Written by: Mohammad Hossain, Debasree Sen, Erick Wu, and Junjie Luo

Introduction

Ramen is a very popular dish in Eastern culture and has existed for over 200 years. It was first made in China and soon expanded to Japan where it remained very popular. Once ramen was introduced to Western parts of the world, locals adopted a certain way of consuming ramen. With chopsticks being the most common utensils in the East, many people have learned to enjoy the noodles first and then finish their broth at the end of the meal by drinking it straight from the bowl or using a fork and spoon to intake these two parts within their meal.

Ramen’s first appearance in the US was in the form of instant ramen in 1973. From this time on, the demand for ramen has spiked. With the introduction of this ramen has become a fast, convenient, and affordable meal that can be eaten by anyone anywhere, but one problem remains. The expansion of ramen doesn’t mean that other Eastern things are as much of a hit. Chopsticks aren’t as mainstream as spoons or forks in the US because they are much harder to use. Along with this not many people are a fan of the broth that remains at the end of a meal and would rather consume it along with their noodles.

To attempt solving this issue, we have made an easy-to-use utensil that is specifically designed to help those who can’t use chopsticks. Along with this, it will also help the individual get more broth in with every bite so that their meal is more enjoyable and so that they don’t throw away or waste the broth. This invention is something that is much more familiar to the rest of the world and doesn’t require that you learn how to use chopsticks when all you want to do is enjoy some ramen. Not to mention that buying it is not going to put a dent in your wallet. Price wise, it would be rather close to a normal utensil so anyone can afford it without needing to invest much to try it.

There are other people in the world who have already noticed a need for an invention like this and have attempted to do something to fulfill this role. However, most of these inventions are ineffective due to the shape of their designs and can be engineered better to improve one’s experience of taking enough broth and ramen together.

 

Body

The most popular product aimed to create an effective method for broth and ramen consumption at once is the MoMA spork (Takahashi, 2019). To pick up the broth, the spork must be faced horizontally. However, all the broth is lost when having to pick up ramen as the spork must be faced down. Similarly, the same could be said when doing this in vice versa. You could pick up ramen first, but when trying to pick up the broth, the noodles get in the way and may not allow for much broth to be picked up and may even cause some noodles to be dropped due to this contact. This product has the basic idea down but fails to execute this with the desired and efficient ease because it is not ergonomic in its design.

Another similar product in picking up food and broth at once is TiTo’s spork (TiTo Titanium, n.d.). However, due to the material of this spork being titanium, it is easier to bend than stainless steel even if this allows for the spork to be much more lightweight. Though this spork does allow more broth to be picked up than the MoMa spork, it still has the same issues as the MoMa spork in that it is harder to pick up ramen and broth at the same time because of moving the spork in different directions.

To combat this issue, we created a design called Fube consisting of combining a fork and straws in a new way (combo fork straw). Rather than a spoon being infused with fork tines, we have decided to have a fork with 2 straws directly underneath it. They are conjoined towards the handle of the fork so that the top of this handle serves as the opening for drinking broth. This design allows for easy picking up of the noodles with the fork while still being able to drink the desired amount of broth with the straws under the fork. Additionally, the Fube avoids the potential discomfort of having the noodles in the way, and there is no risk of broth falling because we can straight up drink the broth using the straw. The straws must also bend to the curve of the fork to ensure an efficient shape of the fork for picking ramen. Compared to the MoMa and TiTo spork, the separation of a spoon and straws allow for more ramen and broth to be consumed rather than infusing a fork and spoon utensil as one.

 

Production Process

Not only will the physical design of the Fube provide much more efficiency and ease in picking up ramen and broth at once, but there are other features that make this combo utensil an appealing item compared to the MoMa spork. To begin, the Fube would be priced at $12 each, which is much less in price than MoMa’s $30 spork and is better quality than TiTo’s $8 spork. It will be made of stainless steel 18/8 which should lead to material costs being around $0.32 to make seven Fubes (“Stainless steel scrap price”, n.d.). We decided the material should be stainless steel because one can use a dishwasher to wash it and reuse the tool again for many years. We plan to sell our products on Amazon with one spork priced at $12 dollars, including Amazon charging $1 per sale (Livesey, 1976). The final product will be around 9 inches and weigh 65 grams. It is difficult to include the price of processing the stainless steel and the labor cost of producing one single fork. Not much information is available when it comes to the cost of producing a single utensil, but some sources say that a plastic fork can cost up to one cent to produce, because our product is very similar to the shape of a fork, we will assume that it also cost us around a cent to produce one fork (Quora, n.d.). Amazon will have varying cuts based on the item but to do that, they need to inspect our item, which we can’t do because the Fube is not an existing product. Thus, we will base our idea of Amazon cutting $1 from their seller website and ignore the cost of taxes as Amazon will also have to determine that based on the regions they sell in (Livesey, 1976). Therefore, we would have a spending cost of $7.39 to produce seven Fubes and sell it on Amazon, with a profit of $12 per Fube sold. With this in mind, we would make a profit of $76.61 for every 7 Fubes sold, not including tax and other fees.

 

Conclusion

To summarize this journey, our combined use of a fork and a straw, the Fube, allows users to have a greater experience in eating the ramen and drinking the broth one after the other. Unlike multiple products like the MoMA and TiTo’s sporks, our product has a unique design that is engineered for efficiency with ease. Furthermore, the Fube’s stainless steel material itself is reusable after washing which can decrease the use of disposable tableware and ensures the longevity of this product for years to come. Our product is also appealing as an affordable option for many.

 

 

 

Self-Reflection

I found this project to be one of the most difficult assignments this semester for multiple reasons. One of them consists of the topic of the assignment itself. My group and I went through many different inventions and ideas before I randomly came across the MoMA spork as an interesting product for improving on. We were planning on improving an app and device used for custom curtain opening, but one existing product of this already had most of our ideas implemented. I believe this assignment is difficult because of the presence of so many products that already make our lives easier. It doesn’t cross our minds that something can be improved because we are used to the way that products and mechanisms serve their purpose in our day-to-day lives. Furthermore, because this course is an engineering course, many don’t realize the freedom that this assignment grants to choosing a product that isn’t only tech related. Thus, I was especially intrigued and excited by coming across the ramen spork idea because it’s a product that doesn’t involve technology at all and is simple yet complex in the issues that it has. I personally eat both ramen and broth at once, but never one part of this on its own because ramen is made to be consumed in this way. I never used existing utensil fusion products myself, but it was from reading many reviews online that made me understand the setbacks of a design of sporks like MoMA’s and TiTo’s sporks.

Another major issue I had was working as a group. We ran into some syncing issues that didn’t save everyone’s work properly and created a misunderstanding of everyone’s contributions for me. Furthermore, I would have preferred doing a project like this in person because it is easier to give feedback and work more efficiently together in real life rather than online. It was harder to communicate and assign parts due to this. We also had a fourth member that reached out to us last minute so it was even more work having done most of the project amongst the 2 active members in my group.

Though I had faced many challenges throughout the process of this assignment, I have grown to appreciate the value of assignments like these because I have never come across anything like this and it has really pushed me to new understandings and think outside of the box. Our product wasn’t completely perfect in tackling the proposed issue of ramen sporks, but with more time we may have come up with a better idea and more accurate rundown of the costs and time aspects for the Fube too.

 

 

Works Cited

1. TiTo Titanium. (n.d.). Tito titanium long handle spork and spoon eco-friendly ultralight … Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.amazon.com/TiTo-Titanium-Ultralight-Portabale-Backpacking/dp/B07NR2Y6FY
2. Takahashi, Masami. (2019). Ramen spork. MoMA Design Store. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://store.moma.org/products/ramen-spork
3. Stainless steel scrap price USD/lb in USA and Canada scrap yards Today. ScrapMonster. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://www.scrapmonster.com/scrap-yard/price/stainless-steel-scrap/6
4. Gitt, N. (2021, July 21). Types of stainless steel flatware. Fable. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://fable.com/blogs/nest/stainless-steel-flatware-guide#:~:text=Stainless%20steel%20flatware%20is%20the,resistant%20to%20rust%20and%20stain
5. Livesey, F. (1976). Pricing. Amazon. Retrieved May 1, 2023, from https://sell.amazon.com/pricing
6. How much does making one plastic fork cost? (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-making-one-plastic-fork-cost