MumbaiAbout

The Dabbawalas of Mumbai delivers lunch boxes of home cooked food for the last 125 yrs and that too with a Six Sigma Precision. It has become a part of the Mumbai Culture over these years. And with time, their popularity have only grown manifolds for the efficiency, demeanor and quality service that they have been providing.

About 125 yrs ago, a parsi banker wanted to have home cooked food regularly at work and this gave birth to the first ever Dabbawala. Soon, the idea was welcomed and slowly it became a part of this beautiful city's lifestyle. Today, more than 1 lakh people use the service of these Dabbawalas.

If we say that Logistics giants like FedEx are studying their process, then that can give you a little insight of their delivery efficiency. It is claimed by the Dabbawalas that they almost never make a mistake in delivering the right Dabba to the right person. A rough estimate of their mistake is approximated to around 1 in 2 months, which on calculation boils down to 1 error in 6 million transactions. For the very fact, they are also recognized as  having a Six Sigma Accuracy in their delivery system.

The prestigious IIM(Ahmedabad) and the Harvard Business School have featured case study on the Dabbawalas for their logistics capability. Recently, Richard Branson of the Virgin Group visited them and even delivered a Dabba with them. How cool is that !!!!!.

They have also been featured in a Bollywood movie 'Lunch Box' released in 2013.

The modern E-Commerce companies like Flipkart  have started moves to grow their business by partnering with the Dabbawalas.

Intro Image Credit: By Joe Zachs from Pune, India - Six Sigma holders, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4278525