Dabbawalla
Natarajan Chakrapani
Great At Work : The Dabbawallas of Mumbai
In the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, India , lies , as the Guardian puts it – “perhaps the most ingenious” food delivery system in the world. The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin box Suppliers Association (NMTBSA) comprise about 5000 tiffin-‐lunch carriers(dabba wallas) who deliver 2 million lunch boxes from a customer’s home to their offices with a six sigma accuracy (i.e 1 error in six million deliveries) . All this in three hours, weaving in and out of the heavy workday traffic in Mumbai. While fast food delivery chains over-‐complicate their menu in order to lure customers, the dabbawallas essentially focus on a service aimed to deliver home-‐ cooked happiness to their customers. The workers also take pride in their social mission of letting their customers enjoy home cooked food, thereby sparing them of the harm that eating junk/restaurant food may cause.
The term “dabba walla” alludes to the boxes/tiffins (dabbas) that these workers(delivery men) carry.This organization is on a simple quest to deliver lunch boxes to its customers on time. Their ability to focus on this seemingly simple task is achieved
Great At Work : The Dabbawallas of Mumbai
In the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, India , lies , as the Guardian puts it – “perhaps the most ingenious” food delivery system in the world. The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin box Suppliers Association (NMTBSA) comprise about 5000 tiffin-‐lunch carriers(dabba wallas) who deliver 2 million lunch boxes from a customer’s home to their offices with a six sigma accuracy (i.e 1 error in six million deliveries) . All this in three hours, weaving in and out of the heavy workday traffic in Mumbai. While fast food delivery chains over-‐complicate their menu in order to lure customers, the dabbawallas essentially focus on a service aimed to deliver home-‐ cooked happiness to their customers. The workers also take pride in their social mission of letting their customers enjoy home cooked food, thereby sparing them of the harm that eating junk/restaurant food may cause.
The term “dabba walla” alludes to the boxes/tiffins (dabbas) that these workers(delivery men) carry.This organization is on a simple quest to deliver lunch boxes to its customers on time. Their ability to focus on this seemingly simple task is achieved
References: Natarajan Chakrapani http://www.slideshare.net/targetseo/mumbais-dabbawalas-amazingmanagement-success-story-india http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/zCjPfpkfjnDtIHyjJoSNoK/The-TiffinHistory-of-Mumbai.html http://www.scribd.com/doc/86467725/37030310-Mumbai-Dabbawala http://m.indianexpress.com/news/%22tiffin-story%22/848120/ http://specials.rediff.com/money/2005/nov/11spec.htm http://ivaravi.wordpress.com/profiles/what-you-can-learn-from-adabbawalla/ http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/sports/181274-what-harvard-is-learningfrom-the-mumbai-dabbawalas.html