Nitty-Gritty of the Mumbai Dabbawalas.⛻⛫⛭⛩⛮⛯⛱⛶⛷

Indian homemakers are very sophisticated about the preparation of lunch for their hard working husbands. Traditionally, preparing the lunch has become a primary domain for a woman since ages.

Based on our Indian housewives, here comes a business model called "the dabbawalas" who collects the lunch boxes from the homemakers and gives it at the husband's office. They again collect back from the office and returns the empty boxes home.

The dabbawalas are very much committed to their work. The following are the key points which made "the dabbawalas" a successful business.

Customer satisfaction: the satisfaction level of the customer is 100 percent. As Men work for hours and hours, they prefer to have homemade fresh food rather than the roadside food. They receive their lunch boxes from home within the stipulated time and hence they are the satisfied customers. The dabbawalas treat their customers as their kings.

On-Time-Delivery: People at Mumbai say that a clock might show its time wrong, but a dabbawala cannot be late. There are more than 16,000 dabbawalas where each one of them carries 40 boxes which weigh 65 to 70kgs over their head. If a train is late, they try to send the lunch boxes through other means of transportation. Though there are hurdles, the lunch boxes will reach up to the destinations on time.

Excellent Supply chain: Though the technology has emerged, the dabbawalas are very successful without it. The logistics and the supply chain of the dabbawala network are maintained excellently. The dabbawalas maintain a coding system where they give codes to the areas and exchange the lunch boxes. The lunch boxes will get exchanged with one and other at many places and finally, it will reach the destination.

The dress code: The dabbawalas wear a white color kurta and a dhoti with a cap over the head. The cap for them is compulsory as it defines their identity. Their dressing style is very unique and a dabbawala can be spotted very easily.

Flexible delivery charges: The dabbawalas charge rupees 100 every month for delivering the lunch box to the customers. The delivery charge is very low where an average working class people can afford it every month.

Acute visibility of supply chain: The beauty of the dabbawala-based system is that all of the dabbawalas understand exactly what is happening. If certain deadlines and hand-offs are missed, people don't eat. It's as simple as that. The dabbawalas will make sure everyone within their chain understands what he or she needs to do, where they need to be and what needs to happen for the chain to be successful.

Keep the delivery system simple: One of the key lessons any organization can learn from the dabbawalas is the simplicity with which this system works. The dabbawalas are intimately aware of what their customers value (food delivered on time, every day). And, just as importantly, they don't try to do anything other than that. They don't overcomplicate things. They don't add extraneous value. They simply understand what their customers want, and they focus 100 percent of their time and energy on meeting that need.

Hence, these are few key points which determine about the Mumbai dabbawalas successful business.