PUDUKUDI SURYA

VTP: 1943
MBA 2nd year
School of Management
Veltech

Q.2 Why do world class companies fed-ex study the dabbawala system? What do they
expect to learn?
The dabbawala of Mumbai operate a business that provides financial opportunity for workers
and socially by providing a service to large number of customers in Mumbai. This enterprise
is probably the most environment friendly with zero percent fuel usages, using existing public
transportation bicycles and handcarts to get the job. A Mumbai dabbawala is a person in India
whose job is carrying and delivering man made food from home in lunch boxes to office
customer. They are formally known as Mumbai tiffin box suppliers association but most of
the people knows as dabbawala. The dabbawala originated when India was under the British
rules.
FedEx Express invented express distribution and is the industry’s global leader, providing
rapid, reliable, time-definite delivery to more than 220 countries and territories, connecting
markets that comprise more than 90 percent of the world’s gross domestic product within one
to three business days. Unmatched air route authorities and transportation infrastructure,
combined with leading-edge information technologies, make FedEx Express the world’s
largest express transportation company, providing fast and reliable services for more than 3.6
million shipments each business day
If we see the value addition in the supply chain is similar for Fed-ex and Dabbawala. Fed-ex
is world known company for its logistics services, it is highly automated company which is
using latest technologies in their supply chain.
So Fed-ex like world class companies want to learn following things from the Mumbai
dabbawala system:
One of the main point fed-ex world class company want to learn from the Mumbai dabbawala
system is Good management by dabbawala in decentralized system.
Without any advanced technology of computer system and transports they achieve high
accuracy .One of the most impressive things about them is the cycle that they use, the same
old famous Hero Cycle and the same tradition still continues…nothing has changed yet their
delivery-cycle still remains the same. If you check them out on any station, you can learn
“team building” from them
Integrated supply chain is the one of the main point the fed-ex want to learn from Mumbai
dabbawalas. How the dabbawalas are working without any technologies and transportation
they working on time this shows how good their supply chain. So many dabbas taken every
day, yet very very few errors, this is the amazing story of “The Mumbai Dabbawalas”
 With the limited resources the dabbawala works efficiently. Mumbai Dabbawalas work on
simple principles — work hard with honest. A typical day for a dabbawala starts at around 8
am when the cylindrical metal tiffin boxes are collected from homes and taken to the nearest
railway station where they are loaded onto crates and transported by train to downtown
Mumbai.
So Fed-ex would be expecting to manage their decentralized system with the latest
technologies across the globe. and the fed-ex want to learn how the Mumbai dabbawala are
working with a limited resources and what is the secret for their success till now.