The target consumer would be Sit-Down restaurants that roll silverware.
Design Specifications
Customer Needs: The customer (restaurants) want a faster and more efficient way to roll silverware.
Performance: The product must quickly and correctly roll silverware, to the point where employees would be able to focus on other tasks, come back after a couple minutes and have a good amount of silverware rolled.
Target Cost: If we were to make a machine, it would be about $4,000 dollars per machine. However if we did not an did the napkins that rolled themselves $12-$15 a piece.
Size and Weight: The product should be more compact than its competitors in order to be more transportable and easier to use as you could put it wherever you wanted.
Aesthetics: Many of the machines are meant to look sleek, and if it were to be a napkin then it would be meant to look like any other napkin that you would use in a restaurant.
Materials: There are no specific materials that MUST be used other than some sort of cloth for the napkin. For this project we have the option to really use whatever we would like because were trying to come up with something new.
Safety and Legal Issues: SlapNap is not responsible for any damage to silverware that may occur. Sharp utensils may slip out of the SlapNap roll, and could possibly impale anything on the ground.
Ergonomics: Our design will include high quality cloth to be softer against people's skin. Our design will also be highly efficient, and will save hours every week of silverware rolling.
Operating Environment: Most restaurants aren't in very extreme conditions, so temperature and environment won't really be a big concern. Our napkins will be able to work in any restaurant, and function as any regular napkin would. The only problem that could arise is if we use any type of metal wiring, which could possibly rust.
Global Environment: Our product will be made out of common cloth materials such as cotton, and nothing dangerous. There is nothing special about disposal of the product, you could just throw it in the trash. Depending on our design, we will include recyclable materials as well.
Service Life: Disposable napkins last three year on average, so SlapNap needs to last at least at least three years. Adding on to a plain cloth napkin might make it hard to have a long service life, but we will use higher quality material.
Product Life: This product would most likely last 4 years before we improved upon it. Because on average businesses take about 3 years to become profitable. Then once it became profitable we would be able to use that profit to improve and earn more money.
Additional Criteria
Ranked Specifications
Customer Needs
Global Environment
Service Life
Performance
Safety and Legal Issues
Target Cost
Size and Weight
Ergonomics
Materials
Product Life
Operating Environment
Aesthetics
Applicable Constraints
Cost of Production: As we are two high schoolers we have very limited funding and cannot afford to spend too much money
During this part I learned about the different specifications that affect the design phase of creating a product. When creating a product, it is very important to think about the people you will be marketing your product to, because if you do not cater to their needs, then your product will fail. Which is why we put customer needs first on the list. We have cost of production as an additional criteria for obvious reasons seeing as we are young and do not have a large supply of money YET.