IH02-FirstNameLastName

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

Auto Cook Device

Problem Description

Homemade food is more desirable to anyone who likes healthier food with more varieties comparing from the outside restaurants. There are also people value a lot about dinner gathering time with family and friends at a warm place like home. However, cooking and cleaning takes a lot time and afford. I know a lot of people with ages from 18 to 52 who love homemade food but with little time to cook. For those who don’t have time to cook after work/school or those who hate to clean up after every meal or those who have to cook for a big family, an Automatic cooking device will be very convenient and desirable.

Target User Group

The target group of this device is anyone who enjoy having homemade food but with little time or too lazy to cook for themselves. They are people who are willing to spend money to buy this electronic device and be able to save more time to do other stuffs rather than cooking and cleaning the kitchen. The middle class are the main target group because they have money to pursue a better lifestyle, but with little time to cook after work.

Problem Context and Forces

The Automatic Cooking device can bring a couple advantages to the users: Save Time: Cooking is no longer an hour process because the user only has to put raw food into the Auto Cook Device. Then it will do the rest for you. Convenience: No cleaning is necessary after dinner. Besides, the kitchen won’t be oily and dirty. Large Variety of food: Users can download or input their own recipes to the device. It can serve all kinds of food

The Limitation of this Automatic Cooking device is the manufacturing cost might be pretty high. Besides, not everyone have internet access to download the recipes. The future perspective of this device is to bring it down to a reasonable price that most people can afford it and make it as popular as a refrigerator in every home. Solution Sketch

Solution Sketch

Figure 1

The Automatic cooking device is shown in Figure 1. The design might look complicated, however, the instruction to use it can be as easy as a microwave. You need to somehow allow users to get a good grip on a tray with a single hand. That is not everything though, as they also need to have the security and the confidence that it is safe, otherwise, even a good design will end up a failure.

1. The Auto Cook Device including a food feeder, a stove, a stir-fry device, a deep-fry device. A serving device, a washing device, and the traditional stoves.

2. It is simple to use, the user just have to select the cooking recipe on the Cooking Program Controller. (User will be able to download recipe online or input their own recipes by wireless or usb port.)

3. The raw food is then put into the food feeder on the left side.

4. The controller screen is also works as a feedback device. To ensure safety there are locks at each device and it works like seat-beat: if one of the door is not locked, it will be shown on the controller screen. And cooking won’t start before all the doors are locked. The controller screen will also show warning to tell user it runs out of seasoning.

5. The food will be cooked in a way the recipes indicated. And the good thing is it will do all the combination cooking method. (refer to Figure 2)For an example, some food may be fried in the deep-fry device, then transfer to the stir-fry device to mix with other food. When the food is fully cooked, it will be send to the serving device.

6. When the food is ready to serve, the device will make a noise and there will also have a light to let the user know.

7. The dishes will be washed by the washing device, and store at the dishes storage on the side.

Figure 2