Sunny Pallavi and (right) Neha Singh at the news meet on Wednesday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The colour coding system used by the dabbawalas of Mumbai has helped two students of Cybotech Campus clinch the first prize at the Third Vidyadeep Case Study Contest in Bangalore.

Bachelors in business administration (BBA) students of the information technology management institute, Sunny Pallavi and Neha Singh, gave a slide show presentation on McDonald’s supply chain management at the finals of the contest last Saturday.

Sunny, in her BBA sixth semester, said at a news meet on Wednesday: “The colour coding system refers to the technique which the dabbawalas of Mumbai use in their supply chain management. It starts with production of a material (in this case, food) to delivery to the final customer.”

As part of their presentation, the Cybotech Campus team presented this colour coding system as a low-tech alternative to the comprehensive and expensive supply chain management of McDonald’s, which does not compromise on quality.

The duo went on to explain the colour coding system when the judges asked the team to elaborate on the concept.

Sunny added: “The dabbawalas make no mistake while delivering food to their customers. This happens because of their colour coding system through which the dabbawalas assign various colours to tiffin boxes for inventory management and to complete their orders. Green mark on a tiffin box denotes vegetarian food, while non-vegetarians get a red-marked tiffin box. Apart from this, they also use a number coding system to reach a particular area. In this way, the brand (McDonald’s) can ensure the same quality for their product at a low cost.”

Eight teams were selected for the finals of the contest, while seven teams reached Bangalore. Apart from the Cybotech Campus team, the rest comprised two teams from Bangalore and one each from Delhi, Durgapur, Surat and Rajasthan. All teams had to give their slide-show presentations on the supply chain management of McDonald’s.

Neha Singh, in her BBA fourth semester, said: “We are happy to win the first prize. It was a great experience to compete with other teams from across the country. We got to learn many things from them. Though we were nervous at the beginning, it later added to our happiness.”