Mumbai Dabbawala speaks on supply chain management in Delhi

Sporting his signature dress code, CEO and President of Mumbai Dabbawalas, Dr Pawan Girdharilal Agrawal, recently inspired the young management students of Asia Pacific Institute of Management (AIM), Delhi.

The Chairman of AIM, A.K. Shrivastava, while welcoming Dr Agrawal, thanked him for his benign presence and for enlightening the students with his valuable inputs.

Director Dr S. P. Chauhan, who presided over the session, introduced the guest to the audience and said that it was a great privilege for AIM to be the first institute to host him in Delhi.

Dr Agrawal spoke on leadership imperatives for emerging India and impressed everyone with his eloquence and anecdotes on the success story of the supply chain management practiced by Dabbawalas.

"The average literacy rate of the employees is eighth class and they cover about 60-70 km every day with employee strength around 5,000. They carry 200,000 tiffin boxes every day with an average delivery time of three hours," said Dr Agrawal elaborating the finesse of the delivery system.

"With no technological backup, the dabbawalas have an impeccable track record of delivering the tiffin boxes with no error and thus winning total customers' satisfaction, no strike, and with zero dispute," added Dr Agrawal.

He said that the dabbawalas use a very robust and innovative logistics and supply chain system and were the best examples of world-class supply chain management and six sigma techniques. They market with a slogan, "Jo Biwi se kare pyar vo dabbawale se kaise kare inkar."

Tirthankar Das, 2nd year PGDM student, said that he thoroughly enjoyed and learnt how 100 percent commitment and time services have made Mumbai Dabbawalas such a success today.

Dr Agarwal has delivered numerous lectures world-wide talking about the great customer service & delivery system of Mumbai Dabbawalas.

His clientele include many Fortune 500 companies and top educational institutes like Ted X, Cadbury, SAP, Volvo, Honda, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Bosch, IIM, IIT and Cambridge University and so on. He is also a co-founder of various educational institutes and schools across India.