SUPPLY CHAIN OF DABBA WALAS

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Company Profile

Started in 1890 and registered as Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box

Suppliers Trust in 1956

Six sigma designation and ISO 9001 accreditation.

Error rate – 1 in 16 million transactions (99.999999% delivery

accuracy rate)

5000 employees with average literacy of 8th Grade

Schooling

4,00,000 transactions every day and total coverage area of

60 to 70 kms within Mumbai

Cost of service is Rs. 400/- to 500/- month

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Schematic Diagram of Dabba Walas’

Supply Chain

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Distribution Network 4

Distribution Network 5

Andheri station

Train route

Supply chain drivers

Logistics drivers

Facilities :

Distribution of Dabbas daily & Service based – no physical

warehouses to store dabbas

Location of Aggregation point matters – railway stations

Capacity of crates

Inventory :

Nil – almost stable demand and return of lunch boxes in reverse

order

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Supply chain drivers

Transportation

Through cycle, cart, train and by walk

0% Fuel reliant

Very low transportation cost

Each person has to handle 35-40 dabbas

Maximum collection time of 2 minutes

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Supply Chain drivers

Cross sectional drivers

Information

Decentralized – better flow of information

Absence of IT analytics

Simple coding system – common and easily

understandable

Sourcing

People from particular community is sourced – minimum

capital is required

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Supply Chain drivers

Pricing

No competition

Low service cost to customers

( Cost of taking lunch in hotels nearby offices per

month + medical expenses due to unhygienic food

per month ) > ( service cost of delivering lunch boxes +

cost of preparing food in home )

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IT system usage in supply chain

No use of any modern technology for carrying out the

logistics

At present, website and SMS services are provided to

customers to facilitate on-line booking and delivery

request through SMS respectively

Online polls on website – to get customer feedback

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SC concepts in Dabbawalas’

supply chain

Push view - response to a quite stable customer order by

keeping people trained well in advance

Efficient reverse logistics - transfer of empty lunch boxes

to the source location

Prevalent characteristics of cross docking without any

fuel based vehicles at destinations

Continuous improvement over the past 120 years

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“ Dabbawalas got Six Sigma because they didn’t

care about the certification but cared only about

customer satisfaction “

“Our lunch can go wrong but not the Mumbai

dabbawalas.” – The people of Mumbai

Ultimate driver behind the success :