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Chapter 2 Operations performance 45
caterer), placed in regulation dabbas or tiffin (lunch) boxes
and delivered to each individual worker’s office at lunch
time. After lunch the boxes are collected and returned so
that they can be re-sent the next day. ‘Dabbawala’ means
‘one who carries a box’, or more colloquially, ‘lunch box
delivery man’. This is how the service works:
7am–9am The dabbas (boxes) are collected by
dabbawalas on bicycles from nearly 200,000 suburban
homes or from the dabba makers and taken to railway
stations. The dabbas have distinguishing marks on them,
using colours and symbols (necessary because many
dabbawalas are barely literate). The dabbawala then takes
them to a designated sorting place, where he and other
collecting dabbawalas sort (and sometimes bundle) the
lunch boxes into groups.
9am–11am The grouped boxes are put in the coaches
of trains, with markings to identify the destination of the
box (usually there is a designated car for the boxes).
The markings include the rail station where the boxes
are to be unloaded and the building address where the
box has to be delivered. This may involve boxes being
sorted at intermediary stations, with each single dabba
changing hands up to four times.
10am–12midday Dabbas taken into Mumbai using the
otherwise under-utilized capacity on commuter trains in
the mid-morning.
11am–12midday Arrive downtown Mumbai where dabbas
are handed over to local dabbawalas, who distribute
them to more locations where there is more sorting and
loading on to handcarts, bicycles and dabbawalas.
12midday–1pm Dabbas are delivered to appropriate
office locations.
2pm Process moves into reverse, after lunch, when the
empty boxes are collected from office locations and
returned to suburban stations.
6pm Empty dabbas sent back to the respective houses.
The service has a remarkable record of almost flawlessly
reliable delivery, even on the days of severe weather such
as Mumbai’s characteristic monsoons. Dabbawalas all
receive the same pay and at both the receiving and the
sending ends, are known to the customers personally, so
are trusted by customers. Also, they are well accustomed
to the local areas they collect from or deliver to, which
reduces the chances of errors. Raghunath Medge, the
president of the Bombay Tiffin Box Supply Charity
Trust, which oversees the dabbawallas, highlights the
importance of their hands-on operations management.
‘Proper time management is our key to success. We do
everything to keep the customer happy and they help in
our marketing.’ There is no system of documentation.
The success of the operation depends on teamwork and
human ingenuity. Such is the dedication and commitment
of the barefoot delivery men (there are only a few delivery
women) that the complex logistics operation works with
only three layers of management. Although the service
remains essentially low-tech, with the barefoot delivery
men as the prime movers, the dabbawalas now use
some modern technology, for example they now allow
booking for delivery through SMS and their web site,
(www.mydabbawala.com).
Dependability inside the operation
Inside the operation internal customers will judge each other’s performance partly by how
reliable the other processes are in delivering material or information on time. Operations where
internal dependability is high are more effective than those which are not, for a number of
reasons.
Dependability saves time. Take, for example, the maintenance and repair centre for the city
bus company. If the centre runs out of some crucial spare parts, the manager of the centre
will need to spend time trying to arrange a special delivery of the required parts and the
resources allocated to service the buses will not be used as productively as they would have
been without this disruption. More seriously, the fleet will be short of buses until they can be
repaired and the fleet operations manager will have to spend time rescheduling services. So,
entirely due to the one failure of dependability of supply, a significant part of the operation’s
time has been wasted coping with the disruption.
Dependability saves money. Ineffective use of time will translate into extra cost. The spare
parts might cost more to be delivered at short notice and maintenance staff will expect to
be paid even when there is not a bus to work on. Nor will the fixed costs of the operation,
such as heating and rent, be reduced because the two buses are not being serviced. The
rescheduling of buses will probably mean that some routes have inappropriately sized buses
and some services could have to be cancelled. This will result in empty bus seats (if too large
a bus has to be used) or a loss of revenue (if potential passengers are not transported).