PROBLEM
To slow down global warming,
widespread lifestyle changes are powerful.
-- Developing a lifestyle of composting
Our surveys show that
86% of the respondents thought that composting was an important part of a sustainable lifestyle.
However...
Only 29% were confident in their knowledge of composting
Less than 20% of people in their social circle compost
Only 12% were aware of a compost collection system their neighborhood
Problem Statement
Many individuals do not have the information and resources that they need in order to take the initiative to compost. These actions are additionally hindered by a lack of daily routine and convenience.
TARGET MARKET
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About 17% of 327.2 million Americans live in apartments
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About 5.3% of Americans compost
These would yield 2,948,072 people. Thus, the market is assumed to have about 2,500,000 target users
DESIGN MAPPING
Convenient. Educational. Odorless
POSITIONING
Benchmarking
Product Positioning
ROMU provides affordable, convenient and educational solutions for composting in the city.
IDEATION
Concept Generation & Selection
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SOLUTION
A convenient composting system covers the whole composting cycle.
PRODUCT
Embodiment Design for Physical Product
The physical product contains shredded compostable food scraps, which also accelerates the composting process.
App Design for Pick-up Service
The pick-up service sends scraps to professional composting sites in the city.
Beta+ Prototype
DESIGN ANALYSIS
ENGINEERING ANALYSIS
Functional Optimization
This analysis is to maximize the stability of the physical product, interpreted by the tipping angle. The optimization was done with the Excel Solver tool to obtain the “best” set of outer dimensions with maximum stability. The variables are Outer Length (L), Outer Breadth (B) and Outer Height (H). The objective function is: 𝛳 = 38.09 + 2.1944*L - 0.2333*B - 2.2772*H.
SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS
Eco-Audit
This is to determine the most significant impacts on energy and CO2 by Romu. Material production of the core materials, product packaging, and recycling were included. The scenarios for comparison are a Romu that utilized a hand-powered crank for the blades, a Romu that required an outlet rather than a battery to power the motor for the blades, and a Romu with its outer stainless steel shell replaced with aluminum.
FAILURE ANALYSIS
DFMEA
The exception to this allocation was any potential failure mode that required a “10” for the severity category- this was only the case for the scenario of Romu potentially tipping over and causing injury, and thus despite having an RPN of 60, this failure mode was noted as being of critical importance. Other critical scenarios included the motion sensor not activating, food scraps getting stuck and not making it to the blades, the blades getting stuck or jammed, and chopped food scraps not making it into the bag in the bottom bin.
BUSINESS PLAN
Market & Economic Analysis
CONJOINT ANALYSIS
The combination of different attribute levels would result in the spe.cifications of a competitor product. We received 21 responses for our conjoint survey, and the results of the responses gave us the part worth of each level within an attribute, which indicates utility. A price of $120, use time of 5 seconds, the height of 2.5ft and the weight of 15lbs were the levels with the highest beta values in their respective attributes.
PROFIT OPTIMIZATION
The sample product with a price of $150, a use time of 5 seconds, total height of 2.5 ft, and a total weight of 22 lbs, took 100% of the market share. In this model, we included a use time of 12 seconds and a weight of 28 pounds. This predicted that Romu will take 77% of the market
COSTS
To set the price, it was necessary to determine the fixed and variable costs for the product. The fixed costs included tooling, manufacturing space, and app development, while the variable costs included the total part prices and labor. The fixed costs had a total of $2,000,000, and the variable costs were the sum of $86.74 parts costs in BOM and a $7.13 labor costs.
PRO FORMA ANALYSIS
We conducted a 3-year projection to make a solid business plan. According to the cost analysis, Romu needs an initial investment of $2.1 million to start our business. We plan to finish the setup within one year and expect to cover our target market with a 250,000 market size in Year 3.
TO IMPROVE
DESIGN
To find better ways to prevent scraps from sticking on the wall of the chopping cylinder.
To find more effective solutions for odor minimization.
TEST
Test the ease of use of the app and the physical product for different user groups.
Test the emission of odor during the period of scraps storing.
Test the efforts and tools needed to clean the ROMU bin.
Test the safety among different groups of users.