Geometric Pizza Cutter

Alimul Bayeazid, Angela Rodriguez, Christopher Recupero, and Brandon Valentin

Writing for Engineers

Professor Crystal Rodwell

May 12, 2022

Table of Contents

Content	Author	Page #
Introduction	Christopher/ Brandon	p. 3
Tech Description	Brandon	pp. 4-5
Innovation Process	Christopher	pp. 5-7
Finances	Angela	p. 8
Task Schedule	Christopher/ Angela	p. 9
Evaluation Techniques	Alimul	pp. 9-11

Introduction

The problem we are looking to solve is that pizza cutting is inefficient, tiresome, and unsafe to pizza shops today. As a solution to this dilemma, we propose the Geometric Pizza Cutter that only requires one simple mechanical compression to perfectly cut 8 slices of pizza. Most bladed wheels used in pizza shops range from $10-$25 (sometimes even less). These pizza cutters not only cause a lot of strain on a worker’s wrist over time due to the redundancy throughout the week of cutting hundreds of pizzas, but it’s also an inefficient way to cut food. Additionally, these blades are usually engineered poorly and dull out quickly. On top of this fact, redundancy and monotonous work is a cost without a price because both are factors that decrease a worker’s productivity which in turn, is a negative for the work environment. Other pizza cutters built with similar intention as our item of increasing efficiency also have numerous problems. Priced normally well over $1500, these oversized pizza cutters require electricity to power their machine and lack safety from the blades. This object can be used by customers outside of the restaurant industry, however, it is designed with the purpose of improving efficiency in the kitchen of a restaurant. We plan to get our innovation to the marketplace for both brick & mortar – as well as ecommerce -so that our object attains a maximized viewing from potential customers. Further plans to market the item have not been arranged to exact details however we aim to research while our item is receiving a patent about profitable marketing strategies to optimize the revenue made from our invention. 

Technical Description

Blades 8x 

The 8 blades are rectangular in shape with a pointed bottom and made of metal. The blades are 9 inches long, 4 inches in height, and .25 inches in width. These 8 blades are able to cut the pizza up into 8 identical slices. The blade’s subpart is the 8 metal springs. The springs hold up the blades when they are not being used so the pizza can have space to slide under the blades. 

Sleeve

The sleeve is a stainless steel cylinder that extends to be 18 inches in diameter and 9 inches in height. The sleeve houses the blades to protect anyone using the cutter . The sleeve also has a semicircle cut out on the bottom of the sleeve so that pizzas can go in and out of the cutter. 

Cap

The cap is circular in shape and made of acrylic plexiglass. The cap is 20 inches in diameter and 1 inch in height. The purpose of the cap is to hold the blades together at the top of the chopper and slide down when pressure is applied to the cap so the blades can cut the pizza.

Handles 2x

The “U” shaped handles are made of metal and are connected to the cap. The handles are 7 inches long, 2 inches in height, and 1 inch wide. The handles allow the chopper to be picked up. The handles also allow pressure to be made on the sides for even more thorough cutting

Pressure disk

The pressure disk has a circular shape and is made of acrylic plastic. The disk is 8 inches in diameter and 1 inch in height. The purpose of the pressure disk is to put pressure on the center of the blades for more thorough cutting. The subpart of the disk is the plastic tube. The tube connects the disk to the cap. The tube is 2 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height. 

Innovation Process

Unlike prior pizza cutters, the Geometric Pizza Cutter introduces a new way of slicing pizza. Not only can it be used by experienced restaurant workers and at-home consumers, but it can also slice any size pizza into 8 slices – only requiring one mechanical compression on top of the device to do so. Most modern day devices require three-four steps, consisting of open blades that dull easily. Our design has secured sharp blades that cut a full pie in just a few motions. 

Getting our innovation tested after designing the geometric details of our invention is the first crucial step in getting our innovation to the public. Places such as Kitchen Consultants offering product testing for culinary items allow us to gather useful feedback regarding our item’s flaws in order to properly adjust what needs to be fixed. For $400 – $600 per testing, we are confident that after a handful of test runs, our innovation will prove to be a stable product. We plan to test run our product from June 1, 2022 throughout September of 2022 (later than that if needed) to ensure our item is safe and flawless for kitchen efficiency. 

Over the course of this time period dedicated for testing, we expect to make a few costly adjustments to our item given that it is most probable for there to be something wrong in the first few test runs. Due to this, we can expect approximately $200 – $300 worth of possible costs that may need to be incurred in order to ensure our item is ready for the market. This cost comes from the expectation of our product potentially requiring new interior materials. While we are confident in our current design of the model, financially preparing for minor errors during test runs allow us to maintain a steady budget for future plans regarding our innovation. 

Once we fix our item from testing, we would look to patent our innovation via a patent attorney.  We would need to find a proper patent attorney in order to properly and safely apply for a provisional patent. During this process, we must show proof of our prototyped innovation and prove that it is a unique, unprecedented idea. After numerous calls with numerous patent attorneys such as MG Miller Intellectual Property Law LLC, Goldstein Patent Law, and other New York City patenting law companies, we have estimated the cost to be around $5,000; this counts the fees required for the patent and the hiring of the attorney itself. Patenting the item will be the longest duration of the entire process, taking place from the Fall of 2022 to the Summer of 2024. 

Subsequently, we will find a company looking to produce our item and potentially store it so that we can sell it to the retail markets for consumers. One such company that can help us in the process of doing so is Chef Restaurant Supplies located in Manhattan. After numerous phone calls, we have estimated a price range of $450 per unit to produce our innovation – including the cost of the item, storing the item, and the labor. This location is a great spot for our innovation to be produced because we can not only store it in the same place, however it is located in the heart of New York City, making it easier and less costly to transfer each product to future retailers. We intend on the production of our item to take place during the Fall of 2024. 

Lastly, we look to market our item to retailers with a markup of 32% in order to maximize our profit. Because our product costs $450 to produce (including storage, labor, and materials), a markup of 32% means that we are looking for our item to be sold to retailers at $594.00. In particular, stores such as JCC Supply Store have shown interest in buying our product at said cost. Additionally, we are looking to expand into the ecommerce market with retailers such as Katom Restaurant Supply and Amazon with the same retail markup of 32%. Overall, we are confident due to talking both in person, email, and over the phone that our product will reach the market with few issues because of the displayed interest from the listed companies. We plan to reach the market with our product by January 6 of 2025. 

Finances

The charts below will display the numbers for total expenses, final price, and profit made for both our company and distributors

Component	Quantity	Cost Per Item	Total Cost
Blades	8	$4.50	$36.00
Springs	8	$3.34	$26.72
18-8 Stainless Steel Sleeve	1	$48.26	$48.26
Acrylic Pexiglass Cap	1	$49.99	$49.99
Metal U-shaped Handles	2	$10.19	$20.28
Pressure Disk	1	$25.00	$25.00
Plastic Tube (cut to size)	1	$15.69	$15.69
Stainless Steel CSK Self Drilling Screw	4	$1.26	$5.04
	​​	Total Cost	$227.08

	Total Expenses	Markup	Final Price	Profit
Wholesale	$555.58	17%	$650.02	$94.44
Retail	$555.58	35%	$750.03	$194.45

Task Schedule

The chart below represents a timeline with associated costs of each major step in the process of innovating and producing our item. 

Phase	Time Length Per Phase	Cost
Product testing with Kitchen Consultants – an international company that tests culinary products.	June 1, 2022 – September 1, 2022	$400 – $600 per testing
*Possible* readjustments to our item from results of tests	(coincide with testing phase)	$200 – $300
Patenting our product	October 1, 2022 – Summer of 2024 (June 1st – August 1st)	$5,000 total (counting fees and attorney)
Producing our item for the market from Chef Restaurant Supplies in Manhattan	September 15, 2024 – December 20, 2024	$450 per unit to produce (cost of item + labor + storage)
Selling our item to the retail market via ecommerce (Katom Restaurant Supply) and brick & mortar (JCC Supply Store)	January 6, 2025	With a retail markup of 32%, each unit will be sold for $594.00

Evaluation Techniques

We will evaluate the success of our product by seeing how much more productive the pizza restaurants are by using our geometric pizza cutter as opposed to the standard pizza cutter. The increase in productivity will be especially prominent in restaurants that see a high number of customers causing the employees to work at a very fast pace. We can compare the average time it takes to deliver a pizza to a customer from the time they state their order to the time they receive their pizza using the standard and geometric pizza cutter. We may see an increase in customer satisfaction with the geometric pizza cutter as the pizza will be cut into perfect slices every time as opposed to uneven slices with the standard pizza cutter. Another thing we may notice is an overall increase in energy levels among the employees of the restaurant, using the standard pizza cutter may look easy but after cutting through hundreds of pizzas in a day it tends to take a toll on the wrist. Our geometric pizza cutter aims to solve that problem and we can survey the employees energy levels after using a standard and geometric pizza cutter after a full work day. 

We will evaluate the time it takes to deliver a pizza to a customer using both the regular pizza cutter and our pizza cutter. We will select 5 random customers’ orders when the restaurant uses the regular pizza cutter and 5 orders when they use our pizza cutter and compare the two times. We will survey the employees and ask them about their energy levels before and after a shift when using the regular pizza cutter and our pizza cutter. We will also survey random customers and ask them to rate the time it took to get their orders whether it was fast or slow and ask them about the quality of their pizza. 

After evaluating the time it takes to deliver a pizza, customer satisfaction, and employee energy levels we should see that using our geometric pizza cutter yields better results in all three categories to prove that our geometric pizza cutter makes the pizza buying experience better for customers and employees alike.

Method of Evaluation	How will we evaluate?
Time to cut pizza	We will use a stopwatch to time how long it takes to cut a pizza using a standard pizza cutter and our pizza cutter. We will time multiple orders and take the average to get an accurate measurement.
Survey for employees	We will survey the employees and ask them to rate their energy levels before and after a shift using the standard pizza cutter and our pizza cutter.
Survey for customers	We will have a short survey for the customers asking them how they would rate their service based on timing and quality of the pizza.

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