Introduction
“There is no such thing as a free lunch” is a popular saying which explains that in life, nothing comes for free of cost.
Getting educated alone is not enough in life. What is more important is how you use those in your real-life experiences in handling various tasks in life personally and professionally.
You might have a doubt like why is she talking about lunch and getting educated?
The answer is in today’s blog, as we will have an insight on the Mumbai dabbawalas who evolved themselves from mere a supply chain process to a six-sigma organization.
Dabbawalas
Dabbawalas are the people who carry out the work of delivery and return of lunchboxes (dabba) from home to workplace and vice versa.
The lunch boxes are picked up in the late morning, delivered predominantly using bicycles and railway trains, and returned empty in the afternoon.
History of Mumbai dabbawalas
Management model of Mumbai Dabbawalas
Let’s have a look at the management model of century old dabbawalas.
1. Organization structure
Source: http://tmimtjournal.org/pdf/poceddings/track3/track3_paper1.pdf
They follow a flat organization structure (A flat structure is an organizational structure with only a few layers of management). President along with the board members also works as Dabbawala, travels with them, shares with them.
2. Stakeholder
Everyone who works in the association are considered as stakeholders and they share the profit earned equally among themselves without any conflict.
3. Common culture and beliefs
They have common culture and beliefs at work;
- Most of the dabbawalas belong to the Varkari sector of Maharashtra, and the community is known to be a close-knit one, with the next generation often taking over from their fathers and continuing the chain, becoming dabbawalas themselves.
- They believe in food being God and serving people is serving God.
- They are loyal and hardworking and follow the norms and promise made to their customer
- They have not had a single “strike” in more than a hundred years.
4. Code of conduct
All Dabbawalas must wear white cap which is called a Gandhian cap on duty.
Also, they must wear white samara & pyjamas (shirts & pants).
They must report on time to duty.
All Dabbawalla must carry their Identity card on duty.
Alcohol is prohibited.
All these rules must be followed by all cadres of the Dabbawalas.
5. Time Management
The time management is the main key element for the success of Mumbai Dabbawalas.
The journey of Dabbawala is given below:
Source: https://berkeley.pressbooks.pub/tdo4p/chapter/the-dabbawalas-of-mumbai/
6. Supply chain Management
One of the main reasons they think they are successful is they are suitably educated (have not crossed school grades), the usage of modern technology is nil, no fuel or investment and they strive for 100 percent customer satisfaction.
Their supply chain process is so organized that the process of work flow becomes easy.
Each dabbawala does 35 collections, 35 deliveries, and returns 35 empty tiffin boxes. Every team of 20-25 is headed by a group leader.
Source: http://tmimtjournal.org/pdf/poceddings/track3/track3_paper1.pdf
7. Unique coding system
Unique coding system is the winning mantra of Dabbawalas.
This helps them to sort the dabbas based on the codes and transport accordingly and deliver to the concerned person without any mistake as most of them are not much educated.
The coding in dabbas will consists of:
(1) abbreviations for collection points,
(2) colour code for starting station,
(3) number for destination station and
(4) markings for handling dabbawala at destination, building and floor.
Now the dabbawalas have started to embrace technology by allowing for delivery requests through SMS.
A colour-coding system identifies the destination and recipient.
Example:
Source: http://tmimtjournal.org/pdf/poceddings/track3/track3_paper1.pdf
Six sigma concepts
Six Sigma is a statistical method that provides organizations to improve the capability of their business processes.
In simple words, the term Six Sigma refers to a set of quality-control tools that businesses can use to eliminate defects and improve processes to help boost their profits.
A Six Sigma is a process where 99.99966% of all opportunities of producing defects are statistically measured and controlled upon.
Six Sigma Story started at Motorola, a telecommunication company, by an American engineer Bill Smith, to measure and control defects to improve overall quality.
The main principles of six sigma concept are:
1. Working for the customer
2. Statistical analysis to find problems and focusing on it
3. Removing variations and bottlenecks
4. Communicating clearly and training teams
5. Being flexible and responsive
6. Reduced costs and increase in profits.
How Mumbai dabbawalas became a six sigma organization?
1. They follow a strict discipline and strive to work harder for customer satisfaction and serve them as God.
2. As they all belong to the same community they share the same culture, code of conduct and have a sense of unity among selves.
3. Zero disputes as all are stakeholder of the association and the profit earned overall is distributed equally.
4. The total business runs in an eco-friendly mode (zero fuel, zero modern technology, zero investment).
5. Their effective supply chain process and time management is an exemplary example for others to achieve the work efficiently.
They start collecting dabbas from 8 am and gather at one common point, sort it based on destinations, transport it in train and again after reaching the destination sort it out based on the locality and buildings and they deliver accordingly.
By 4 p.m. again they meet at a common point to do the reverse process of collecting empty dabbas and follow the same procedure to deliver back dabbas to home.
6. The unique coding system which is the main factor for achieving the six-sigma certification.
The coding system helps them to drop and deliver the tiffin boxes at the correct location without even referring to a list or maintaining a database with them as most of them are less literate.
Color coding system is the important key contributing factor for Mumbai dabbawalas to achieve 99.99 % work efficiency rate.
Conclusion
The main victory of dabbawalas is their commitment towards work without much expectation at the same time delivering their promise with utmost satisfaction.
Dabbawalas might not be an MBA or any graduates, but the way they conduct the main management principles like planning, organizing, coordinating, staffing, and controlling with the basics and not with the help of technology are something which we need to learn from them.
So, guys, hope you enjoyed the connection of lunch