TASK: Design a Candy Bar

This task is designed to provide practice applying the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique in the design of the perfect candy bar for me, your instructor. QFD is explained in Chapter 7 of the text. The goal is to think about how to select components that will deliver the benefits desired by a target customer group. The translation of benefits to components is a very difficult mental challenge. You must learn how to select components and assemble them into products in order to give the customer the benefits desired. This is not easy.

You are to design a candy bar for a very specific segment and use situation. Also, I am a representative of the segment and you can ask me questions about what I want out of a candy bar. I've entered some information into the spreadsheet to help you (I anticipated your questions!). You cannot ask me if I like chocolate, peanuts, caramel, etc. Your job is to consider all the ingredients and shape options and determine how to construct a candy bar (including the ingredients) to give me the benefits I want. Ultimately, you are free to consider new candy bar recipes that are different than todays candy bars.

Use occasion - eating a candy bar while driving the car on the way home from work

Values delivered - I have worked hard all day and this is my private reward to myself. I really want to enjoy eating the candy bar; it makes me feel like a kid again

I have prepared an excel spreadsheet that lays out what I like and dislike in a candy bar. I've added three (3) sheets so you can enter data more than once but remember to keep the ONE sheet for your final choice. It also includes an extensive list of ingredients and shapes for different candy bars. I prepared this list by going to the major candy bar manufacturers and reviewing the ingredients and structures of their candy bars.

You should use a spreadsheet like a QFD house of quality. This provides the structure for matching up features to benefits. All you have to do is fill in the numbers and do the arithmetic in order to determine my preferred ingredients and the structural shape of the candy bar.

To keep the assignment manageable in our time frame the spreadsheet does not have the roof as in the house of quality. Keep in mind, however, the roof deals with the interactions among the ingredients, which is important.

Ive attached the spreadsheet for you to download (see below). To get started, select about 10-12 different candy bars as examples and explore their attributes. Pick a wide variety of candy bars. Open the candy bars up to see how they are designed. [HINT: You might want to consult with your team members and each pick 3 or 4 different candy bars! Pool your efforts on this part!].

Remember, after reviewing the information already in the spreadsheet, you can ask me questions (use MESSAGES) about what I like or dislike in the way of positive and negative benefits, but I wont tell you what I like. Think of this a bit like the 20 questions game. Also, there aren't any hidden "gotchya's."

Finally, you need to decide based upon the benefits I want which candy bar comes the closest to what I would prefer.

Along with YOUR individual recommendation, include a summary where you describe your analysis and candy bar design.

You will attach your spreadsheet and a document with your recommendation and summary.