Design of an automatic egg cooker for boiled and poached eggs

Abstract

Automatic egg cooker (AEC) consists of various design core stages such as market investigation, product design
specification, conceptual design and detail design. In each of these stages, design methods were used to support those activities such as brainstorming, Pugh evaluation and morphological chart. Eventually, the final concept selected was 10 eggs or can poach 5 eggs in a time. Aluminum coated Teflon was chosen as the suitable material for cooking rack and poaching pan. The base plate was aluminum, which is not subjected to corrosion. The new AEC can be used in restaurants and it is developed by looking into various total life cycle issues to achieve high quality product.

Full text

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In the product development, a total
approach by considering all life cycle ac-
tivities has become a routine in industries.
Partial consideration of design element is
not only results in low quality product but
also incurs higher cost and involving more
time. The total design approach enables
product development team to consider all
the possibilities toward achieving competi-
tive products. A fundamental total design
model consists of market investigation, prod-
uct design specification, conceptual design,
detail design, manufacture and sale. In car-
rying out each stage of the total design,
various design methods have been proposed
by the experts (Wright 1998, Cross 1994).
This paper is concerned with the design of
an AEC for use in restaurants. In the design
of the AEC, 4 activities of total design
(except for manufacture and sale) were
carried out. The design methods proposed
by the experts such as morphological chart,
brainstorming and Pugh evaluation method
were employed (Pugh 1991, Wright 1998,
Cross 1994).
Materials and methods
i. Market investigation
In product development, the first step
that the product development team should
carry out is market investigation. This in-
cludes design brief from the customers,
competitor study, information collection
from sources like internet, journal and
conference papers, books, trade literature,
patents, standards and reports. In addition,
the information about the product can also
be obtained from the users and the poten-
tial users. Normally, interview sessions,
mailed questionnaires and telephone inter-
view can be conducted in order to obtain
as much information as possible on the
product (Sapuan 1998).
Design of an automatic egg cooker for boiled and poached eggs
Zainudin ES*, Siregar JP, Rashdi AAA, Sapuan SM
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
*E-mail:edisyam@eng.upm.edu.my
Automatic egg cooker (AEC) consists of various design core stages such as market investigation, product design
specification, conceptual design and detail design. In each of these stages, design methods were used to support those
activities such as brainstorming, Pugh evaluation and morphological chart. Eventually, the final concept selected was
10 eggs or can poach 5 eggs in a time. Aluminum coated Teflon was chosen as the suitable material for cooking rack
and poaching pan. The base plate was aluminum, which is not subjected to corrosion. The new AEC can be used in
restaurants and it is developed by looking into various total life cycle issues to achieve high quality product.
Keywords: Automatic egg cooker, Boiled, Poached, Product development, Conceptual design, Pugh evaluation method
J Food Sci Technol, 2008, 45(2), 170–172
For the design of an AEC, a team
consisting of 3 members has been involved
to come up with the best design. Some
results from the regular discussions and
conclusions about the problems are given as
follows: (i) The AEC to be designed and
manufactured is targeted for restaurant pur-
poses, (ii) in order to design the egg cooker,
initially various methods like how the egg
is usually cooked such as boiled egg,
poached egg/sunny side up, fried egg,
scrambled egg and omelet, (iii) the AEC to
be designed and manufactured should have
several advantages and functions compared
to regular cooking utensils, which include
easy to use and operate, can cook many
eggs simultaneously, no monitoring is re-
quired, so that cook can leave the egg and
attend to other tasks and the egg cooker
should be portable, and (iv) the price of
AEC should be low.
Some preliminary information about
how the egg is cooked in restaurants were
collected before designing an AEC. From
the investigation, it was found that the way
that egg is being cooked in the restaurant
at breakfast time usually in poached, boiled
and fried styles. These poached egg, fried
egg and boiled egg can be served with
fried rice or locally known food called
nasi lemak. The boiled egg can be cooked
in 3 styles (soft, medium and hard/fully
boiled) and customers normally eat soft
and medium eggs with salts, soy sauce and
pepper. Based on the investigation, it was
decided to design an AEC for boiled and
poached eggs. These 2 methods of egg
cooking can be accomplished in a single
machine. In addition this egg cooker can
cook soft, medium and hard boiled egg
just by setting the machine that makes the
egg cooker multifunctional. In designing
the AEC, the tasks carried out included:
(1) competitor study, (2) product design
specification, (3) morphological chart and
(4) evaluation and selection.
ii. Competitor study
Market research is the method of
collecting and presenting information on
customer needs and the study of competi-
tors. The market research focusing on
competitors was carried out by collecting
specific information about the existing
and similar products available in the
market. The products developed by the
competitors were obtained by studying
several brands and types of AEC from the
internet as this is the most convenient way
to obtain and collect the information about
the features, specification and character-
istics of the existing AEC and 10 AEC
brands have been compiled and studied.
After the survey on competitors’ prod-
ucts was done, the specification and fea-
tures of each AEC brand were analyzed
and it generated the ideas on how to re-
design an AEC. From the survey it was
found that most AEC consist of the follow-
ing parts: base, heating plate, poaching
pan, cooking rack (boiled egg), lid, mea-
suring cup and indicator light and alarm.
From the specifications of all models
it was observed that most of the brands
can be used to cook boiled and poached
egg and the egg cooker can cook 4 to 8
boiled eggs or 2 to 4 poached eggs at a
time. This feature really saves time and
effort in cooking the eggs. The machine
can cook soft, medium and hard boiled
egg depending on the customer demand.
Most egg cookers come with measuring
cup to measure the egg and water for
the purpose of cooking. Most products
also have timer that can be set when

171
cooking the egg and hence there is no need
to monitor the egg all the time. By this, the
cook can attend to other jobs while cook-
ing the egg, and the machine is automati-
cally shut off when the egg is cooked and
this avoids the egg from being overcooked.
Most egg cookers are equipped with ‘ready’
signal that gives light when the egg cooker
begins to cook so the cook can easily
check whether the eggs are already cooked
or not. Generally, most egg cookers only
required 350 to 600 Watts of electricity.
The prices of the machines are also not
high, and it ranged from US$19-40 de-
pending on the brands. Most of the egg
cookers can come in handy for the use in
restaurant. The information from the com-
petitors’ products can be used as the basis
and can be applied in the development of
new AEC.
Results and discussion
i. Product design specification
Product design specification (PDS) is
a set of requirements of the product to be
met at the end of the product development.
Below are the elements of PDS which
were considered in designing the AEC.
1. Performance: Can cook 10 eggs
for boil eggs, can cook 5 eggs for poach,
can cook the eggs hard, medium and soft,
automatically shut off when the eggs are
ready to prevent overcooking, Heat resis-
tance based and only 400 W (good for
energy saving)
2. Ergonomics: Indicator light on/
off, audible tone alarm, portable, com-
fortable to hold, aesthetically pleasing and
water level indicator
3. Cost: Low price (US$ 35 - 40),
low maintenance cost, only has few parts
and has no loose parts and ease to as-
semble and dissemble
4. Safety: Auto shut off, low risk,
automatically shut off if the cooker cover
opens during cooking time, insulated
handle and no sharp corner
5. Weight: Exceeding 3 kg
6. Size:Height 30 cm and width:30 cm
ii. Conceptual design
The conceptual design was performed
using morphological chart. Morphologi-
cal chart is useful to record and present
the alternative solutions to the various
functional requirements of product.
This morphology chart also presents
the space solution for the product, made
from the combinations of each model that
can be seen in the chart. Six sub-functions
of AEC studied were, cooking rack, poach-
ing pan, base, cover (lid), and based
handle. For each sub-functions, 6 solu-
tions were proposed. Finally, the best 3
combinations of sub-functions were se-
lected and they are given in Table 1.
Pugh selection matrix method was
used to select the best concept. These 3
concepts were evaluated based on some
design criteria taken from the PDS (Pugh
1991). The matrix evaluation based on
Pugh selection method used to select the
best design has shown in Table 2. Con-
cept 3 gives the highest score compared
Table 1. Concept evaluation of utility values for automatic egg cooker
Sub function Solutions
Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3
Cooking rack and
poaching pan
Shape Ellipse Rectangle Ellipse
Base shape Cylinder Cylinder Round
Lid shape Cone Cylinder Half sphere
Base handle Two side rectangle Round (at base Two side sphere
knobs upper edge) knobs
Table 2. Pugh evaluation matrix for selecting the best concept for automatic egg cooker
Criteria Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3
Safety
Low risk to user s s s
No sharp edges s s s
Egg holder + + +
Market competitiveness
Aesthetically pleasing s s +
Low cost s s s
Portability s s s
Environmentally friendly s s s
Performance
Quality s s s
Efficiency + + +
Reliability s s s
Robustness - s +
Heat resistance base s s s
No stick surface s s s
Easy to clean s s s
Auto shut off s s s
Auto buzzing s s s
Power + + +
Ergonomics
Comfortable s s s
Clear plastic cover s s s
Size & weight - - -
Water level indicator s s s
No loose part s s s
Σ+ 3 3 5
Σ- 2 1 1
ΣT 1 2 4
If a new concept (either 1, 2 or 3 as stated above) promises a better match to customer
requirements in terms of one of the criteria, + is placed in the appropriate box of the matrix.
If it performs less well, – is entered, and if it promises the same match, s is entered.
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J Food Sci Technol, 2008, 45(2), 170–172

172
to other concepts and it is selected for
further refinement.
Final concept selected for the AEC
is shown in Fig. 1. The materials selected
for each sub-function is also included.
Fig. 2 shows the exploded view of the
AEC with some leading dimensions.
Conclusion
Development of AEC was success-
fully carried out with the help of total
design technique. Morphological chart,
brainstorming and Pugh matrix evaluation
methods were used in generating ideas in
the design of an AEC. The most optimum
design of AEC was developed at concep-
tual design stage and the design concept
selection using Pugh selection method was
carried out.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Qurratu Aini of
Fig 1. The final concept of the AEC
Fig 2. The exploded diagram with dimension
(in cm) of the final concept of the automatic
egg cooker
the Sri Petaling School, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia for her support.
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Received 11 May 2007; revised 01 August 2007; accepted 04 August 2007
J Food Sci Technol, 2008, 45(2), 170–172