Dabbawala: How it Works?

Dabbawala is a person in India, most commonly found in the city of Mumbai, who is
employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly
cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office workers, delivering it to their
respective workplaces and returning the empty boxes back to the customers residence by
using various modes of transport. In 1890, Mahadeo Bhavaji Bachche started a lunch delivery
service with about a hundred men. In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize the
dabbawallas. Later, a charitable trust was registered in 1956 under the name of Nutan
Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The current president of the association is Raghunath
Medge.
For a dabbawala, the day begins at 9 am, with an hour spent collecting all the 20-25 dabbas
in his area. A collecting dabbawala, usually on bicycle, collects dabbas either from a worker's
home or from the dabba makers. As many of the carriers are illiterate, the dabbas have some
sort of distinguishing mark on them, such as a colour or group of symbols. The dabbawala
then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalas sort
the lunch boxes into groups. The grouped boxes are put in the coaches of trains, with
markings to identify the destination of the box (usually there is a designated car for the
boxes). The markings include the railway station to unload the boxes and the destination
building delivery address. At each station, boxes are handed over to a local dabbawala, who
delivers them. The empty boxes are collected after lunch or the next day and sent back to the
respective houses.

Coding

The Supply Process of

Dabbawala

5,000 dabbawalas make about 400,000 transactions per day for a cost of $4 per month, per
dabba. The defect rate is as low as 1 in 6 million! The success of the operation, in six sigma
terms, lies in the extreme certainty and predictability of the operation, coupled with an
equally simple design. Practically nothing changes for months in the entire course of
operation, except an odd addition/deletion of containers and maybe a few persons. The only
processes involved are sorting, loading, and unloading and they dont need any technology or
qualified personnel to operate. Although the number of transactions per day is large, each
person handles a limited number of transactions at a time. In addition, the dabbawalas
typically do not deliver to the exact office of the client. Instead, they deliver it to the floor or
the wing of the building and the client identifies his dabba from the lot based on his personal
markings on the container, and puts it back in the lot after lunch.
The dabbawalas have become icons of hard work and dedication. They are here for the long
haul and over time will only get better.