Dabbawala Case Essay

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The integral system and organization known by the moniker Dabbawala is an established delivery service located in India. This organization was first conceived in the late 1800’s and eventually became its official delivery service in 1890 within the metropolitan city of Mumbai. A dabbawala refers to a single member of the system’s workforce; literally this term refers to the person (wala) picking up a lunch box (dabba). The dabbawalas are currently in large numbers—some 5,000 Indian workers—and serve over 100,000 lunch boxes each and every day. In a nutshell, delivery of these lunch boxes to the residents on Mumbai, India, is their service. However, the service is slightly more complex. The dabbawalas serve as the conduit among several processes in the delivery of the lunch boxes. Not only do the workers deliver the food to the recipients, but they pick up the prepared food in the boxes, then retrieve finished lunch boxes to return full circle and bring the box back to the food preparers to repeat the cycle the next day. These hardworking dabbawalas serve all classes of people within Mumbai. Since, most Mumbai residents cannot afford to eat out or cannot carry a dabba with them, this presents an opportunity for this lunch box delivery system to a wide array of customers. With the vast population for which the dabbawalas serve, the structure of the Dabbawala system is vital to the punctual and inexpensive lunch box service. This system is hierarchically managed by two main groups—the Operational Committee and the Charitable Trust. These groups lead the organization with the supportive effort of various directors. However, as mentioned above, the brunt of the Dabbawala service is performed by the 5,000 workers and their few hundred supervisors. The day-to-day operations are, thus, performed by these thousands of workers. The Dabbawala system is able to

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