Dr.

Pawan Agrawal has taken Mumbai’s semi-literate dabbawalas, suburban trains,

and packed home food (tiffins) to a global case study on Six Sigma. He is the author of
‘Dabbawala of Mumbai : Masters of Supply Chain Management’. He has done a case
study on the dabbawala’s logistics and supply chain management efforts and has made
more than 200 presentations in India and abroad.

YourStory captures parts of his speech at IIT-Delhi at the E-Summit, 2012. An adapted
version of the speech is presented here.
The food is cooked at home. Tiffin is yours. They [dabbawalas] will simply deliver it from
your home to your workplace before lunch time and deliver the empty tiffin box back in
the evening at your home as well. Why would you want dabbawala to carry your tiffin?
There are two reasons. One is that the Mumbai local trains have lines extending 60-70
km and two, they are crowded. If you have to reach office at 9, you must start at 6. But
you wouldn’t want to wake your loved ones at 5 and have them prepare the tiffin for you;
that’s where Dabbawala can help you. Another reason is that even if you start at 8, you
won’t be able to carry your own tiffin because of how crowded the trains are. So, for
these two reasons, Dabbawala has been in the business [of carrying your home
food to your office] for the last 120 years. Some 9-10 months back, some corporate
people sent me an email. What are the takeaways from your session? I said, “What
takeaways yaar, I’ll give away whatever you want to take away.” Then I decided, yes,
my takeaways are passion, commitment, consistency, 100% execution, accuracy,
dedication, time management and customer satisfaction. These qualities are there in
every dabbawala, in all 5000 of them. These are in-built qualities that everybody can
have. I don’t think the IITs and IIMs can teach these things. I think entrepreneurs must
possess these qualities. The belief is that customer may be King but he is also God.
There is no alternative to hardwork and importance of human values. If these principles
are followed, you will be unbeatable.

There’s a group of people called Varkari Sampradaya in Maharashtra; they are the
devotees of Lord Vitthala and there’s a place called Pandharpur, the town of the temple
of Vitthala. When they go to that place, they wear a ‘tulasi mala’. And when a person
wears this mala, he will never drink or smoke because Lord Vitthala doesn’t like it and
the same principle is brought into practice here. Dabbawalas feel that their customer is
their Lord Vitthala. These people are poor, they are working in difficult situations, they
are not qualified and they don’t use technology, and yet, they possess all these qualities
and work with passion and commitment.

Dabawala was started in 1890 by one Mr. Mahadeo Havaji Bachche. He was once
asked by a Parsi working in the Britisher’s rank, “Will you bring my tiffin from my home?”
He simply answered “Yes, I will, no problem.” From that day onwards, he started to
collect tiffins from homes and delivering them to the respective workplaces. In 1890,
there was one dabbawala and one customer, and now, there are 5000 dabbawalas and
200,000 customers, which means, one dabbawala carries approximately 40 tiffins. The
maximum weight comes to 65-70kg; carrying that much weight in the crowded local
trains is a lot of hard work. Why do they do it then? Work is worship. And, as far as
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qualification is concerned, you will see that the average literacy rate is 8 grade
schooling; which means the dabbawalas are illiterate and yet they have managed to
achieve a Six Sigma quality rating, which means only one wrong service in a 6 million
deliveries.

Ownership is a feeling that an employee has to instill in oneself, and unless you get that
feeling of ownership you cannot work excellently. In 120 years, it has never happened
that a dabbawala has failed to deliver. It’s impossible. They will never tell you that
“the trains are late today,” and even if Mumbai trains are late, the tiffins can’t be late.
The dabbawala knows that if he’s not going in time, his customer will eat outside food,
pay money for it and waste time. The dabbawala knows the consequences of going
late. So he always goes on time. The people of Mumbai say with confidence that “our
lunch can go wrong but not the Mumbai dabbawalas.” So nobody can stop you from
being punctual. In a lot of institutes, I have found that there are a number of teachers, a
number of professors, who always come late because, according to me, they decide to
go late. Time is very important and it is possible to be punctual if you have a strong
structure. Dabbawalas don’t know the meaning of structure. Let me speak about
(mukadal) group leaders. A group has 10, 20, or 25 dabbawallas, depending on the
density of customers in your area, and their in-charge is the group leader. The
responsibility to keep the dabbawalas and the customers happy is on the group leader.
Despite the fact that he doesn’t get even a rupee extra for the extra10% that he works,
he feels proud to be a group leader. For example, the group leader also takes care of
the train passes of the dabbawalas, to check whether they have expired or not; he
reminds the dabbawalas in case their passes are about to expire in the next 2-3 days
and also buys the pass for the dabbawala if he fails to do so himself in order to ensure
that timely delivery doesn’t suffer. I will tell you an instance of how one dabbawala
performs duty in one day. He collects 40 tiffins from a particular area and drops them in
the Vile Parle railway station because his customer is from Vile Parle. He can’t deliver
all of them because he would have to go all over Mumbai, so he leaves these 40 there.
That’s his first job. His second job is to collect 35-40 tiffins from his group leader and
deliver them to Dadar. His third job is to deliver 30 tiffins to Chavani Road, and in the
fourth job from Chavani Road, he delivers 30 tiffins to Churchgate. His fifth job is to go
from Church Gate to deliver 30 tiffins to NarimanPoint. Finally, in his sixth job, he
delivers 30 tiffins to Express Tower to the customers before lunch time and after lunch,
he will reroute back to his original area and deliver the same tiffins from where he had
collected them. After all this, Forbes has found 1 erroneous delivery out of 6 million
deliveries, but they don’t accept that either. They are unhappy that that one error has
occurred.

Twelve years ago, some people from Delhi came to Dabbawala and said they want to
do research on Dabbawala; they prepared a project and went back to Delhi.They called
after 3 months and informed Dabbawala about Six Sigma. Dabbawalas didn’t know
what it meant. They told Dabbawala it was a big honour so Dabbawala asked them to
send it across. They were told to go to Delhi and collect it. Sixteen dabbawalas went to
Delhi to collect the Six Sigma certification. People work so hard for Three and Four
Sigma but dabbawalas got Six Sigma because they didn’t care about the
certification and cared only about customer satisfaction. It is a big achievement
especially without the use of technology. Even if the dabbawalas use technology in the
form of mobile phones, they can’t because both their hands are used in delivering tiffins.
Technology is useless for them for delivery. And after all this, they charge only 400
rupees per month for delivery. So, I asked one dabbawala why they charge so less. He
said his customers are poor. I asked him how much he earns; he said Rs 6000-7000 or
Rs 8000-9000 a month. If they want more income, they work extra. Dabbawala then
gave me an example of a teacher, who earns only Rs 5000 per month as a government
rule. He said, “Despite the teacher’s double graduation, I earn more than him, so I’m
happy.” When students and parents come to our institute, the first question they ask is
about placements. And everyone, including me, lie when they say 100% placements.
Their second question is about the package. I say 20 lakhs. That’s it. They would have
decided based solely on the package. There was a student I met once, who had a
package of 11 lakhs, but he didn’t take it up because he was looking for 12 lakhs. I was
shocked. I always advise students, when you get a job, commit yourself completely to
that organization, that company, and they’ll pay you what you want. Industry people
taught me two words: attrition and retention. Dabbawalas have a 0% attrition rate and a
100% retention rate, because they believe that work is worship. For example, some
customers refuse to pay bonus, but the dabbawalas don’t disrupt their services. So I
asked one of them why, he said, “the customer is my God, he has paid me 12 months’
of salary so it’s ok if he doesn’t pay me one month’s bonus.” Despite the disputes there
has never been a police or a court case. Every 15 days they have a meeting. The
disputing dabbawalas resolve their disputes and if they can’t, the president takes a call
and they follow his judgment without questioning. Dabbawalas feel satisfied. I asked
one customer, what he thinks about the dabbawalas. He said, “Excellent. When I get my
salary I am afraid of carrying it in the local train because it’s so crowded and I can get
robbed so instead, after I have lunch, I put the money in the empty dabba and send to
my wife.” Dabbawalas are very honest. If you do services consistently and with
discipline, then the customer, at some point of time, will believe that you are God.

In one day, one dabbawala handles 500 tiffins. There is a 79-year-old man who is a
dabbawala, nobody’s forcing him, but he still works because he thinks he can still
provide service to his customers. The dabbawalas use bicycles. Another thing is the
coding system; about 100 years ago, they were using colour codes. Then when Mumbai
grew and the number of customers increased, they started using alphabets; A for
Andheri, B for Bandra, etc. And today, they write a proper code with details of the
source, destination and all the dabbawalas involved in that particular delivery. When this
tiffin is coded and then washed, sometimes the coding becomes unclear, so the
dabbawala takes colour out of his pocket and overwrites the code. He doesn’t complain
about it, he just finishes the job. Due to the overcrowded Mumbai local trains, some
people enter the luggage department, and when they do, the tiffins stick to their heads.
So they start fighting with the dabbawalas and the dabbawalas also fight with them but
only till the station arrives, because after that they’re more interested in the delivery.
They use carts for longer distances. In running local trains, they sort the tiffins to save
time. Risk is there, but it’s there everywhere. You must work with the situation. For
example, they lost some income and customers because of some instances. In 1969,
customers stopped taking food. In 1975, there was a railway strike; the dabbawalas lost
one month’s income. In 1982, 40,000 meal workers went on strike. Till today they’re on
strike. A lot of people lost their lives. Dabbawalas have gone through all this and come
out shining. They have been featured on multiple channels and have been awarded
multiple awards. These 50 Indians have influenced Mumbai: Tata, Birla, Ambani,
Thakarey, Sharukh Khan, Amitabh Bachhan and Mumbai Dabbawala. Somebody took a
survey in Mumbai about the likes of people, and Dabbawala was one of them. I am not
a Dabbawala. I’m not involved in any of the operations at all. I have done a Ph.D. on
this subject and my topic was ‘A study of logistics in supply chain management of
Dabbawala in Mumbai.’ It took a lot of years to complete my Ph.D. But, two days into
the research, I was taken aback by the passion of these people. I decided to do the
research whether or not I complete my Ph.D. Prince Charles came to Mumbai in 2003.
Six months before his visit, Mr. Jeetendra Jain, in the British Council of India, contacted
dabbawala to arrange a visit. Dabbawala first refused and then, after realizing that
Prince Charles is Britain’s royalty in the manner of a king, he agreed, but, with two
conditions. First one was that Prince Charles should come at the Dabbawala’s
convenience -- between 11 and 11.40 because that’s when they’re free. Second, Prince
Charle must go to Dabbawala himself. Where to? The footpath. Prince Charles
accepted these conditions. Richard Branson came to Mumbai. He wanted a photo with
Dabbawala to put it up in his office in London to send a message to his employees to
work like Dabbawalas. That’s the impact of Mumbai Dabbawala. There was an
inauguration of a book written by Shobha Bondre. This was inaugurated by the then
Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh. The chief minister said that for
every program he goes an hour late but for a dabbawala program he came 5 minutes
early because he was scared that if he came late the Dabbawalas will go away. I feel
very proud to have written a book called Masters of Supply Chain Management on the
dabbawalas. In London, I delivered a speech. There were 240 executives from all over
the world. Because I was Indian, they displayed saris all over the auditorium to show the
impact of Indian culture on them. I was asked one question, suppose my customer was
on the moon, how will the Dabbawalas deliver the tiffin? I said if the moon is in Mumbai,
they will, because they’re the Mumbai Dabbawalas. When Prince Charles got married,
only three Indians were invited, out of which, two were Dabbawalas. When it was the
th
26 of July, we were flooded with water. Prince Charles called Dabbawala and said
that he and his country are with them. That’s the kind of impact the Dabbawalas have.
I wanted the Dabbawalas to learn computers and English. They didn’t want to learn, so I
got a wooden local train and put PCs inside and now they take classes. Similarly, for
English. So friends, make use of your qualifications with an aim of serving, not yourself,
but your family and other people.

Packed, delivered to perfection: How Mumbai’s Dabbawalas have been feeding

city for 125 years

The Dabbawalla service is now a Rs40-45-crore industry, with 5,000 delivery men transporting

2,00,000 lunch boxes daily for an average monthly fee of Rs450 a box

MUMBAI Updated: Apr 18, 2017 19:31 IST

Sadaguru Pandit
Hindustan Times
A dabbawala sorts tiffin boxes at Lower Parel on Monday. The Rs40-45-crore industry, with

5,000 delivery men, transports 2,00,000 lunch boxes daily.(Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)
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In the 1890s, a Parsi banker from Mumbai’s old business district, Fort, wanted home-cooked

lunch delivered to his office, and so, he employed a young man to get his tiffin every afternoon.

Over the years, that one-man tiffin service grew into a Mumbai institution, which has endured

time and trends. Today, the Dabbawalla’s of Mumbai are a case study for management students

at several institutes across the world.

“There was a dearth of an effective system that would ensure that home-made meals reached the

table tops of office goers,” said Subhash Talekar, general secretary, Mumbai Dabbawalla

Association, talking about the initial days.

The Fort banker probably paid a few annas a month to get his tiffin box delivered, but the

Dabbawalla service is now a Rs40-45-crore industry, with 5,000 delivery men transporting

2,00,000 lunch boxes daily for an average monthly fee of Rs450 a box. The Dabbawallas do this

with great efficiency, earning a near six-sigma perfection of one error per 16 million deliveries.
How did the service survive, amid the competition of online food delivery applications and

without any technological developments or marketing? The answer: The craving for inexpensive

home-cooked food.

“Mumbai being the city of corporates and office goers, not everybody can afford to eat out,

economically or health wise. The value of home cooked food is paramount and thus we, who

deliver it, become equally important,” said Talekar.

“Our customers have to catch early morning trains and it is not possible for people at home to

cook food so early. We just pick up lunch boxes from their homes and deliver them at the lunch

time at the office,” said another Dabbawalla.

Illustration by Shrikrishna Patkar

The perfect delivery of Dabbawalas

o The dabbawala service started 125 years ago, when a Parsi

banker said he wanted regular home-cooked meals delivered

to his office in Fort, south Mumbai

 o Dabbawalas reportedly have a six-sigma accuracy level,

which means only one mistake is made every 16 million

deliveries.

o Several management experts across the globe use Mumbai

dabbawalas as a case study, citing their near-perfect

managerial operations

o The system that was developed in the 1890’s continues

today, with a few modifications that have helped dabbawalas

facilitate the identification and delivery of their tiffins

o More than 2 lakh dabbas are delivered daily Service charges

vary, depending on the customer’s location and the distance

covered.

o The average cost is around Rs 450. This covers the distance

from homes spread over distant suburbs such as Virar and

Kalyan to south Mumbai

The tiffin delivery men use another Mumbai icon – the suburban trains – to ensure that the lunch
boxes reach their destinations on time. The three railway lines – Western, Central and Harbour –
that link 70 stations, ensure that the lunch boxes travel from the farthest northern suburbs to the
business areas on the southern tip of the city within a maximum of two hours.
The tiffin delivery men, most of who come from villages around Pune, are from the Maratha
community and like to think of themselves as the soldiers of Maratha king, Shivaji. While the
soldiers negotiated a rough countryside, the Dabbawallas pride themselves on “deliver on time”,
never mind Mumbai’s heat or floods. “We are Mavla’s, strongmen of king Shivaji, what will
happen to us?” asks one of them when asked if they face any issues delivering in extreme
weather conditions.

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The Dabbawallas believe that the tradition, which is now into its third generation, is likely to
continue despite new job opportunities and modern food delivery systems. “The tiffin service is a
business of repute, since we are not working under anyone. It is our own business. Moreover, the
individuals, whom the society refers to as ‘zero’ owing to their poor educational qualifications,
we make them ‘heroes’ because they earn as much as a learned graduate,” said Talekar. “We
never kept our knowledge or profession a secret. Whoever wanted to learn, we trained them, but
I think the profession is meant for this city.”

With increasing publicity, the Dabbawallas are also getting different opportunities apart from
just delivering tiffin. Recently, an e-commerce company chose them for the last-mile
connectivity. The Mumbai Dabbawalla Association made 60 motorbikes available for those who
wanted to earn extra.

Another association, Mumbai Dabbawallas, is offering seminars, presentation and workshops,

giving an insight into the 125-year-old tradition. The group also provides an on-ground learning
experience through a three-hour, ‘A Day with Mumbai Dabbawalla’, session that is very popular
among the management trainees from different business schools across the globe.

“We have been getting many requests from not only India, but many foreign countries to
personally interact and understand the working of Dabbawallas. They want to accompany us
through the sorting process and in local trains,” said a member from the group.

The Dabbawallas deliver more than just lunch boxes. They also deliver social messages and give
their support for different causes. “We condemn the illegal custody of Kulbhushan Jadhav and
demand his immediate release,” a message that will be delivered by the 5,000 Dabbawallas of
Mumbai on Tuesday morning.