Mumbai Dabbawalahs

Just two days back we had an interactive session with Mumbai Dabbawala association. They spoke about their clock-wise efficiency, low-cost operations. They are really experts at supply chain management. These people are really famous for their clockwise precision in supplying meals and were recently accorded a six sigma performance rating. They have only one error in 6 million deliveries.

What is that really so interesting about them?

Out of 5000 work-force very few understand English. They don't even understand the terms logistics, supply chain management etc. Delivering almost 2 lakh lunch boxes everyday using cycles and local trains and with perfect accuracy of time without using any technology is not the easy thing. Everyone is a share holder in the entire supply chain irrespective of the potential they have or the position they are in.

The few funny comments made by Raghunath Medge (Association President) and Gangaram Talekar in the presentation are

"We didn't even know the six sigma certification given to us. When we were told about it, we wondered what metal sigma was, gold or silver,"

"When we got a call from London that Prince Charles would like to meet us during his visit in Mumbai, we said he could meet us at Churchgate station at 11.10 am as we could not disrupt our regular operations,"

"I don't understand terms like logistics, supply chain or time accuracy...I just know my work is to deliver lunch boxes on time,"

The presentation was very humorous and inspiring. There is lot to learn from these guys. A long way to go. Hats off to Dabbawalahs for their dedicated work.

Here are the few newspaper clippings which covered about Mumbai Dabbawalah's presentation:

Now slowly these dabbawalah's are also becoming tech savvy. They recently launched an SMS service to expnd its customer base.