Brief
We were approached by small business Apawtiser, a local company here in Sheffield that produces handmade, hypoallergenic dog treats. They wanted our help to design some templates for their treat cutters to cut production time and be ready to manufacture.
Challenges
Apawtiser were cutting each dog treat individually which took up a lot of time and reduced how many they could produce. We had to figure out a way to upscale their processes, so they were able to sell more and deliver results in a shorter timeframe.
Apawtiser | Treat Cutters
Cutting production times with design for manufacturing
Insight
Our design team started by analysing their current setup. How they produced their existing product line of treats and the time it took. They wanted heart shaped treats so we began to brainstorm tray ideas and ways we could speed up cutting the treats out.
Create
From our analysis, we began to create a tray CAD design of protruding heart shapes that meant it could be placed over the mixture and multiple treats were cut out at once. The designs were made suitable for immediate manufacture.
Validate
To ensure that the cookie cutters would work as intended, we quickly sourced and produced prototypes to validate sizes and thickness which we confirmed with our client.
As well as this, we carried out research to source food-safe materials that the trays could be manufactured with.
Initially, we found the trays had too many heart shapes so the dough mixture was getting stuck and not functioning properly. From this, we tweaked the design so it could alternate without friction. This meant waste was reduced from the dough used.
Outcomes
We designed Apawtiser cost-effective alternating cookie cutter trays that were ready for manufacture. This cut their production time in half and saw their processes become more efficient so customer orders could be fulfilled in less time. Food-safe materials were sourced and confirmed to be suitable for the CAD design.
CAD Creation
Two alternating CAD files were created.
Design For Manufacture
Our designs ensured that the trays would be accurately manufactured.
Material Sourcing
Our team researched suppliers of food-safe materials as well as the materials themselves, recommending a cost-effective route to manufacture for Apawtiser.
