Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9

Section 2 Group 9
Ankit Agarwal 1311285
Ankur Bansal 1311151
Anup C. Unnithan 1311134
Gireesh Gera 1311088
Samir Jain 1311325
Vivek Vineet 1311138
The Efficient Supply Chain by Dabbawallas in Mumbai
& The Feasibility of Implementing similar Model in Bangalore
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Need of Dabbawalas in Bangalore
Market exists and opportunity to start service in Bangalore city
Indias 3
rd
largest city and 5
th
largest
metropolitan area, population of 1 cr
US $10 billion economy, and 2
nd

fastest growing economy in India
Proliferated by many corporate centres:
Software Technology Parks of India
(STPI); International Tech Park,
Bangalore (ITPB); and Electronics
City, UB City, etc.
Apart from IT, many other industries like
aerospace, aviation, automobiles,
heavy manufacturing, etc.
Huge immigrant working population in
IT sector in addition to regional
workforce
Karnataka State Road Transport
Corporation operates 6,918 buses on
6,352 schedules
Bangalore The Silicon Valley of India
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
UNDERSTANDING MUMBAI
DABBAWALAS
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
The Mumbai Story (1/4)
The stellar growth of Dabbawala in Mumbai offers multiple learnings
1890, started with
100 men
1956, registered as
Nutan Mumbai Tiffin
Box Suppliers Trust
1968, Mumbai Tiffin
Box Suppliers
Association
Today, Dabbawala
Foundation,
Employs ~5000 men and
delivers 2 lakh tiffins
everyday
ISO 9001:2000 Certified
Majority of
Dabbawalas
Illiterate
0%
Investment
Fuel
0% Modern
Technology
Minimal
Investment
99.99%
Performance
100%
Customer
Satisfaction
T
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E

S
A
L
I
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N
T

F
E
A
T
U
R
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S

A
W
A
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D
S

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
The Mumbai Story (2/4)
The activity sequence in supply chain is strictly time bound to ensure efficiency
8:30 AM
Dabbawala reaches the
clients home to pick up
the Dabba
9:20 AM
Dabbawala completes
Dabba pick-up and is at
collection point
9:30 AM 10:20 AM
Dabbas taken to
aggregation point and
sorted
10:30 AM 11:20 AM
Dabbas taken to
destination station by
local train
11:20 AM 12:30 PM
Dabbas unloaded,
sorted and finally
delivered
1:15 PM 2:30 PM
Dabbawalas collect
Dabbas and meet at
destination station
2:40 PM 3:30 PM
Return journey to
aggregation point
3:30 PM 4:00 PM
Sorting of Dabbas at
aggregation point
4:00 PM onwards
Empty Dabbas delivered
back to the households
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
The Functioning
Executive Committee
13 member team-elected for five years
Works towards organization effectiveness & iron out
differences
No salary based on rank
Mukadams
More experienced dabawallahs
Lead a team of 20-30; train new recruits
Manage customer relations & subscriptions
Dabawallah
5000 odd member who collect and deposit dabbas
200,000 customers served per day

Salient Features
All the dabawallah belong to same community- pride of being annadata
New Customers attained by referrals
Each Dabawallah brings in capital of INR 5000 while joining
Frequent feedback sessions and performance evaluation
The Mumbai Story (3/4)
The Organization is highly customer centric & has evolved with best practices
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Certain features, special to the
supply chain, contribute to success
The Hub & Spoke model is well suited
to transport infra. in Mumbai
No use of Information Technology

Fuel efficient logistics & transportation

Employee is a stakeholder

Focus on discipline & time management

Co-ordination with all stakeholders

Amicable dispute resolution

Simplified coding system


The Mumbai Story (4/4)
Supply chain in Mumbai has 6-sigma efficiency
BVI Aggregation Point; Borivali
E Resident Station pick-up group code
Jain Name of customer (optional)
5 Destination Station code
9 RC 14 Destination pick-up code, Building, Floor
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
HOW TO START IN BANGALORE?
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Comparison of Bangalore and Mumbai
Mumbai is stretched from North to South vs Bangalore which is spread out
Mumbai Train Routes Bangalore Bus Routes
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Comparison of Bangalore and Mumbai
Challenges facing Bangalore
Presence of robust rail network in Mumbai
Bangalore doesnt have well established city
trains
City trains have many benefits:
Run on time Low variability
Are not affected by traffic
Run in all weather conditions
impacted a bit during monsoons
Easily slide trays of tiffin boxes to train
floor

Bangalore Metro
Network length to go from 11 km currently to
90 km by 2016
Even with full network, various challenges
with Metro:
Expensive tickets as compared to bus
Time taken to reach platform from
entrance
Security checks for the entire shipment


Road network in Bangalore
Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation
operates 6,918 buses on 6,352 schedules
Challenges with buses:
Space to keep tiffin boxes Mumbai
trains have luggage compartments
Lifting of heavy boxes to buses luggage
compartments/rooftops??

Nature of Demand
Office demand spread out in the entire city
sparsely populated offices
Immigrant population (IT sector): More
shipments from messes/canteens than homes

Ability to Imitate
Mumbai Dabbawalas is 125 years old and
works on community based network with strong
values and ethics
Difficult to imitate this and bring the culture in
Bangalore

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Adapting model to Bangalore MODEL A
Reducing sorting and aggregation time to compensate for increased travel time
Travel Time:
It will take about 90 minutes on an average (twice that of Mumbai) to travel on buses from
aggregation point to destination hub
Thus there is a need to cut time on other activities

Corporate Hubs:
There are 4-5 major corporate parks which can be targeted practically and with higher service
levels. These will act as destination hubs (vs >30 hub railway stations in Mumbai)

Aggregation Points: Have more number of aggregation points in Bangalore vs Mumbai
Hundreds of bus routes in Bangalore as compared to Mumbai north-south route
More number of aggregation points will reduce aggregation time, thus compensating for the
increased travel time in Bangalore
Workers will carry tiffin boxes in buses, and carry less number of boxes, i.e.15 as compared to
30 in Mumbai to the 4-5 destination hubs



Whitefield
Destination
Hub
Office Area 1
Office Area 2
Office Area 3
Aggregation
Point 1
Aggregation
Point 2
1
2
3
4
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Hub and scope model with 4-5 hubs in corporate parks
Using road network in Bangalore and focusing on few destination hubs
Whitefield
Koramangala
Electronics City
+ UB City, etc.
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Ring Road Model MODEL B
Using high speed network on ring roads to pickup and drop tiffins
Network of pickup/drop centers on the
Outer Ring Road

Using trucks carrying tiffins to run on
the ring road at high speeds

Tiffins kept in designated positions in
the trucks

Workers carry the tiffins to the
pick/drop centres and then carry back
the arrived tiffins to be distributed
back

Network of workers per pickup/drop
point designated to various areas in
the city

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Future Challenges & Road Ahead (1/2)
Governmental support required to address issues
Lack of infrastructure growth
Population of Mumbai has grown at 18%
yoy in last 10 years
1.5 times the rate of growth in other metros
Majority growth came from working class
immigrants who are prime customers of
dabbawalas
Increase in customers demands increase in
dabbawalas

Increase in alternative high paying jobs
attracting dabbawalas
The attrition rate is increasing as per our
interviews
Difficult to find local new recruits
Training costs for recruits outside Mumbai
far higher
Manpower shortage
Growth rate of infrastructure not in tandem
with increasing traffic
Research indicates an increase of 14% (avg)
time for same distance travel
Local trains traffic has increased by 21% -
may lead to spillovers & delay in delivery
Faster modes of transport like motorbike will
add additional operational & capex expenses
which customers may not wish to pay

Growth in sub-urban areas:
Faster growth in sub-urban areas but
transport infrastructure to reach there not
adequate





Municipal Corp. should reserve a coach for dabbawalas
in every local train to facilitate timely delivery
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Future Challenges & Road Ahead (2/2)
Governmental support required to address issues
Lack of easy replicability
Increase in number of food chains near
offices
Rise of canteens in offices at subsidized
rates may hamper the customer base
Increase in low-fat, healthy chains a major
threat
Increase in office delivery by restaurants

Increase in number of working spouses
Due to high cost of living, many spouses are
taking up jobs

Changes in tastes of young customers
towards restaurants
Threat from substitutes
Model not easily replicable in other cities
Low cost transport system not very active in
other cities compared to Mumbai
Increase in IT hubs far from city increases
costs of delivery
Infrastructure growth rate not keeping pace
with population growth rate leading to higher
delivery times

Cultural issues
Inculcating values among dabbawalas
similar to the Mumbai guys is a very difficult
task





Subsidized travel tickets for dabbawalas & exponential
growth in transport infrastructure required
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Learnings from the Masters (1/2)
Keep things simple, maintain discipline & closely monitor activities
Closely monitor supply chain
Dabbawalas work with minimalistic
technology

Rely more on hard work & planning

Do not need to communicate with each
other to understand how process is
running. The local train timings are used for
this purpose.

Companies need to understand that
well-defined processes backed by
flawless execution is more important
than just technology



High technology is not the answer
Dabbawalas are always aware if anyone is
not adhering to the time

Failure to deliver on time results in other
dabbawalas filling in by foregoing lunch.
Segregation at station helps in
understanding who is late

Large supply chains might result in delay of
transmission of information from one end to
another end, leading to bull whip effect

Central information system necessary to
monitor the entire process

Cohesive effort of team members very important in
execution to achieve six sigma accuracy
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Group 9
Learnings from the Masters (2/2)
Keep things simple, maintain discipline & closely monitor activities
Follow the single goal of
delivering the dabbas on time.

No ego clashes between the
workers as people understand
the importance of each link in
the chain

Companies need to have a
common goal for the entire
chain to work towards

Treat each link in the chain
with respect. However, no one
should become more
important than the goal

Sum of parts more
important than parts
Low variety, discipline & clarity of goal are key factors
for a business aiming high faster delivery
The dabbawalas have strict
rules that are followed
religiously

Self pride key to success
dabbawalas consider
themselves as annadaata

Only when each link is
disciplined, can the other links
work in a disciplined manner

Dedication & discipline
key to success
Flat organization structure
highly suited to dabbawalas.
Autonomy to each worker

Minimal information used to
transport dabbas. Using
similar dabbas reduces
mistakes due to variety

Organization structure should
be simple and should allow
for quick response

Low variety is very important
for a business model based
on on-time delivery
Keep things simple