Problem Definition

Table of Contents

1 Team Vision for Problem Definition Phase
2 Background and Project Summary
3 Use Cases
4 Stakeholders
5 Customer Requirements (Needs)
6 Engineering Requirements (Metrics & Specifications)
7 House of Quality
8 Design Review Materials
9 Plans for next phase

Team Vision for Problem Definition Phase

PRI: Katie Berus

Rev: 1

Date: 11/4

Planned Tasks:

Draft DR1 Presentation
Benchmark Fast-Food Burgers
Obtain copies of Health Codes
Assess Risks
Upload information to Edge
Finalize DR1 Presentation
Design Review 1

Accomplished Tasks:

Draft DR1 Presentation
Assess Risks
Upload information to Edge
Finalize DR1 Presentation
Design Review 1
Find Background Information on Burger Industry
Create Use Cases
Identify Stakeholders
Start customer needs list
Interview with Customer
Begin Engineering Requirements
Start House of Quality

Background and Project Summary

Project Statement: Automated burger machine with custom imaging to reduce cost and attract customers

Fast food is a $110bn a year industry in the U.S., with burger chains dominating the market. While the hamburger, which gained popularity in the 50’s, has been a cultural icon for decades, the process for preparing a burger has remained largely unchanged. This involves typically unskilled workers cooking and assembling large quantities of identical menu items. The low skilled labor required to assemble the burgers also increases the potential for wrong orders, inconsistent ingredient amounts and uneven ingredient distribution, problems which plague the fast food industry. These problems leave the fast food industry the perfect candidate for the introduction of automation. By automating the assembly of simple burgers, wrong orders can be eliminated, labor can be eliminated and consistency can be improved. In addition to automation, the introduction of custom imaging on the food can be employed to increase customer attraction and introduce a new level of customization and personalization. This will be done with an assembly station that can cook burger patties, assemble complete burgers to order and then create custom toasted images on the bun.

Live Document

Use Cases

PRI: Jacky Ho

Rev: 1

Date: 9/14

Shop orders machine. Technician inspects installation location for proper hookups. Machine is delivered. Technician installs machine. Everyday before the burger shop open, operators have to start up the machine and fill in fresh ingredients. Burger shop customers can order from the panels inside the shop or at the counter, the interface/worker will ask if the customer want any image print on the burgers, request the image if so. The machine will start assembling the burger, requested image will start printing onto the bread at the same time with bar-code labeling. When both are completed, workers will collect the the burger and the printed bread, then serve it to the customer. Machine detects low levels of individual ingredients, notifications will display on the control menu front page. Operators refill the low level ingredients or machine pause otherwise. When the day ends, operators have empty the food containers and do a deep cleanup before shutting down machine.

Live Document

Stakeholders

The primary stakeholders of our project and how they might be affected are identified here:

Stakeholder Info

Stakeholders Live Document

Customer Requirements (Needs)

PRI: Scott Eisele

Rev: 1

Date: 9/14

Customer requirements were developed by interviewing with Carol Lynn Zamites and Roger Glitch, managers of RIT Dining Operations, to help us gain a better understanding of the needs of the food service industry. The interview questions and notes can be found here:

RITZ Interview Notes

Interview Notes Live Document

Customer Requirement	Priority Level (1 to 3, 3 is most important)
Fully assemble a complete burger	3
Create a distinguishable image on the sandwich	3
Receive and store customer orders	2
Device must be reliable and not stop for maintenance during peak hours	3
Create a ticket with cost written/barcode	1
Control the quality and quantity of the ingredients that are going into the sandwich	3
Have an easy to use interface for maintenance that works on the web and the phone	2
Have food safe handling procedures and parts	2
Complete the food assembly in a similar amount of time it would take a person to create it	3
Sandwiches must be customizable	3
Image creation should be viewable by customer	2

Customer Constraint	Priority Level (1 to 3, 3 is most important)
Have the cost at a reasonable price point	3
Device must be compatible with existing food prep procedures	2
Must be sized to fit within the existing available space	1