Dabbawala of Mumbai: Masters of Supply Chain Management

Every day in Mumbai with a population of 19 million when counting the suburbs some 5000 men pick up fresh hot meals packed in tiffins from the homes of 200,000 people working in the city and deliver them to their places of work just in time for dinner. After lunch they reverse the process by picking up the empty tiffins and taking them back to the workers' homes. Incredibly, they only make one mistake in 16 million transactions, thus earning themselves Six Sigma designation by Forbes Magazine, and being noted in 'Ripley's Believe it or Not'.

Dabbawala of Mumbai Masters of Supply Chain Management, authored by a man from the ranks of the Mumbai Dabbawala, is more than a 'how they do it' as it also delves into this system and studies how it relates to Supply Chain Management, and for the first time studies the socioeconomic factors of the men and women of the Dabbawala and their customers.