Mumbai Dabbawalla’s Event

25^th November 2022
Location: - New Auditorium, Doon Business School, Dehradun
Event start time: - 9:00 AM

Objective:-
Doon Business School believes in extensive industry engagement by providing ample learning opportunities to their students through guest lectures, interaction with industry veterans, development programs etc. In this series DBS invited Guinness record holders, the world-famous Mumbai Dabbawalas in the campus to give students an opportunity to listen and learn management from the eminent speaker who is great grandson of the Founder of Dabbawalas team on the following topics.

• History of Mumbai dabbawalas
• Managerial structure
• Unique Supply chain logistic system
• Time management
• Teamwork
• Accuracy

The event started with lamp lighting by the guests, Mr. Ritesh Andre and Mr. Raju Nathu Andre along with Dr. Rajeev Bhardwaj (Campus Director),Dr. Nikhil Kulshreshtha (DEAN Academics), and Dr. Rupak Gupta (Registrar) in the melody of beautiful SaraswatiVandana sung by Muskaan (student Mass comm department).

Further Prof. Ulka Tewari welcomed the guests, faculties, DBS students and also the students who attended the session from different universities like University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, Tula’s University, GRD-IMT institute etc.Thereafter,Campus Director Dr. Rajeev Bhardwajdeclared the event open, he also spoke about the case studies being formulated by various institutions and universities to research on the working procedure of the Mumbai Dabbawalas and the six-sigma success,which the Mumbai Dabbawalas have achieved to 99.99997% despite of many of their employees not being educated enough. Further Prof. Ulka introduced the speaker Mr. Ritesh Andre and invited him on stage to take all the students and faculties through the most interesting journey of 130 years of Mumbai Dabbawalas.

Mr. Ritesh Andre showed the students and faculties how and what is actually called working in a city like Mumbai. He interacted with the students and explained how the dabbawalas work and about their system to stay connected with each other and maintain proper coordination in assigning and executing the deliveries.

He said "The dabbawalas belong to Varkari community from Pune who highly believe in God and for them customers are their God" and also said that Mumbai local trains are the backbone of dabbawalas.He explained the routine of their work which is illustrated as follows: -

He also spoke about the unique alphabets written on the dabba which acts as a QR code for them. 20 years ago, when there was no coding system for dabbawalas, they used to have different colored clothes tied to the dabbas. Later, new ideas were generated. The colors of the coding changes according to the direction, and now in a completely technological driven era they also have their own unique system which works without using technology also keeping in mind the varied educational backgrounds of their employees.

Name of the pickup station: - VLP (Vile Parle)
Dabbawala name initial: - E
Destination: - (at the center) 3
Dabbawala 2nd after sorting: - 9 (code of dabbawalla)
Destination Building name initial: - EX
Floor to be delivered:- 12

The collection and distribution of the dabbas is illustrated below

For example, all the dabbas from the houses of Vile Parle are collected and brought to the Vile Parle station. And later the dabbas reach to the sorting station where all the 2 lakh dabbas are sorted and they go to the hands of other dabbawalas who takes it to the destination. Similarly this process is reversed and all in all single delivery of dabba includes about 3 dabbawalas. The charges for this are only 1500/- rupees per month.Theirsupply chain management is so strong that the chance of any error is just 1 in 6 million deliveries.

Dabbawalas are not registered under Companies act rather they are registered under the Bombay Trust Act 1882. Therefore, they are named as Nutan Mumbai tiffin box supplier trust. They also perform various Corporate Social Responsibility activitieslike, sharemydabba and once in a week the dabbawalas carry an extra dabba for the children left stranded and hungry at railway platforms. Also helping their people in every possible way during Mumbai floods and COVID situation.

In the discussion round answers were given in reference to the following questions/areas: -

1. If they have Dabbawalis also in the system?
2. How do they deliver food when local trains are not functional?
3. Back up plan in case of any emergency.
4. Expansion plan.
5. Recruitment process.
6. Training system.

Outcome:-

1. Understanding smooth delivery system (Supply-chain management)
2. Sustainable development (Zero fuel, zero usage of plastic)
3. Team work/team building management
4. External/Internal excellence
5. Customer satisfaction
6. Engagement plan for student internship
7. Formulating case studies

Towards the end our guests Mr. Ritesh Andre and Mr. Raju Nathu Andre were felicitated with a thank you token by Mr. Mohit Agarwal (Chairman DBS Group) and Dr. Rajeev Bhardwaj (Campus Director) respectively. This wonderful and knowledge packed seminar of almost 3 hours concluded leaving all the students and faculties overwhelmed with great learning experiences.Vote of thanks was delivered by Prof. Ulka Tewari.