Mumbai Dabbawalla’s – A Supply Chain Perspective

The Mumbai dabbaalla’story has been a Harvard business school case, won appreciation Richard Branson’s, Price Charles and has also been a Six sigma Certified process. The accolades and appreciations are many. However I will take and SCM perspective to uncover the innovation behind.

Supply Chain Infrastructure

India’s supply chain is supposed to be cursed with transportation infrastructure problems. However with a short delivery window period, the Dabba wallas use public transportation, by walk and by cycles perform the delivery accurately.

Reverse logistics system

Its not the delivery of the product alone that counts, but also the reverse logistics for the system that works well. With the same coding (Product identification and traceability for perishable goods) the boxes are traced back to the source.

Technology Management

With such high precision of delivery, it is important to understand the technology behind the delivery process. The technology was low tech and high precision with a colour and alphanumeric coding system. Now they have planned to introduce an SMS notification and service availability for their product.

Channel

With companies struggling to setup their distribution network in India ( with high distribution cost and low lead times), Dabba wallahs represent a potential channel of delivery. Companies like Airtel allow Dabba wallahs to deliver SIM cards and recharges reducing the distribution and overhead costs.

Operational excellence – The power of one

Like the supply chain of DELL, Wal-mart, Toyota who are the only leading companies in their own industry, it is hard to replicate operational excellence. The same applies to the Mumbai Dabbawallas. And as in the other excellence models the same problem of pointing out the top five critical factors does not work for the Mumbai dabbawalls as well. Stories about trying the same in other cities (in India and also abroad) didn’t seem to work. They also achieve leanness through cost effective use of right amount of technology and infrastructure.