SYNOPSIS

ON
“A CASE STUDY ON DABBAWALA OF
MUMBAI”
RESEARCH SUBMITTED TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HOTEL
MANAGEMENT & CATERING TECHNOLOGY, NOIDA
& INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY, NEW DELHI

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

B.Sc. IN HOSPITALITY & HOTEL ADMINISTRATION

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

MRS. SUJATA MATHUR
(FACULTY & COORDINATOR, B. Sc. PROGRAM)

BY
SANSKAR KESARWANI
TANMAY HITAISHY

INSTITUTE OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT, CATERING & NUTRITION,

SECTOR-G, ALIGANJ, LUCKNOW
(SESSION: 2016-2019
 INTRODUCTION

The Dabbawala, (one who carries the box), in the Indian city of Mumbai. Carries and

delivers freshly made food from customer’s home in a lunch box (Dabba) and deliver it to

offices.

Wherever you may be staying in Mumbai, in whichever corner you may be having your

work-place in this metropolis of one crore plus population, you never ever fail to receive

your home food in time at the lunch hour in your work-place!! Thanks to the network of

the tiffin-patiwalas that has been functioning in an amazing way for the last 120 years and

recognized as the best case of network management in the world even by the

management gurus.

Home-food so lovingly cooked by the mother, sister

or bhabhi at home with all care and love for the taste,

hygiene and quality that the "Roti-earner" of the

family has a right and privilege to savor to his full

nourishment, reaches thousands of mill-workers,

office-goers and executives on their tables in their

work-place miles away in the most punctual and

error-proof system. This is the consistent performance of the 'Dibbawala' or 'Tiffinwala',

as they are affectionately called by all Mumbaikars.

Attired in the most typical dress composed of half sleeved open shirt, pyjama or pant, a

'Gandhi cap' covering the head, Kolhapuri Chappals in the feet, this Tiffinwala carries a

wooden case on his head with 20 to 25 tiffins in it. If you see a man with a fast pace of

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walk, not affected by the dense traffic during the rush hours, do recognize him without

fail as the Tiffinwala - the hunger-cracker of the working class Mumbaikar.

About 10 to 15 years ago, it was rather impossible to think about Mumbai sans the

Dibbawala . The most prolific column-writer, who Mumbaikars lost forever just a few

days ago, Behram 'Busybee' Contractor, wrote some time in the past referring to these

Dibbawalas as the lifeline of the service class or middle class Mumbaikars.

If you are a new entrant to Mumbai and if you try to board any local train during the rush

hours between 9 AM and 11 AM in the morning towards South Mumbai and during 5 PM

to 8 PM in the evening towards the suburbs, rest assured, you are likely to faint. Leave

aside boarding the train, even seeing it may meet the same result. But, in this unparalleled

density of traffic, this is the daily encounter for this stoutly built serious looking sober

Dibbawala. Fortunately the railways have given a special reserved compartment to them

next to the guard's cabin on certain suburban trains. Don't be surprised if you happen to

peep into this compartment to see as many as 700 to 800 Tiffin’s!! Humans too.

The Dabbawallas business was founded by Mahadeo Havaji Bacche who inaugurated

TheNutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust´ with a handful of illiterate employees andwithout any

capital investment. "Tiffin" was a nostalgic term used by British for "light food".

However, people call them Dabbawallas as they carry a "Dabba" meaning "box". Almost

5000Dabbawalas deliver and collect more than 200,000 lunch boxes very day, across the

entire Mumbai. The most interesting fact is that these people do not use any modern technology, yet they

have never failed to deliver the lunch boxes on time - irrespective of weather, riots, floods, etc. with an

error coefficient of one in 16,000,000 boxes. This is more than Six Sigma- a quality that most

businesses strive to achieve. A study conducted by Six Sigma concludes that excellent

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efficiency and

reliability is achieved

by the Dabbawallas

through competitive

collaboration with

team members and

efficient management

of logistics. Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a highly specialized trade that

is over a century old and which has become integral to Mumbai's culture.Mumbai Tiffin

Box Suppliers Association is a 120 year old organization operating in Mumbai city, India.

In Mumbai most of the population travel everyday for about 100 kilometers to reach their

work place, and since they tend toleave their residence early in the morning it is hard for

their family members to prepare lunch during such a time, and even if they do prepare it

is very much hard to carry it in the local train since it is too crowded. So it makes sense

for them to hire Dabbawalas to deliver the lunch box at their work place in the afternoon,

fresh and hot. The activity of the Dabbawalas involve collection, sorting, transferring and

delivering the lunch boxes at customers work place and again the process is repeated in

reverse way. They have to deliver 2,00,000 such lunch boxes everyday, and they have

been awarded Six Sigma for their operation, which means that they make one error in

every 16 million transactions. This puts them in the list with MNC’s like GE and

Motorola.

It may sound simple, but it’s not.It is actually a highly specialized trade that has evolved

in its current form over a century and has become integral to Mumbai’s culture. There are

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employees about 5000 in number and deliver approximately 200,000 tiffin boxes every

day.

It all started about 125 years back when a Parasi banker wanted to have home cooked

food regularly in office and gave this responsibility to the first ever Dabbawala. Other

people also liked the idea and the demand for Dabba delivery soared.

It was all informal and individual effort in the beginning, but visionary

MahadeoHavajiBachche saw the opportunity and started the lunch delivery service in its

present team-delivery format with 100 Dabbawalas.

As the city grew, the demand for dabba delivery grew too. Forefathers had the vision to

create the Dabba coding system that’s going on strong even today.

The Coding system evolved through various stages with time. In the beginning it was

simple colour coding. Now Mumbai is a widely spread metro with 3 local train routes.

Our coding has also evolved into alpha numeric characters.

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 LITERATURE REVIEW

Mumbai – the city of dreams and desires has been making a course for progress since the

Britishhad developed the key system of lanes, railroad and structures. Right when the

Britishruled India, the prime business centers were stronghold and billard dock Regions.

These were the spots that have housed banks government workplaces, security houses,

shipping organizations and other current head office, soon private states moved further

far from the fortress zone area and hereafter a significant measure of office goers started

suspecting that its difficult to go home for their lunch from work passing on lunch boxes

was moreover not a favored timetable.

In 1890, a Parsi broker working in ballard dock utilized a young fellow, from Pune local,

to bring his lunch ordinary. An ever increasing number of individuals joined the gathering

through referrals and soon it was taken as a genuine business. As the business developed

the tiffin-conveying business person needed to contract all the more assistance from his

town.

This prompted the releasing of an armed force that even today in the 21st century serves a

huge number of mumbites with same soul and fitness.

Today, 5000 dabbawalas crosswise over Mumbai arrange with each other for getting and

conveying the tiffins for more than 2,00,000 Mumbaites regular in 3 hour time span,

through 60kms of open transport and in extremely uncommon case a tiffin may miss

being on its proprietors lunch table at the lunch hour. The association is extremely a

wonder since it accomplishes an abnormal state of effectiveness and execution with no

documentation, without PCs and without a profoundly instructed workforce. However,

they are a definitive expert of coordinations administration. They have been rehearsing

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center point and talked framework, without a moment to spare strategies, no stock

approach and inventory network administration standards even before these terms were

even instituted. The association take a shot at a 'work is venerate' logic, which is the

customary Indian practice as a result of which they are known as fuel providers and if the

nearby prepare is the life saver of the city then the dabbawalas are the nourishment line.

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 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

 To know about the Mumbai Dabbawala

 To know about the working system of Mumbai Dabbawala.

 To know about the hierarchy of Mumbai Dabbawala.

 To know about the strategies adopted by Mumbai Dabbawala.

 To study the success story of Mumbai Dabbawala.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

a) RESEARCH DESIGN:

A research design is the master plan or model for the conduct of formal investigation and

survey. It is a specification of methods and procedures for acquiring the information

needs for solving the problem. It decides the source of information and methods for

gathering the data. A questionnaire and other forms are tested to use the collection of

data. A sampling design is to be selected.

Good research design ensures that the information obtained is relevant to the research

question and that it was collected by objectives. Since research design is simply the

framework of plan for a study, it should be used as a guide in collecting and analyzing the

data. It is a blueprint that is followed in completing the research study.

The major objective of the descriptive research is to describe something – usually market

features or functions. It requires a clear specification of the who, what, when, where,

why, & the way (the 6 Ws) of the research. Our 6 Ws are:

 Who: Who should be considered for the research?

 What: What is the investment pattern of the respondent in equity or

commodity?
 When: When should the information be obtained from the respondent?
 Where: Where the respondents should be contacted to obtain the required

Information?
 Why: Why are we obtaining the information from the respondents?
 Way: In what way we are going to obtain the information from the respondents?

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b) SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
The samples were selected through

Purposive Sampling: The first phase of selecting the sample was done by this method as

the sample was specified.

Stratified sampling: This type of sampling is done by dividing the heterogeneous

sample into different groups called strata. Here one stratum is the consumer and staff of

Dominos and Pizza Hut in Lucknow.

SAMPLE SIZE: Total sample comprised of 100 Dabbawalas.

PERIOD OF STUDY: 6 weeks

c) SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION:

In this research, I have used two types of data.

 Primary Source.
 Secondary Source.

Primary source includes:-

 Discussion with Dabbawalas

 Discussion with experts

 Discussion with customers.

 Data collected from questionnaire.

Secondary source includes:-

 Various books related to Mumbai Dabbawala.

 Books related to story of Mumbai Dabbawala.

 Web sites were used as the vital information source

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d) TYPE OF DATA COLLECTION

The present study was designed to assess the case study of Mumbai Dabbawala.

i. LOCALE OF STUDY: The study was carried out with Mumbai Dabbawal

association members.
ii. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION: The following criteria were observed for the

selection of the respondents-

 Heterogeneous of sample: the respondents belong to different socioeconomic

background that is in case of people belonging to different group.

 Easy accessibility- due to similarity of the work area of half of the total

population.

iii. PRIMARY DATA:

Questionnaire method was chosen for fulfillment of basic objective. The primary

sources were Mumbai Dabbawalas & their customers.

iv. SECONDARY DATA:

 Internet

 Magazine and Newspapers.

 Dealer price with other companies

e) STATISTICAL TOOL USED:-

There are number of tools that could be used for collecting data depending on the nature

of study. Questionnaire- cum- interview method was employed for collection of data.

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 FINDINGS

1. The Dabbawallas association is an outstanding example of proficient Logistics

and Supply Chain Management.

2. Corporates and scholars ought to make note of their working by keeping in mind

the end goal to comprehend their one of a most unique structure and process.

3. Today the Dabbawallas have respected the utilization of web innovation just to

increase their client base and nothing more.

4. Numerous fast food chains and lodgings in the city will dependably be rivaling

the Dabbawallas yet their trust of disappointment of Dabbawallas framework may

never emerge.

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 LIMITATIONS

 This report incorporates sincere efforts to submit the best possible dossier on the topic

assigned because no study can be perfect. There are bound to be limitations that I

faced and within which I had to work.

 The data used in most part of the report is secondary data, it has inherent discrepancy.

 Some of the respondents were not completely aware of its products and track record.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITE:

 www.myDabbawala.com

 www.expertbase.org

 www.scribd.com

 www.mumbaidabbawala.org

 www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 www.Wiki/Dabbawala.org

INTERVIEW:

 Dabbawalas

 Mr. Pawan .G. Agarwal (CEO of MTBSA)

Book:

 Dabbawala of Mumbai By Pawan.G. Agarwal

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