The document discusses replicating the supply chain model of Mumbai Dabbawalas in Delhi. It first provides background on the 120-year history and unique lunch delivery service of Mumbai Dabbawalas. The author then outlines their study objectives, hypothesis, and survey results on customer preferences and opinions in Delhi. This includes analysis of delivery routes, pricing, language preferences, and transportation options. The conclusion is that while some challenges exist, the Mumbai model can be replicated for areas near Delhi metro stations by adopting a similar coding system and delivery process. However, the model cannot be fully replicated across all distances due to Delhi's different geographic layout.

1. JESAL .K. VAIDYA
NIRMALA MEMORIAL FOUNDATION COLLEGE OF
COMMERCE AND SCIENCE
T.Y BMS
Research study on “The working of Mumbai Dabbawalas and Replicating
the supply chain model of Mumbai Dabbawalas of Mumbai to other
metro city- Delhi”

2. Mumbai Dabbawalas
An uncommon story of a common man!!!

3. Introduction
 First dabbawala in mumbai-
 120 years of service.
 Unique service industry- Delivering Dabbas
 Estimate growth of 5-10% a year.
 Awarded with: Six sigma, ISO, Forbes
magazine, Prince Charles
 Case studies in Harvard Business School

4. Objectives
 To study the working of the Giant
Dabbawalas tandem.
 To Replicate its supply chain model in other
metro city i.e. Delhi
Hypothesis
“Replicating the supply chain model of Mumbai
Dabbawalas of Mumbai to other metro city-
Delhi”

5. Working in Mumbai
 8.25: Dabba is filled with lunch
 8.30: Dabbawala reaches clients home
 8.40: Dabbas are placed on the carts
 9.20: reaches origin station
 9.30: sorting according to destination begins
 9.41: train arrives
 10.21: train arrives at the hub station
 11.05: tiffins are loaded on the train for the final destinations
 11.45: train reaches the destination station
 12.10: resorted according to the destination i.e. the clients office
 12.30: dabba is delivered at the doorstep of the clients office
 2.00: the process moves into reverse
 6.00: empty tiffins are returned.

6. Coding in Mumbai

7. Data analysis
Q.1 Are you health conscious? Would you prefer having your homemade food in lunch
timings?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
YES 81 %
NO 19%
YES
NO

8. Q.2 What are your office lunch timings?
Options Response
12 pm 5 %
1pm 27 %
2pm 68 %
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
2:00 PM

9. Q.3 Would you like to have a dabbawala service which
delivers you your hot homemade food?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
YES 68 %
NO 32 %
YES
NO

10. Q.4 If you would like to have such service then why?
 Homemade food is best for health and because health is wealth.
Outside junk foods may make you sick.
 Homemade food is cheaper. By using theses Dabbawala’s services
they get home cooked food at their office which can actually save
hard earned pennies.The delivery charges of Rs.200 to Rs.400 per
month are very nominal and reasonable
 Homemade food keeps doctors bill down and there are fewer
absences from office due to poor health. In fact bad food is the
reason #1 of all the diseases.

11. Q.5 What will be your selected root/places/stations between
which you want the Dabbawalas services?
The below map shows the above possible combinations, these are denoted by similar kind of logos at two
destinations. The red dot in the middle signifies the Connaught Place i.e. Rajiv chowk the important metro
assortment centre for the dabbawlas. All the dabbawalas will collect the dabbas from different locations and will
sort it at the Rajiv chowk station and then will interchange the trains to deliver the Dabbas to their destination.

12. Q.6 What will be your perception towards pricing of such
Dabbawalas service i.e. between Rs. 200 to Rs. 500?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
AFFORDABLE 45 %
UNAFFORDABLE 22 %
REASONABLE 33 %
AFFORDABLE
UAFFORDABLE
REASONABLE

13. Q.7 Which are the most important commercial areas in your
Delhi city?
 This is a type of open ended question which was asked to the people
of Delhi in order to know the well established commercial areas of
the city. It is has been asked to the 100% of the target audience in
general.
 This question would help the Dabbawalas to know the opportunities
that they can grab to the fullest. It will also help us to study these
opportunities and design a cost efficient and value effective
supplychain system.

14. Q.8 Are there any food outlets easily available in those
commercial areas of your city?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
YES 76 %
NO 24 %
YES
NO

15. Q.9 What is the most cost saving and convenient mode of
transport in your city?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
RAILWAYS 62 %
ROADWAYS 38 %
RAILWAYS
ROADWAYS

16. Q.10 Are the railway schedules of your city reliable?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
YES 44 %
NO 18 %
DEPENDS 38 %
YES
NO
DEPENDS

17. Q.11 What kind of language is mostly preferred in your
city?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
HINDI 63 %
ENGLISH 14 %
OTHERS 23 %
HINDI
ENGLISH
OTHERS

18. Q.12 Have you heard of famous Mumbai dabbawalas
associations?
OPTIONS RESPONSE
YES 66 %
NO 34 %
YES
NO

19. Suggestions
 The dabbawalas should only concentrate to cover the areas nearby
to the metros
 They should accept long distances based on the criteria of covering
the distance within the radius of 20mins minimum.
 Other than using the cartages and hand carts the dabbawalas can
also use cycle rikshaws in order to deliver dabbas form the origin and
destination station.
 Coding in Delhi
 Supply chain in Delhi

20. Mumbai’s geographic location of railways is that of a “ Straight line”
Commercial
areas
Residential
area
Delhi ‘s geographic location is that of a “circle”

21. Coding in Delhi
 The dabbawalas can keep the similar kind of coding system that they use in Mumbai. It has been
shown in the below diagram.
 The coding mentioned is in regard to one of the combination answered by target audience i.e.
Moti nagar to Saket.Thisk ind of easy coding can be prepared by the dabbawalas to deliver the
dabbas to their destination on time.
 This coding represents the origin station i.e. ‘M’ - Moti nagar and destination station i.e. ‘S’- Saket
station.The M here is in Blue color as it is the station from the Blue metro line and S is inYellow
color as it is the station from theYellow metro line.The no. 1 represents the area i.e. the Mehrouli
Badarpur Road, BH -Batra Hospital, 4- 4th floor and 11 is the no. of station from Rajiv chowk in
yellow metro line and thus it is in yellow line.

22. Supply chain in Delhi
This will be explained with the help of a combination answered by a respondent i.e. from Moti nagar to Saket
 10am: The dabbawlas get ready with their cartages in order to collect dabbas from nearby areas to the metro
stations.
 10.30am: The dabbas will be collected. The cartage will have at least 24-30 Tiffin’s as the market grows.
 10.45am: The dabbawla will reach to the Moti nagar station of Blue line or the other origin station. Then dabbas
will be loaded in the baggage or luggage compartment of the trains. The frequency of trains is in every 5mins.
 11am: By this time the dabbawalas will catch the trains.
 11.30am: The dabbawalas will reach at the assortment centre i.e. Rajiv chowk. The dabbas will then be assorted
as per their destinations. This can take approximately around 15-20mins.
 12pm: The dabbwalas will catch the train of the different metro line as it depends on the destination. As in the
above example the dabbawala will catch a train of Blue line from Moti nagar station and after reaching the
assorting centre will interchange train of Yellow line which includes Saket station.
 12.30/ 45pm: Around this time the dabbawalas reach the destination station i.e. In case of this example it is
Saket station.
 1.00pm: By this time the dabbas will be ready to reach the destination for the delivery, as it will take around 10-
15mins, maximum to load the dabbas on the cartage.
 1.30- 2 pm: In between this time the dabbawalas reaches to the client’s office or destination i.e. Saket or the
nearby area.
 3.00- 3.30pm: The process will move into reverse.
 6pm: The empty dabbas will be delivered to the client’s house.

23. Conclusion
 We can conclude that Delhi DabbawalaAssosciation is also possible
for the Dabbwalas.
 The Dabbawalas may face certain problems in the initial stage of
their introduction to the Capital city.This may be due to complex
Delhi metro networks, geographic locations of the city is large as
compared to that of Mumbai, difference in culture; language, etc.
But Dabbawalas can overcome all these issues’ easily by certain
training.
 Thus the research concludes that distance network around the
metros can only be covered whereas those too far to from the limits
of metros will not be possible and cost effective for Dabbawalas.So
the hypothesis is proved to certain extent as supply chain model can
be replicated in Delhi, with the help of the suggested process of
delivery and coding. But replication of model is just possible for the
areas nearby to the metro, it’s impossible otherwise.

24. We should salute these incredible mens!!!