Who are Dabbawala | Mumbai Dabbawala management lesson | Case study - Nations Story

Mumbai Dabbawala Six Sigma | Management case study

Dabbawala

People say that Mumbai never stops but you might not know there is also an workaholic army in Mumbai which neither gets tired nor it stops. An army of 5000 people with Gandhi Topi in head..Its said that if these army is not there in Mumbai, the flow of Mumbai will slow down. They are known as Dabbawala,who are engaged in serving Mumbai for last 128 years.

Who are Dabbawala ?

Dabbawala are considered to be those people who pick up the tiffin boxes in late morning and deliver it predominantly using bicycles and railway trains to the owners of the tiffins in offices and return it empty in the afternoon. Its a cycle which takes 6 hours to complete. Don't mistake them to be caters they carry your tiffin box from your house and deliver it in office before lunch time and again in the evening they bring it back to your house. For doing these the Dabbawalas charge only 350 rupees per month to every customer.

Why is Dabbawala needed in Mumbai ?

Mumbai is a busy city where people going out for work in offices don't find it easy to carry tiffin boxes because of the huge crowd in the trains. So, Dabbawalas are the one who takes the responsibility of making the tiffin boxes reach to its respective owner at the time of lunch break and later they bring it back to the place from where it was bought. They are an army of 5000 people working to make 2 lakhs tiffin boxes or more reach its destination. An estimated figure says that one Dabbawala carries about 40 tiffin boxes in the head which needs a huge energy and stamina.`

Dabbawalas carrying Tiffins

How do the Dabbawalas manage to do so without any error ?

Each Dabbawala carries 40 tiffin boxes and there has been no error or wrong shipment of tiffin boxes in last 128 years in delivering it, despite of most of them being illiterate or maximum 8^th class pass. Looking at the Dabbawalas management style, there working process and the strategy even Price Charles of England, The owner of Virgin Group Richard Branson came to meet them and applauded them for the work culture they have developed and the level of dedication they deliver to there work. The top universities in world along with the IIM,s discuss the case studies of Dabbawalas. The Dabbawalas got Six Sigma Certification (i.e. 1 error in 16 million Transaction) even without applying for it along with ISO certification without applying for it.

What should we learn from Dabbawalas ?

1. Time Management : 

One of biggest lesson that one should learn from a Dabbawala is time management because even if it rains or there is flood or there is train strike, the Dabbawalas will pick the tiffin in the morning at fixed time and returns the tiffin at fixed time in the house. Its a cycle of 6 hours where in first 3 hours they pick the tiffin from the house and deliver it in offices and in the last 3 hours they carry the empty tiffins from the offices to the requisite houses. Its seen that they never cross the time limit and are always punctual, they follow the time management routine very nicely. This is the reason they started from 1 tiffin and have  reached to 2 lakhs tiffins shipment today . Similarly, if we look in our life the loop we have is of time management. Every one of us get 24 hours in a day, the one who learns how to manage time, they will win the game of managing studies, relations, career and business which will enable them to get better return and help them to prosper. So, until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.

Statue of Dabbawala

2. Discipline: 

Every company when it hires its employees they access they look for all the things they require in a person for the particular post. Similarly, Dabbawalas not only access its own employees but they also regularly access its customer. For them discipline is so important that they only stay for 4 minutes in front of the house for receiving the tiffin if the owner of tiffin crosses the time limit they keep a note on it and if it is frequently being done they stop giving service to them. Mostly its seen that people respect there discipline and they prepare the tiffin and keep it ready before the Dabbawalas arrive. Now if we look at our life, discipline can help us to decrease our stress which later help us to work in accordance to plane, stay focused, concentrated and leads to increase in productivity.

Dabbawala in front of house

3. Stay True to your purpose : 

Since 128 years Dabbawalas are engaged in same kind of work, which is to deliver the home made food at offices. This is the reason they are able improve there business and make a big business model. Its seen that most of the businesses today fail because they start working outside of the core purpose whereby they start loosing there uniqueness, credibility, and reputation instead of working on there goals and objectives. Just because the Dabbawalas were working on the business model to focus in only one point, they got the Six Sigma Certification which means the error ratio in there work is 1 in 16 million transaction just imagine ? So we must take the lesson from Dabbawalas that if we start a work we should focus on the core purpose and stick to the objective.

4. Love your Job:

Just like the Dabbawalas who love there work very much, we also should choose a profession that is related to our values and passion because when we do any work with passion we start loving that work and in the end we get success.

5. Team Work:

The success of Dabbawalas is because of the team work they do everyday in order to perform there duty. Every one in the group is the owner of the company,so its seen there is no strike of workers since its existence. Same as if we also start working in team we can do any job in very easy manner. If we start learning from each other and start helping each other we can reach the heights of success filled with accomplishments.

        At last I will love to hear from my readers what do they think on the Dabbawalas contribution to the society for the service they are offering for such a low price in the comment section below. Don't forget to Subscribe and Share with  your friends and in social media about the Dabbawalas.