#E25Subject:-

Principle of ManagementTopic:-

‘Dabbawala In Mumbai’Guided by-Vivek Saurav

Almost covers 60-70 km range aroundMumbai with total strength of almost 5000 employees caring tiffin of almost200,000 Mumbaikar i.e. 400,000 Transaction Daily. The ManagementOf Dabbawalas has won 6 sigma i.e. almost 1 mistake in 16 million tiffin deliveries

Dabbawala

Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects.• Focus on the customer.• Identify and understand how the work gets done

(the value stream).• Manage, improve and smooth the process flow.• Remove Non-Value-Added steps and waste.• Manage by fact and reduce variation.• Involve and equip the people in the process.• Undertake improvement activity in a systematic

way.

2. Levels of Management-

1.President2.Vice President3.General Secretary4.Treasures5.Directors (9 member) (middle level management)6.Mukadam (Head of group of Dabbawala)7.Dabbawalas(5000 workers)

PlanningThe main aim is to deliver tiffin on time

Organizing and staffing

After considering the plan of Delivering tiffin from home toOffice, The second function

Organizing comes into functionThe required resources like

Different colors to mark on tiffinCycle, railway pass, hand cartAddresses of offices. All these

Activity comes under organizingThe recruitment of staff at each

Station is considered and the capacity of individual and No. of tiffin is considered whileperforming the staffing function

DirectingAfter performing the

Dabbawalas The functionof directing is consideredThe main function, the

proper Function Of recruited staffto conduct the Activity is

an important activity,The specialty of Dabbawala

of Zero mistake is an outcome of Good directing

1. Keep Operational costs as low as possible

.Dabbawala use cycle, hand cart, local train- all low cost.

.No Big Office to maintain.

.No IT budget and no miscellaneous expenses.

.No Ad budget- word of mouth publicity.

.Average monthly service cost Rs.550.

2. Keep Capital investment bare minimum.

.Only investment is the hard work, honesty, promptness and timemanagement. . Low cost offices.. Very cheap hand cart.. Easy to maintain cycles- Fuel is free air (God given Fuel)

3. Customer is not the RAJA — But Maharaja

. England King Prince Charles met Dabbawala on 4tt Nov 2003.

. He was told to come to church gate station to meet Dabbawalas.

. So that the delivery of Dabbas to clients is not affected.

. He spent around 20 minutes with Dabbawala.

. Virgin Group chairman, Richard Branson, traveled with Dabbawala anddelivered Dabba to his own employee.

5. Do not be over Dependent on Technology. For 116 years, Dabbawalas did not touch technology- yet got six sigma and ISO..Today mobile phone are mostly used to communicate-only incoming.Website and SMS are used to get more and more Customers. But logistics is still manual.

6. Co-operation inside- Competition Outside.. There are 2-3 Dabbawala group in each segment.. Dabbawala collection is group wise but transport is shared with other group.Competition is only up to collection.. Profit is shared equally within each group after deducting expenses.. World’s most democratic organization.

7. Know the implication of Failure. If food is not delivered on time then customer will be angry and work willSuffer,‘Problem with Boss and wife.‘If vegetarian gets non vegetarian Dabba, then Big problem.. Knowing the implication of failure makes you more responsible and seriousTowards your work.

8. Build your services around existing Infrastructure.

‘Dabbawala use reliable, fast efficient and cheap existing local train forTransportation.. Many food companies in Mumbai use their own infrastructure which is tough toMaintain and costly as well.. 3 sigma, out of six sigma that Dabbawala got, should be given to local trainsSystem.. Building new infrastructure increase cost to server.

Thus, the working of Mumbai Dabbawala is a perfect example of how the management should work in the organization. It shows how the worker at lower level work for the efficiency of organization. It is perfect scenario where the work of Lower Level is appreciable and with the minimum cost the organization works efficiently. Thus the working of Mumbai Dabbawalas is awesome. The SWOT analysis of organization shows us that the strength and opportunity of Mumbai Dabbawalas is much more than that of threat and weakness. The principles followed by upper level has helped them to minimize the operational cost and maximize the working using minimum capital, The upper level management has made their Dabbawalas to focus on the consumer satisfaction, which is an important factor they treat their consumer as maharaja which is an appreciable part of the Dabbawala, One of the decision of the core team was to focus on the delivering mechanism and do not focus on various activities.