.

First, you must come from the Varkari tradition. Then you get a six-month probation period, must be proficient in Hindi and be physically fit in order to cycle long distances.

Operations Management

Mumbai from the air (dharmesh on Flickr)

The Indian city of Mumbai from the air (dharmesh, Flickr)

The Dabbawalas have a Six Sigma quality certificate and a global business fan club that includes Prince Charles and Richard Branson.

Typically perhaps, Prince Charles politely declined to wear the Ghandi hat given to him as a gift and Richard Branson made the most of the opportunity by getting dressed up for some photos.

A coloured tin system is the key to picking-up and delivering 200,000 lunches a day and the quickest method of getting round Mumbai is on the local train system which is quicker than driving.

No-one seems to know why the Dabbawala operation works at a more abstract level, although comparisons have been made to the Internet packet system.

While we’re on the subject of the internet, the Dabbawala have moved into the twenty-first century and now have a Dabbawala webpage, although most of them are illiterate.They use mobile-phone SMS messages to co-ordinate some orders and have an IT manager.

Dabbawala Video Report

Here’s a video report on the Dabbawala from YouTube:

Main e-mail:
Choose:

Your e-mail:

The Mumbai Dabbawalas

Origins of the word ‘Dabbawala’

The Dabbawala Brand

Operations Management

Dabbawala Video Report

Dabbawala Links