A dabbawala (one who carries the box), sometimes spelled dabbawalla , tiffinwalla , tiffinwalla or dabbawallah, is a person in the Indian city of Mumbai whose job is to carry and deliver freshly made food from home in lunch boxes to office workers. Tiffin is an old-fashioned English word for a light lunch, and sometimes for the box it is carried in. Dabbawalas are sometimes called tiffin-wallas.
Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a highly specialized trade that is over a century old and which has become integral to Mumbai's culture.
The dabbawala originated when a person named Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started the lunch delivery service with about 100 men. Nowadays, Indian businessmen are the main customers for the dabbawalas
- A dabbawala ( one who carries the box , see Etymology ), sometimes spelled dabbawalla or dabbawallah , is a person in the Indian city of Mumbai whose job is to carry and deliver freshly made food from home in lunch boxes to office workers . Tiffin is an old-fashioned English word for a light lunch, and sometimes for the box it is carried in. Dabbawalas are sometimes called tiffin-wallas . For the efficiency of their supply chain it has been claimed that this virtually achieves a Six Sigma performance rating, (i.e. 99.9999% of deliveries are made without error, he is at CMMi level 6). [1]
- Though the work sounds simple, it is actually a highly specialized trade that is over a century old and which has become integral to Mumbai's culture.
- The dabbawala originated when India was under British rule : many Indian people who worked in British companies disliked the British food served by the companies, so a service was set up to bring lunch to them in their workplace straight from their home. Nowadays, Indian businessmen are the main customers for the dabbawalas, and the service often includes cooking as well as delivery.
- DISCIPLINE :
- No Alcohol Drinking during business hours
- Wearing White Cap during business hours
- Carry Identity Cards
- WOMEN:
- Mrs. Bhikhubai of Borivali(East)
- Mrs. Anandibai of Andheri(East)
- LATEST MARKETING STRATEGY:
- Marketing message in the “dabba”
- How do they do it…?
- Organizational structure
- Operations
- War against Time (10.30 – 1.00)
- The Code
- Shri.Varkari Prabhodhan Mahasmati Dindi (palkhi) sohala – 4 th march – 2001.
- Invitation from CII for conference held in Bangalore.
- Documentaries made by BBC ,UTV, MTV, and ZEE TV
- Dabbawalla services are popular with the Indian IT developer community in Silicon Valley , California , USA
- In literature
- One of the two protagonists in Salman Rushdie 's controversial novel The Satanic Verses , Gibreel Farishta, was born as Ismail Najmuddin to a dabbawallah. In the novel, Farishta joins his father, delivering lunches all over Bombay (Mumbai) at the age of 10, until he is taken off the streets and becomes a movie star.
- Dabbawalas feature as an alibi in the Inspector Ghote novel Dead on Time .
- World record in best time management.
- Name in “GUINESS BOOK of World Records”.
- Registered with Ripley's “ believe it or not”.
- Logistics is happening 24 hrs a day,7 days a week and 52 weeks a year.
- Logistical competency is achieved by coordinating the following:
- Network Design
- Information
- Transportation
- Inventory
- Warehousing
- Coding
- Let us now look at an example of these codes on the tiffins to better understand the system and what it all denotes:
- 10:34-11:20 am
- This time period is actually the journey time. The dabbawalas load the wooden crates filled with tiffins onto the luggage or goods compartment in the train. Generally, they choose to occupy the last compartment of the train.
- 11:20 – 12:30 pm
- At this stage, the unloading takes place at the destination station
- Re-arrangement of tiffins takes place as per the destination area and destination building
- In particular areas with high density of customers, a special crate is dedicated to the area. This crate carries 150 tiffins and is driven by 3-4 dabbawalas!
- 1:15 – 2:00 pm
- Here on begins the collection process where the dabbawalas have to pick up the tiffins from the offices where they had delivered almost an hour ago.
- 2:00 – 2:30 pm
- The group members meet for the segregation as per the destination suburb.
- 2:48 – 3:30 pm
- The return journey by train where the group finally meets up after the day’s routine of dispatching and collecting from various destination offices
- Usually, since it is more of a pleasant journey compared to the earlier part of the day, the dabbawalas lighten up the moment with merry making, joking around and singing .
- 3:30 – 4:00 pm
- This is the stage where the final sorting and dispatch takes place. The group meets up at origin station and they finally sort out the tiffins as per the origin area
- Recently, the dabbawala’s had royal company at Churchgate station. The Prince of Wales himself had visited them when he came down to Mumbai.
- He took keen interest in their way of functioning, expressed surprise at their efficiency and was struck with awe when he was told that they didn’t employ any technology.
- The prince was presented a small memento, accompanied with a garland, a Gandhi topi and a trophy by the dabbawalas.
- Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Atlantic Airways, meeting the Mumbai's famed 'Dabbawalas' at their nodal point, the Churchgate Railway Station in South Mumbai, on April 1, 2005.
