In the age of food delivery apps like Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes and DoorDash, a food delivery service in India is delivering 200,000 meals a day without using any modern technology.
After getting Six Sigma Status(3.4 defects in 1 Million), they were again being surveyed and result was 1 Mistake in 6 Million, Please add 7th Sigma for them.
The secret is the dedication to build a strong relationship with the customers, knowing their addresses, visualizing their lunchboxes, knowing the number of lunchboxes in each day's delivery and commitment to timely delivery and pickup .
thanks for the acknowledgement, there's a lot of qualities inside us humans, I don't know much about other people and their daily lives and activities, I appreciate this very much, have a nice day.
There also was a documentary about an 85 year old dabbawala who continued to deliver for years.. Even the other dabbawalas did not realize that he was partially blind and coulr not even read the markings on the lid properly. The reason he was able to deliver efficiency was because he knew his locality and his customer addresses and even their vessels by heart. He had the knack for identifying whose dabba it was, just by touching and feeling them.
Why people don't take their food by themselves? Like when people go to work in Delhi, they take their food with them. Because these dabbawalas are picking up food in morning and delivering in afternoon. Does food not get cold? Or if a person takes his food by himself in bag then won't it be same?
@@tribar90 Not a stupid system, but I guess the Dabbawallas are underpaid and exploited. It makes me a bit sad actually. I haven't heard anything about their wages, but I can't imagine they are paid enough.
@@tribar90 And yet this 'stupid system' hasn't made a single delay in delivery in last 130 yrs, A world record set in guiness books and also recognize in UN Whereas your so call Mac Donalds or Western delivery system only screws up time and time again
The reason this works is b/c of how close to work middle class people in India tend to live, how dense their urban environments are, and whether cycling is feasible. A dhabbawala in India might only have to cycle a mile tops to deliver food in relatively slow-moving traffic. B/c they don't have to spend time and energy traveling and they feel safe cycling, their service is cheap and yet they make a decent amount of money. The same would be simply impossible in America. Imagine someone schlepping 3 miles from an eatery that's separated from suburban offices by North American Euclidean zoning? And imagine that in an area that doesn't care about cyclists at all and has 30, 40, 50 mph speeds on surface roads. That'd be a nightmare and that's what Americans who want to provide the same service have to contend with. Instead they have to drive, w/ all the headaches, time-sinks, and costs that entails.
@dress for the dystopia you want: Mumbai is HUGE. And they don't only use bikes, they also take trains. Mumbai trains are a nightmare at rush hour, but luckily for them they don't travel in rush hour like their office worker customers.
@@irmar Yes, you're absolutely right. They transport those dabbas across a massive city, using bicycles and Mumbai's train network. They are not delivering dabbas close by. Nowadays people travel far and wide for work. Hardly anyone works close to home. The dabbawalas travel vast distances to make their deliveries. You're 100% correct!
This is not true at all lmao what. I've lived in bombay and used dabbawala services. These guys travel by trains, often 10-15 miles. A typical route from Dadar to Andheri is 19km (12 miles).
The Mumbai railways are the most crowded in the world. There is literally no room left on the trains. So, people try to carry as little as they can with them. Also, food is better fresh.
You forgot to mention with 0% error. Indians are sensitive about vegetarian and non- vegetarian. Eating pork or cow meat, also halal meat, so there is 0 percent error
Does anyone else find this confusing? Like why not just take your lunchbox with you to work? If they’re picking it up from your house taking it to you and than taking it back to your house just seems like you could do it yourself 🤦🏼♂️🤣
Those high-tech CEOs who hate both high-tech and their own business simply learned the wrong lesson from Dabbawalas. They took a shortcut to make their shareholders (and their weird libertarian fans) happy when people in Dabbawalas won't whine about their business collapse if they deliver food on time.
ایک خواہش ہوری ہوئی, گھر کا کھانا,,, جنہیں میسر نہیں تھا اور بایر کے کھانے کا سواد پسند نہیں نہیں تھا یا اور کوئی پریشانی تھی اۃس حل تو نکل آیا,,, لوگوں کو روزگار بہی ملا گھر بیٹھے کام بہی اور پیسہ بہی,,, اور جو عورت کھانا ببانا نہیں چاہتی تھی اب اسے روزگار سمجھ کے اپنی کمائی بہی کر سکتی اور گھر بہی چلا سکتی,,,
To those who ask why don't people carry their own lunch: They don't carry their own lunch because: 1. Indian lunch consists on 3 or 4 different things: usually a pulse (dhal), rice, vegetables and/or meat, plus a flatbread (roti or chappathi). That's a lot to prepare in the early morning, how early should you get up? Make it in the evening, after all the effort to make dinner and after a long day of work (either in the office or as a homemaker, possibly with kids)? No, thanks. Plus they put lots of values on freshly made food. 2. The person to prepare, in a traditional Indian household, is someone else. Your wife, your mum, a servant. Who often also has to take care of other members of the family (preparing kids for school etc.). This system makes life easier for that person, with plenty of time for shopping fresh ingredients and cooking them without a rush. 3. Mumbai is very hot all year long. The lowest it can get at the end of December is 15-20 degrees Celsius. And most offices don't have refrigerators - let alone microwaves. The food would go bad from 7 in the morning (sometimes earlier) to 1 or 2 o' clock. 4. Even if there were a refrigerator and a microwave in the office, imagine how much time for each worker to heat up four different food items. Some companies have many, many employers! The last ones in the queue wouldn't even have the time to eat. Not to mention the risk of theft which is also very real in our offices in the West as well as in University dormitories (no matter how carefully you label your stuff, there's always a chance that some a**hole will steal it and you'll be left with an empty stomach). 5. Indians like their food fresh and warm. If they made it in the evening it would be yesterday's food. If they made it in the morning before leaving, with their long commutes, it would be 7 hours or more after being cooked. With the dabba system, it comes within 1,5 hour of being made. And it's passably warm because Mumbai has warm weather for most of the year, so it doesn't get cold easily. Nowadays there are insulated containers as well, which retain heat.
You do realise there are more indians outside of Mumbai ? How do they eat lunch without this service? It is an incredible service and nothing against people using such but not many people in Mumbai use them let alone rest of the country. By their own measure less than 0.02% of Mumbai populace use this system. In almost all places I've worked at, most brought home cooked food everyday, even in households where both partners work. They adapt to cooking dishes that are apt for their situation. Food dont get spoilt even without refrigeration. Nor were they stolen since people have them in their cubicles along with rest of their stuff. This is not applicable to just officer workers either. Most other industrial workers do the same. Even school and even college students do since most schools dont provide food and college mess food are often terrible.
Actually in India also many people take their lunch box with themself. But as you know Mumbai is a very crowded city and during office time it is very difficult for them to carry lunch box inside the crowded trains. And normally Dabbawala takes meal after 11:30 , so in home they got enough time to prepare the food.
Lol Uber had a bad bad failure here.....one rarely uses Uber in India be it for taxis or ordering food.....we have far better companies who services are far far better than Uber and also at less cost and obviously these dabbawalas are here too
this is just so over the top and unnecessary. Like why cant they have taken their own lunch woth them in the morning? or just ate at one of the MANY food stalls near their place of work? So stupid
Don't veil it under the name of stupidity, perhaps, you're ignorant. Research about it, internet is everywhere, you might able to find some unique information.
They arent exploited for profit. They are studied and set as an example of operations management. Harvard made a case study about their perfect processes
@@Marzyart Slightly disagree. There will be someone who comes along (probably from the USA) and thinks.' How can I get them to work for me? (while I do no work) or, ' how can I turn this into an exclusive franchise'?
The business started in 1880, not 1890 when a britisher asked a local boy to deliver his lunch box to his office. The reason for business’s existence is that outside restaurant food is not good for health. The lunch box is also a means of communication between some husbands and wives. Lastly, their service is so efficient and trustworthy that some working people hide their salaries in the lunch box after having their lunch.
Because they leave early to work around 7-9am when the wives or mother is not able to make lunch. Also taking lunch early and eating it later after 6 hours in the hot weather doesn't keep the food fresh. 2nd reason is that it's difficult to Carry lunchbox as most people in mumbai travel to work by train/bus which is very crowded. People love to eat home made food because it's a special as it's made by their loved ones 🙂
It weighs a lot ...like around a kilo so if they carry it with them it will wear them off while travelling for office in a city of million people ....hence
@@drunkcat1713 Two lbs will wear them out?? Seriously?? Well then, why don't they just buy lunch some where close by? Seems like it would be cheaper than paying a deliver and a train ride...?
Yes they can and many of them do. But Mumbai being the economical capital attracts millions in search of work from all around the country and thus they rely on "Dabbawalas" for home made lunch.
Meny people leave home at 7 as people have to comute for 2 hours , lunch starts being cooked around 9 -10 o clock . So the people use this service. Even students who have tutorials after school
imagine you have to go to work at 6 am in mourning and thus you don't have to time to prepare food as well as your lunch time is at 1pm your food will spoil till then there where dabbawala comes in they pick your food from your home at 10 am and it will reach your office till 12 am
This video is too polite, lol. Mumbai Dabawallas and their success + the their resilience is a slap in the face of modern technologists. The dabbawallas can barely read but are able to run such a sophisticated system. Modern capitalist-technology complex is an absolute sham.
In the age of food delivery apps like Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes and DoorDash, a food delivery service in India is delivering 200,000 meals a day without using any modern technology.
So how they do it? If it is simple then why didnt you elaborate on it other than "they use numbers and symbols" yea sure now I know how they do it...
i like that they use reusable containers
After getting Six Sigma Status(3.4 defects in 1 Million),
they were again being surveyed and result was 1 Mistake in 6 Million, Please add 7th Sigma for them.
And yet, here in the states, McDonald’s manages to screw up my order almost every time!!
The secret is the dedication to build a strong relationship with the customers, knowing their addresses, visualizing their lunchboxes, knowing the number of lunchboxes in each day's delivery and commitment to timely delivery and pickup .
And knowing the city and train layout
The level of coordination is insane
Hopefully this will continue for another 100 years. A system that is worth studying and emulated by food delivery services company
It's fading due to post covid era
The real question is, who delivers the dabbawalas lunch? Dabbadabbawalas?
The Dabbawalas got recognition in the 2010 Republic Day Parade New Delhi when the Maharashtra's tableaux came onto the Rajpath.
brilliant, dedication, focus and committed.
thanks for the acknowledgement, there's a lot of qualities inside us humans, I don't know much about other people and their daily lives and activities, I appreciate this very much, have a nice day.
This is actually true!!! My family member was one a long time ago...
And the best thing about this system is, it is 100% carbon neutral.
They use electric trains and bicycles to deliver.
There also was a documentary about an 85 year old dabbawala who continued to deliver for years.. Even the other dabbawalas did not realize that he was partially blind and coulr not even read the markings on the lid properly. The reason he was able to deliver efficiency was because he knew his locality and his customer addresses and even their vessels by heart. He had the knack for identifying whose dabba it was, just by touching and feeling them.
It looks like there is good coordination between Dabbawalas and their Customers.
They only make 4 mistakes in a million deliveries
One of them in *LunchBox* Movie of Irrfan 🎃
Yet McDonald’s screws up my order every time.
@@TonyStark-uk3pu lmao
For the respect of dabba wallas there is a big statue
Some blokes from a british motoring programme tried doing this, which went well.
I came here to find out the truth after watching Lunchbox movie. Very fascinating.
Same :)
Grabfood , panda food and all food based delivery apps should pay royalty to these hard working people
Theyres no legal reason why they should
Why people don't take their food by themselves? Like when people go to work in Delhi, they take their food with them. Because these dabbawalas are picking up food in morning and delivering in afternoon. Does food not get cold? Or if a person takes his food by himself in bag then won't it be same?
Ya Exactly. I’m also thinking the same
Am I the only person thinking the could just take their lunch with them to work?
May be if it is sandwiches 😇
Not possible if it fresh home cooked Indian meals💕
Yeah not buying any of that, stupid system.
@@tribar90 Not a stupid system, but I guess the Dabbawallas are underpaid and exploited. It makes me a bit sad actually. I haven't heard anything about their wages, but I can't imagine they are paid enough.
Indian food needs to be hot otherwise it would taste completely different
@@tribar90 And yet this 'stupid system' hasn't made a single delay in delivery in last 130 yrs, A world record set in guiness books and also recognize in UN
Whereas your so call Mac Donalds or Western delivery system only screws up time and time again
Thanks for explaining what I just saw in "The Lunchbox!"
The reason this works is b/c of how close to work middle class people in India tend to live, how dense their urban environments are, and whether cycling is feasible. A dhabbawala in India might only have to cycle a mile tops to deliver food in relatively slow-moving traffic. B/c they don't have to spend time and energy traveling and they feel safe cycling, their service is cheap and yet they make a decent amount of money. The same would be simply impossible in America. Imagine someone schlepping 3 miles from an eatery that's separated from suburban offices by North American Euclidean zoning? And imagine that in an area that doesn't care about cyclists at all and has 30, 40, 50 mph speeds on surface roads. That'd be a nightmare and that's what Americans who want to provide the same service have to contend with. Instead they have to drive, w/ all the headaches, time-sinks, and costs that entails.
Or you could just bike in Europe and be better off
@dress for the dystopia you want: Mumbai is HUGE. And they don't only use bikes, they also take trains. Mumbai trains are a nightmare at rush hour, but luckily for them they don't travel in rush hour like their office worker customers.
They also travel by trains and motorbikes.
@@irmar Yes, you're absolutely right. They transport those dabbas across a massive city, using bicycles and Mumbai's train network. They are not delivering dabbas close by. Nowadays people travel far and wide for work. Hardly anyone works close to home. The dabbawalas travel vast distances to make their deliveries. You're 100% correct!
This is not true at all lmao what. I've lived in bombay and used dabbawala services. These guys travel by trains, often 10-15 miles. A typical route from Dadar to Andheri is 19km (12 miles).
I bought a Tiffin tin and tried curry and rice with naan bread in it, it was absolutely delicious 👍😍
Iam very proud to say this, iam Indian.... Jai Hind....🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
But why do they picked them up after they are done eating? Can't the client bring it's own dabba home after work?
Im just curious, why not bring the food with them when they go to work in the morning?
The Mumbai railways are the most crowded in the world. There is literally no room left on the trains. So, people try to carry as little as they can with them. Also, food is better fresh.
There is no enough room in the trains because of the dabbawalas. Here in our country, we bring our food and use a special device, a "Microwave Oven".
What a waste of energy.....
@@sf4656 You just saw them using cycles, not trains, genius
Oops, you are wrong. They use trains and bikes.
You forgot to mention with 0% error. Indians are sensitive about vegetarian and non- vegetarian. Eating pork or cow meat, also halal meat, so there is 0 percent error
Notice the guy on the bike has NO shoes~!
Maybe that is why the case study says: barefoot delivery men
Does anyone else find this confusing? Like why not just take your lunchbox with you to work? If they’re picking it up from your house taking it to you and than taking it back to your house just seems like you could do it yourself 🤦🏼♂️🤣
Play Fortnite please
Those high-tech CEOs who hate both high-tech and their own business simply learned the wrong lesson from Dabbawalas.
They took a shortcut to make their shareholders (and their weird libertarian fans) happy when people in Dabbawalas won't whine about their business collapse if they deliver food on time.
ایک خواہش ہوری ہوئی, گھر کا کھانا,,, جنہیں میسر نہیں تھا اور بایر کے کھانے کا سواد پسند نہیں نہیں تھا یا اور کوئی پریشانی تھی اۃس حل تو نکل آیا,,, لوگوں کو روزگار بہی ملا گھر بیٹھے کام بہی اور پیسہ بہی,,, اور جو عورت کھانا ببانا نہیں چاہتی تھی اب اسے روزگار سمجھ کے اپنی کمائی بہی کر سکتی اور گھر بہی چلا سکتی,,,
Is the food cooked in the customers' homes? Or a contract with home cooks?
customer's home mostly
Both but 90% from home.
Because Daily Restaurant food is so pricey and even not healthy.
@@TonyStark-uk3pu Why don't the office workers or students just bring pack lunch with them?
@@daisyypoon because their office going time si too early at time of 8 9Am, this time for bath, fresh Breakfast making etc.
@@daisyypoon because they have to start to work at 7 am or 8 am
Uber : we need to upgrade our app for food delivery services
Dabbawala : hold my beer
😅🤣🤣
Who else here after The Lunchbox movie?
To those who ask why don't people carry their own lunch:
They don't carry their own lunch because:
1. Indian lunch consists on 3 or 4 different things: usually a pulse (dhal), rice, vegetables and/or meat, plus a flatbread (roti or chappathi). That's a lot to prepare in the early morning, how early should you get up? Make it in the evening, after all the effort to make dinner and after a long day of work (either in the office or as a homemaker, possibly with kids)? No, thanks. Plus they put lots of values on freshly made food.
2. The person to prepare, in a traditional Indian household, is someone else. Your wife, your mum, a servant. Who often also has to take care of other members of the family (preparing kids for school etc.). This system makes life easier for that person, with plenty of time for shopping fresh ingredients and cooking them without a rush.
3. Mumbai is very hot all year long. The lowest it can get at the end of December is 15-20 degrees Celsius. And most offices don't have refrigerators - let alone microwaves. The food would go bad from 7 in the morning (sometimes earlier) to 1 or 2 o' clock.
4. Even if there were a refrigerator and a microwave in the office, imagine how much time for each worker to heat up four different food items. Some companies have many, many employers! The last ones in the queue wouldn't even have the time to eat. Not to mention the risk of theft which is also very real in our offices in the West as well as in University dormitories (no matter how carefully you label your stuff, there's always a chance that some a**hole will steal it and you'll be left with an empty stomach).
5. Indians like their food fresh and warm. If they made it in the evening it would be yesterday's food. If they made it in the morning before leaving, with their long commutes, it would be 7 hours or more after being cooked. With the dabba system, it comes within 1,5 hour of being made. And it's passably warm because Mumbai has warm weather for most of the year, so it doesn't get cold easily. Nowadays there are insulated containers as well, which retain heat.
Irmar I think u r v obsessed with dabba wala
You do realise there are more indians outside of Mumbai ? How do they eat lunch without this service?
It is an incredible service and nothing against people using such but not many people in Mumbai use them let alone rest of the country. By their own measure less than 0.02% of Mumbai populace use this system.
In almost all places I've worked at, most brought home cooked food everyday, even in households where both partners work. They adapt to cooking dishes that are apt for their situation. Food dont get spoilt even without refrigeration. Nor were they stolen since people have them in their cubicles along with rest of their stuff.
This is not applicable to just officer workers either. Most other industrial workers do the same. Even school and even college students do since most schools dont provide food and college mess food are often terrible.
India 🤞🏻❤️
Japanese take their lunch box with them self..Why indian using money in this way???
Actually in India also many people take their lunch box with themself. But as you know Mumbai is a very crowded city and during office time it is very difficult for them to carry lunch box inside the crowded trains. And normally Dabbawala takes meal after 11:30 , so in home they got enough time to prepare the food.
No enought room in trains? Maybe because of the dabbawalas?
But it’s great everyone getting job..
The real reason is they have to leave for work early in the morning.
@@FidoTheGoldenRetriever Sounds familiar. Same in our country.
This community is so respected that they were even invited to Prince Charles and Diana wedding.
I hope it will survive the covid crisis and that Uber will not take over!
Lol Uber had a bad bad failure here.....one rarely uses Uber in India be it for taxis or ordering food.....we have far better companies who services are far far better than Uber and also at less cost and obviously these dabbawalas are here too
this is just so over the top and unnecessary. Like why cant they have taken their own lunch woth them in the morning? or just ate at one of the MANY food stalls near their place of work? So stupid
Don't veil it under the name of stupidity, perhaps, you're ignorant. Research about it, internet is everywhere, you might able to find some unique information.
I came here after watching the movie “The Lunchbox”
And after 130+ years they have to be exploited for profit by outsiders? Shows us how „advanced“ we and our supply chain systems really are
They arent exploited for profit. They are studied and set as an example of operations management. Harvard made a case study about their perfect processes
@@Marzyart Slightly disagree. There will be someone who comes along (probably from the USA) and thinks.' How can I get them to work for me? (while I do no work) or, ' how can I turn this into an exclusive franchise'?
royal mail is older than that
Doir dash guys complaining about tip
Wow Amazing Criticism indian workers...😂😂😂 West Mentality......
How much do they get paid I wonder.
why can't just carry your own lunch?
They don’t have microwave in every office..
Coordinations
I am wondering what to comment on this.
I don't know what to reply.
The business started in 1880, not 1890 when a britisher asked a local boy to deliver his lunch box to his office. The reason for business’s existence is that outside restaurant food is not good for health. The lunch box is also a means of communication between some husbands and wives. Lastly, their service is so efficient and trustworthy that some working people hide their salaries in the lunch box after having their lunch.
Wow a video we are approved to comment on... thanks Global, god forbidbpeopke have conversations about your videos.
Time management 🙌
I've watched"the lunchbox" and they got a delivery wrong.
Percentage of error is very small. It's happens.
You watched just Movie not in a reality..
LunchBox is only entertaining
With good story and with the hight of performance of actors
@@ghostisyourghost7019, Of course, I know that it was said in jest, but I believe there is a small margin of error.
And no computers anywhere.
They just love saying "Little to no education"
I really do appreciate them
Why cant people take their own lunch from home and then take it back???
Why don't take it with you?
Because they leave early to work around 7-9am when the wives or mother is not able to make lunch. Also taking lunch early and eating it later after 6 hours in the hot weather doesn't keep the food fresh. 2nd reason is that it's difficult to Carry lunchbox as most people in mumbai travel to work by train/bus which is very crowded. People love to eat home made food because it's a special as it's made by their loved ones 🙂
progess is ril
Stephen "thomke" is from pandharpur.
Character In the video It's great, I like it a lot $$
Character In the video It's great, I like it a lot $$
Character In the video It's great, I like it a lot $$
Hotline?
like it
they are Bombay dabbawals not
Why office workers bring their own lunch to work WITH them on their way to work????
It weighs a lot ...like around a kilo so if they carry it with them it will wear them off while travelling for office in a city of million people ....hence
@@drunkcat1713 Two lbs will wear them out?? Seriously?? Well then, why don't they just buy lunch some where close by? Seems like it would be cheaper than paying a deliver and a train ride...?
@@KKing55 they r not only carrying the lunchbox....
Indians generally have the habit of eating food hot. The hot packs available today don't keep the food as fresh as it's when cooked.
@@KKing55 home cooked food had one special ingredient which make it better then restaurant food , it is lots of love.
This system works far better than many modern systems introduced since the 80s and done by computers.
why cant you just bring your lunch with you? so pointless
Yes they can and many of them do. But Mumbai being the economical capital attracts millions in search of work from all around the country and thus they rely on "Dabbawalas" for home made lunch.
Maybe they don't have microwave and fridge at home and office
Meny people leave home at 7 as people have to comute for 2 hours , lunch starts being cooked around 9 -10 o clock . So the people use this service. Even students who have tutorials after school
im so confused, why dont the workers bring the lunch to work??
imagine you have to go to work at 6 am in mourning and thus you don't have to time to prepare food as well as your lunch time is at 1pm your food will spoil till then there where dabbawala comes in they pick your food from your home at 10 am and it will reach your office till 12 am
Woooow 🙏
how did you do it can you share with me , thank you
so touching for an excellent video
Hagh diya
Very good and funny videos bring a great sense of entertainment!
All hats off
🙏🙏
Looks like Surrey BC..
so touching for an excellent video
This video is too polite, lol. Mumbai Dabawallas and their success + the their resilience is a slap in the face of modern technologists. The dabbawallas can barely read but are able to run such a sophisticated system. Modern capitalist-technology complex is an absolute sham.
Why are comments disabled on so many of your videos? This is the not video I wanted to comment on.
India is not for beginners
Sharmeen is such a cutie ;)
their Website mumbaidabbawaladotin