Professional Documents
Culture Documents
181216han04 - Revised (9-1-19)
181216han04 - Revised (9-1-19)
[Name of Topic]
[Submitted to]
[Date of Submission]
Table of Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3
Learning .............................................................................................................................. 6
References ........................................................................................................................... 9
Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 11
Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................... 11
Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................... 13
Appendix ....................................................................................................................... 14
Appendix 4 .................................................................................................................... 15
Introduction
The group project was aimed at solving the problem of the people who do not want to
cook food at supper time due to their hectic routines. In this regard, a research was conducted to
understand the needs of the potential customers in the group project (Appendix 1 and 2). The
changes which I have made in relation with the group project are of removing the truck and the
warehouse for storage and using a small immobile shop or restaurant as the means of storage and
dining.
The identified problem was that the people are unable to cook food at their homes due to
their busy schedules due to which they opt for fast food which is unhealthy for them (Wolfson,
2015). The research showed that people are looking to have healthier food options due to the
increase in awareness regarding the harms of fast food (Kang, Jun, and Arendt, 2015). The
challenge was to identify a way through which healthy meal can be provided to the people in a
convenient, fast and cost effective manner so that the customers do not have to wait for long or
pay extra when they switch from fast food to healthy meal especially at supper. The previously
proposed design was convenient and fast but it was not cost effective. Therefore, the above
mentioned changes were made in the project so that the variable cost can be controlled and the
The process that I have adopted for the solution of the problem described in the group
project, has a different design as compared to the one mentioned in the group project. The new
design for solving the problem is chosen because the previous one contained some flaws. The
solution of the problem had to be based on three values i.e. a healthy meal solution, convenient
to customers and low cost. The solution mentioned in the group report does not provide all the
three values as it is not a cost effective solution. The use of mobile trucks and warehouse would
have made the cost of the meal to rise significantly and the trucks would not be able to
accommodate much people as compared to a small restaurant. Moreover, the vans would be able
to deliver more order at a time and in a much better way than e-bikes.
The Problem
The problem with the design process provided in the group project is that the use of
trucks is making the prices of the food to go up. The fresh and healthy food is already difficult
and costly to acquire and maintain (Marian et al., 2014). The addition of variable cost would
make it more costly which in turn affect the final price of the meal. The cost of logistics would
also increase as the trucks would not be able to hold enough material that can last for long so
they would be required to get a refill for the minimum of two times in a day.
In addition to this, the use of warehouse for the purpose of food storage and truck parking
is also issue. The problem identified in the use of warehouse is that it can only effectively serve
the trucks which will be in the nearby locations. The trucks which will be operating in the distant
areas of the city will find it difficult to get the stocks refilled. The addition of warehouses to cater
to this problem would also not be an effective way as it will make the costs to rise significantly
and most importantly, if we are talking about fresh and healthy food, then we cannot store food
items for long which makes the use of warehouses completely unnecessary (Kostecka,
Finally, the trucks will make the use of e-bikes for the purpose of delivery. This also
raises a problem as the e-bikes will only be able to carry one or two order at a time and they can
only be able to deliver at a distance of 2 to 3 kilometres. This will significantly limit the
provision of our service as we will be able to cover a very short area by this method. All these
problematic areas identified can be framed down to the problem of cost effectiveness that can be
The Solution
The path of determining the solution of the problem was undertaken and cross referneced
using the creative problem solving approach in order to understand the results of the proposed
solution (Laisema and Wannapiroon, 2014). The changes in the solution proposed in the group
project were made based on the identified problems in the process design of it. The new solution
of the problem requires the operations to be carried out from a small restaurant instead of a
mobile truck. The reason for this is that the restaurant will only require a fixed cost to setup
whereas the use of trucks would be adding a continuous variable cost to the total price of our
food. Moreover, the restaurant will also be able to give people a better environment than trucks.
Use of restaurant will also eliminate the cost of operating a warehouse, further reducing the cost
of the meal.
In addition to this, the order of the meals would be taken by the same methods as
proposed in the group project. However, the mode of delivery would be different as vans would
be used for delivery instead of e-bikes and the vans would have the environment that allows the
food to stay fresh in cases of distant deliveries. The vans would enable better, fast and distant
deliveries of the meal to the customers. The use of specialised vans would significantly increase
the scale of the delivery which would not be possible with the use of e-bikes and it would also
The new proposed solution was generated by carrying out further research. The focus in
the new solution remained on the service of dinner due to the research findings which can be
seen in Appendix 3 and the menu of the diiner was also selected by making research as its basis
which can be viewed in Appendix 4. Different business models were also studied and literature
available online was reviewed. The analysis has shown that by using trucks, therewould be a
constant variable cost which we would have to bear. This would make the price of our food items
to go up. The research has also shown that the consumers are not willing to pay an amount which
is significantly higher than the cost of fast food, even if they are getting the benefit of having
Learning
The two iterations of the design process have made me learn that the how a big project
can be bifurcated in to small manageable parts. The first exercise of the group project allowed
me to learn the effectiveness of team work and made me realise that how a big project can be
carried out easily and effectively by working in a team. Moreover, I also learned that how the
snowballing effect (Duraman, Shahrill, and Morsidi, 2015) takes place in a group discussion
In addition to this, the both the iterations allowed me to think critically and relate the
theory with practice (Pearson, 2016). The individual project allowed me to learn the skill of re-
framing the problem and to think of a better solution. The design process of both iterations also
allowed me to learn the skill of carrying out research individually as well as in a group. It also
allowed me to learn the way of looking at a single problem from different angles before
proposing an effective solution. I also learned the importance of looking at a problem from
design process. The main problem was to carry out extensive research which was required for the
projects. Apart from this, carrying out a critical analysis and proposing a solution that is
convenient, reliable, fast and cost effective was also a challenge. The research showed us that the
cost of making fresh organic meals is high whereas the customers were not willing to pay a price
that is relatively much higher than the unhealthy meals available in the market. This finding also
posed a challenge as combining healthy food with low prices was difficult (Masset et al., 2014).
Another challenge that was faced in the group project was of managing conflicts. As we
all were doing brainstorming of the ideas so all of us were coming out with many ideas and there
were times when some ideas were creating conflicts among the team members. This problem
taught me the skill of managing conflicts with diplomacy (Sherif, 2015). Moreover, the iterations
also taught me the skill of presenting the idea based on evidences rather than basing the idea on
assumptions.
The project also allowed me to use a variety of published tools. Prior to this project, all
these tools were unknown to me and I did not know the proper usage of theses tools. However,
by doing continuous practice and progressing carefully forward in the completion of project, I
learned the usage of these tools through experience (Boud, Keogh and Walker, 2013). This
assimilates to the learning from experience theory where learning is gained through experience
To sum up, both the iterations of the design process proved to be of great learning for me
and provided me with a great experience. I not only learned to put an individualised effort
towards the completion of the project but also learned to put a team effort towards it. Although,
there were some problems which made the completion of the projects challenging and difficult,
but those problems provided an enhanced learning experience which would help me in my future
endeavours.
References
Duraman, H.S.A.H., Shahrill, M. and Morsidi, N.M.H., 2015. Investigating the effectiveness of
collaborative learning in using the snowballing effect technique. Asian Journal of Social
Hoek, A.C., Pearson, D., James, S.W., Lawrence, M.A. and Friel, S., 2017. Shrinking the food-
print: A qualitative study into consumer perceptions, experiences and attitudes towards
Kang, J., Jun, J. and Arendt, S.W., 2015. Understanding customers’ healthy food choices at
Marian, L., Chrysochou, P., Krystallis, A. and Thøgersen, J., 2014. The role of price as a product
attribute in the organic food context: An exploration based on actual purchase data. Food
Masset, G., Soler, L.G., Vieux, F. and Darmon, N., 2014. Identifying sustainable foods: the
Parboteeah, K.P., Hoegl, M. and Muethel, M., 2015. Team characteristics and employees'
pp.287-295.
Payne, Troy and Gallagher, Km and Eck, John and Frank, James.2013. Problem framing in
problem solving: A case study. Policing An International Journal of Police Strategies and
Pearson, A.T., 2016. The teacher: Theory and practice in teacher education. Routledge.
Plattner, H., Meinel, C. and Leifer, L., 2012. Design thinking research.Springer.
Sherif, M., 2015. Group conflict and co-operation: Their social psychology. Psychology Press.
Walumbwa, F.O., Hartnell, C.A. and Misati, E., 2017. Does ethical leadership enhance group
learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical conduct, justice
Wolfson, J.A., Bleich, S.N., Smith, K.C. and Frattaroli, S., 2016. What does cooking mean to
you?: perceptions of cooking and factors related to cooking behavior. Appetite, 97,
pp.146-154.
Boud, D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D., 2013. Reflection: Turning experience into learning.
Routledge.
Laisema, S. and Wannapiroon, P., 2014. Design of collaborative learning with creative problem-
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
50% of people are office workers, and 62% of the annual household nnual income are about
78% of people do not cook regularly, but they still think that dinner is significant, and they want
60% of people think that their price for dinner is 6-10 pounds.
90% of people think that, if there is a new way to provide the healthier dinner (ready to cook or
cooked food) that can be delivered within a short time, and they are willing to try.
36% of people believe that for ready-to-eat services, price, nutrition content, and taste are
significant. However, 32% of people believe that price is the most important.
A majority of people believe that they prefer to use this service at dinner time.
The number of people choosing disposable tableware and recyclable tableware is almost the
same.
Most people hold the opinion that in our app if users can also share their healthy recipes and they
will satisfy with this interaction。If someone launches an application that provides ready-to-eat
healthy food called COOKLINK, almost respondents are willing to try it.
Appendix 3
10% 6%
10%
12%
22%
40%
2%
18%
80%
Appendix 4
(Source: HARDING, E. (2014) Can't cook won't cook Britain: Amount of time spent cooking in the UK has
HALVED since 1980s, and most people survive on diet of sandwiches. Daily Mail)