Customer relationship management:

It identifies key customer target markets and develops and implements programs with key

customers. Key customer target markets for the dabbawalas are the end users of the cycle.

They include the office goers who get the dabbas from their homes. The time of delivery

of the dabbas is around 1p.m. to 1.30 p.m. to the end customers. They should get their

lunch around that time and its expected that they have the lunch break of one hour and

dabbas can be collected back at around 2.30 p.m. The service levels for this level is

maintained constant even if there are minor changes in service levels for the level 1

customers as they can adjust accordingly and serve the end customers.

Customer Service Management:

Customer Service Management provides the single source of customer information, real

time information system with current order, production and distribution information. In

the case of dabbawalas this information is real time. They plan for their day-to-day

collection on the basis of the information they already have. Though in each sector there

is a chance of minor variation of 2 to 3 dabbas, their system can accommodate that

change in the transported volume.

Demand Management:

Demand management balance customer requirements with supply capabilities. Though

the distribution system of the dabbawalas is capable of handling the slight variation of the

demand, always there are precautions for the additional supply. They arrange for more

number of dabbawalas for the handling of such situations from the nearer zones of action.

The seasonal variation in the quantity of food carried is also accommodated by the size of

the containers.

Order Fulfillment:

The first priority of any service is to provide timely and accurate delivery with a high

degree of order fulfillment. For the end customers the order fulfillment is 100%. Around

5000 dabbawalas deliver 2,00,000 lunches everyday and take the empty dabba back. They

make one mistake in 2 months. This means there is one error on every 16 million

transactions.

Manufacturing Flow Management:

It includes the customer-based service with flexible distribution systems, also in this case

with the right flexibility of the timings. In case of the dabbawalas this issue arises when a

client temporarily shift the premises of the collection and delivery. They collect the

details of the change in advance and respond for the change as and when needed.

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

Considering the distribution strategies followed by the dabbawalas, they follow

decentralized collection and distribution; and semi-centralized sorting at pre-defined

major sectors. These major sectors are selected based on the volume of the dabbas dealt

in that particular region. This has helped to move the distribution centers closer to the end

customers thus improving the customer service quality as the response time is lowered.

Since in the dabbawala network tier 1 customers (the distributing dabbawlas) are closer

to the end consumer, even if there is a delay in the supply of the dabbas to them, they are

able to exactly identify the time lag and adjust the final distribution process so that they

can deliver the dabbas within the appointment time. This effect can be identified as an

adaptive feedback with real time information system which the companies involved in the

logistics of food and beverage packaged goods can easily benchmark for their distribution

processes.