B203A TMA 2016-17: Dabbawala Service Performance Objectives Analysis

This report examines the Dabbawala service in Mumbai, highlighting its five key performance objectives: commitment, reliability and accuracy, quality, dedicated service, and teamwork leading to customer satisfaction. The Dabbawalas, with their efficient time management and reliance on local trains and bicycles, deliver home-cooked meals to office workers. The report discusses the factors contributing to their dependability, including a strong group system, coding for identification, and self-discipline. It also identifies potential threats such as the lack of incentives, competition from food startups, and the need for technological advancements. The Dabbawala's success is attributed to their dedication, efficient processes, and commitment to customer satisfaction. The report also references sources to support the analysis.

Running Header: Business Objectives of Dabbawala 1
Business Objectives of Dabbawala
Name
School

Business Objectives of Dabbawala 2
Taking the example of the Dabbawala service as an example, discuss the five performance
objectives of an operation.
Dabbawala in Mumbai, one of the most crowded city in the world with local trains as the main
source of commutation. Office -goers in Mumbai travels mostly by local trains without carrying
their lunch boxes as it is not possible for commuters to catch crowded trains with boxes in hand.
Dabbawalas are involved in the business of delivering home-made foods to respective offices of
employees by picking up from their respective homes. The business of Dabbawalas is based on
the requirement of healthy and nutritious home-made food for middle class Mumbai office-goers
who cannot afford costly low-calorie food. The essence is the commitment of timely delivery
with accuracy and precision. They are highly motivated to serve their customers as they believe
that their customers are God to them.
Their service is based on efficient time management to deliver as per their motivation to serve
customers. They are a group of 5000 people engaged in the service to deliver foods to 2,00,000
office goers and the foods have to be collected from customer’s home prepared by wife or
mother or any other family members. Commitment, reliability and accuracy, quality, dedicated
service, team work and customer satisfaction are the five performance objectives of the dabba
delivery to their customer. Time management is the basis on which their five performance
objectives is based upon and given the commutation facilities of Mumbai that relies largely on
locally run trains, the requirement becomes anything similar to managing a multi nationals.
Moreover, the dabbawalas also deal with the traffic situation of Mumbai city as they mostly used
bicycles or wooden carts to deliver the dabbas to their customer’s office that is dispersed across a
particular area. The tiffin boxes are also collected from customer’s office and delivered to their
respective homes for next day delivery. The morning slot is reserved for delivery of boxes and
B203A – TMA –First 2016-17 Page 2

Business Objectives of Dabbawala 3
the evening slot is reserved for collection of boxes for respective homes. Their commitment is
delivery on time irrespective of various contrasting situations which helps them to sustain their
customer. The reliability and accuracy of their service is their perfect slotting that is done on the
train itself while the train is in motion to save time which in turn helps them to provide quality
service. Their goal is the team work and in the trust no employee is ahead in terms of receiving
pays and perks. The entire amount collected is distributed equally among all the members and a
lapse in service is the loss of the entire team. Their dedicated service towards their customer is
what brings customer satisfaction for every team members (Thomke, 2010).
Why does the Dabbawalas’ service offer such an amazing dependability?
Dabbawalas’ believe that their customer is everything for them and for them the service is not
only a source of earning but also a service to mankind that is the essence of service in country
like India where you would see many shops with a wall print that says, “I am a vendor, shop is
my temple, customer my God,…….”. Dabbawalas know that their valued customers who deal
with their various issues at their work place must have proper home-made food in time and that
corporate and government sectors do not provide much time to their employees for lunch hours.
This realization of the importance of their customer’s necessity compels them further to provide
error free service.
They work on the basis of group system and every group has around 30 members with a leader
who is the most senior of them. The seniority and work experience of the group leader helps the
group deal with any untoward incidents such as late train, road blockage, rains etc as the senior
members are aware of what contingency planning are to be taken in such situations. Employees
are not allowed to smoke or drink during work period, they cannot remain absent on any day
without prior notice as any violation of the rules leads to heavy fine. They have a proper coding
system to identify which dabbas belong to which customer and every morning dabbawallas are
B203A – TMA –First 2016-17 Page 3

Business Objectives of Dabbawala 4
deployed across various locations and stations to collect foods from home. Every dabbawalas are
aware of the coding and in every station dabbawalas collect and puts dabbas on train for
movement to their area of locations and hence to the customer’s office. The activities are not
documented in a written form but as they are so much used to every nature and corner of the city,
they know what is required for service delivery in time. Their proper time management comes
from self discipline approach towards their goals of delivering in time as they always give first
preference to their customer. They are the trust certified with six sigma performance for quality
service which speaks volumes about their service provided the fact that most of the employees
are high school drop-out (Gillman, 2016).
What do you think are the main threats to this service?
The main threat to this service is the lack of bonus and incentives with time and experiences
along with no scope for holidays and leave for family recreational activities. The aspiring middle
class of Mumbai city in which both husband and wife are now participating in generating family
income is the another threat to their service. Wife at home generally makes home- made food for
their husbands to be delivered by Dabbawalas. However, it has had a little impact on the business
of Dabbawalas.
The growing market of start-up food in Mumbai that delivers variety of food at any time within
minutes is the major threat to the business of dabbawalas. The increasing preference of fast foods
among new generations is the considered as the major cause of the boom in startup ready to
serve food markets. The lack of flexibility in the services of dabbawalas prompted many
customers to switch to click and order food services on offer by many startups. At times they
also run out of technological needs and modern delivery equipments such as motorcycles, as they
rely only on manually run bicycles. Their lack of flexibility is due to their lack of modern use of
B203A – TMA –First 2016-17 Page 4

Business Objectives of Dabbawala 5
technology such as smart phone apps as they often fall out when customers have to change their
routine due to office commitments (Ganesan, 2015).
B203A – TMA –First 2016-17 Page 5

Business Objectives of Dabbawala 6
References
Rediff (2015) A tough battle ahead for Mumbai’s famous dabbawalas. Available at:
http://www.rediff.com/money/report/pix-special-tough-battle-ahead-for-mumbais-famous-dabbawalas/20151113.htm
(Accessed: 4 December 2016).
Gillman, S. (2016) 4 reasons the Dabbawala supply chain succeeds while corporate giants struggle. Available at:
https://www.isixsigma.com/community/blogs/4-reasons-dabbawala-supply-chain-succeeds-while-corporate-giants-
struggle/ (Accessed: 4 December 2016).
Thomke, S. H. (2010, 02). Harvard Business School. Retrieved 12 04, 2016, from http://www.hbs.edu:
Thomke, S.H. and Sinha, M. (2010) The Dabbawala system: On-time delivery, every time - case - Harvard business
school. Available at: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=38410 (Accessed: 4 December 2016).
B203A – TMA –First 2016-17 Page 6