1. What is the basis for the success of the Dabbawallahs of Mumbai? What factors need to be in place for a service like the dabbawallahs to work effectively? Basis for the success of Dabbawallahs: Low cost delivery
Clients typically paid between Rs.150 and Rs. 200 per month for delivery depending upon the route and the geographical distance travelled by the dabbawallah. These prices were very much lower, if a courier company were to be involved in this business. The prices charged to the customer were fixed based on first, the pickup location and the second was time required for delivery. Delivery Reliability
The service reliability of dabbawallahs was rooted in the following factors. a. They considered themselves as entrepreneurs, not employees. They had never gone on strike. b. There were not governed by a hierarchy that defined working relationships in terms of a boss and subordinates. c. They lived and worked in clans. d. Each dabbawallah was solely responsible for the delivery for his 30 to 35 clients. Decentralization
The group structure allowed for independent operations. Each group maintained its own records of revenue and expenditure, serviced its own pool of customers, and managed its own system of billing, collection and expenditure allocation. Each group was also responsible for generating and distributing the monthly revenue among its members, resolving dispute on its own and acquiring new customers. Decentralization had been instrumental to building cohesion within each group, and operational autonomy helped to provide focus on delivery effectiveness and improvement. Perceived Equality
Given the design of the delivery service, not every dabbawallah was required to put in equal time and effort. The system had its own checks and balance. For example, example, a senior dabbawallah undertook only those tasks, like sorting at a hub, which required coordination. Tasks involving legwork like collection, loading, unloading and delivery were done by the younger workforce. Yet each dabbawallah in the group earned equal remuneration. Suburban railway network
One popular saying in Mumbai was “If the local train is the lifeline of the city, the dabbawallahs are the foodline”. Mumbai’s longitudinal based geography provided a great deal of latitude in logistics management because the movement of dabbas towards the various norths to south destination points remained largely unhindered. This helped in reducing the amount of food spillage during delivery. The dabbawallahs made extensive use of Mumbai’s suburban railway network. Factors for Dabbawallahs to work effectively
The dabbawallahs were known and recognized for their negligible number of transactional errors. For that Dabbawallahs needed following factors. a. Flexible infrastructure and transport economics – The back bone of Dabbawallahs was the higher frequency of sub-urban train services. There was a train service virtually every minute. Further, the train services were inexpensively priced. b. Customer cooperation – The Dabbawallah never wait for lunch boxes, if they were not ready when they arrive for collection at residences. The household understood the need to be punctual to support the functioning and extend appropriate cooperation. c. Distribution network structure: The logistics network was a combination of milkman route, hub-hub transfer, and hub and spoke distribution. There was perfect symmetry in the reverse logistics operation. d. Codification system – The codification system was the core to material flow and its tracking in the system. The codification was a combination of systems approach and personalized information available to members. e. Redundancy – Each route was assigned to an individual member, often, this information on collection route was known to every other member in the team. Should there be a need to substitute a member on collection route it could be done effortlessly, without affecting the collection process and its accuracy.
2. What are the economics of the dabbawallah meal distribution network (i.e. what is the business model)? Is this business model scalable? The dabbawallah meal distribution network was characterized by a combination of a “baton relay system” in which dabbas were handed off between dabbawallahs at various points in the delivery process and a “hub and spokes” system in which the sorting of dabbas was done at specific railway locations from where individual spokes branches out for distribution. In short, each dabba was picked up at the source by one dabbawallah for transport to the railway terminal, sorted and loaded by a second dabbawallah, unloaded and re-sorted at the hub or destination station by a third dabbawallah and delivered by a fourth dabbawallah to the home from which the dabba was picked up earlier in the day. The above stated model is scalable. The logistics activities are member driven. The day to day operations are managed at the member level which provides harmony, synergy and symphony. The tracking mechanism is an innovative and inexpensive than that of online tracking system. Because of its innovation, the tracking cost is negligible. The size, nature of
operations, modular structure, customer service and negligible errors have kept competition away from this attractive business proposition
3. Is the dabbawallah meal distribution network an example of a world-class service? If yes, why hasn’t their model been successfully replicated elsewhere? If not, what change(s) to the business model is required to achieve world-class status
4. Do you agree with Raghunath Medge’s assessment of the future of the dabbawallahs? If so, why? If not, what are the major risks and challenges for the dabbawallahs going forward?
5. Does RIL also functions in similar way? Comments on the way in which these concepts can be used for RIL.
