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Product Information

Blendit is a company which supplies smoothie vending machines to caterers. These vending machines come with maintenance services, but also need to be cleaned on a daily basis by the caterer.

The vending machine contains 5 types of fruits and 3 types of liquids. These fruits and liquids may vary depending on the season and the demands of the customers. The customers can order their smoothie by using the interface on the machine. Through this interface a customized smoothie can also be made. The fruit in the machine is fair trade and is also partially local. The liquids are also from local companies. After the fruits are frozen in the factory they are brought to our distribution center. In this center we can monitor all vending machines and if something is wrong with a machine it will send a signal to the center so the maintenance team can take a look. It will also send a notification if one of the fruits tends to run out. If this happens a new load of fruits and liquids will be sent to the machine, and will be refilled by a person from our maintenance team.

Service System

The maintenance of the smoothie machines consists of two parts, the big maintenance which will be done by us, Blendit, and the day-to-day cleaning which will be done by the caterer of whom we rent space. Whenever a software update is needed in the machine, Blendit will take care of that.

The big maintenance consists of refilling the fruits, liquids, cups, and lids of the machine. The blender, screw conveyors and box holders will be cleaned. And the water basin will be refilled. The only thing we ask our partners to do for us is a daily cleaning. This day-to-day cleaning consists of cleaning the outside of the machine and cup holder area, with the cup conveyor belt.

We take as much of the cleaning and all of the maintenance out of your hands, that is part of our service.

Maintenance Guide

Function of machine


The machine contains from left to right: a cups component, five fruit components, three liquid containers and the blender. A cup holder will move below this components and finally the cup doors will open so you can take out your smoothie. On the right top there is the user interface screen for ordering your smoothie and below you can pay with cash or card.
The dimensions of the vending machine are height: 180 cm; width: 110 cm and depth: 80 cm.

The frozen and the cooled parts of the vending machine are not transparent. If it is transparent it has a lot of extra energy consumption compared with a non-transparent freezer or refrigerator. It is nice to see the real fruit and liquids in the vending machine, but the added value of showing the ingredients does not compensate for the extra energy consumption.
The fruit containers and the funnels with the screw conveyors are in the frozen part, the liquid containers are in the cooled part. The cup which moves below the containers and the blender are visible, so you can see that process.

Move the cursor over the product for more information.

Filling the cup
When you made your choice from our delicious selection of fruits, the cup is moved underneath the according fruit compartment automatically. The compartments each have a screw conveyor at the bottom that dispenses all the ingredients right into the cup. To dispense the liquid components a pump is used.

Blend it!
When all the ingredients are in the cup, it's moved to the blender. When it is lowered into the cup, the spring-loaded rubber splash guard automatically covers the top to avoid spillage. The holder that carries the cup holds it tightly in place and keeps it steady, to avoid the knives touching the walls of the cup. After blending everything thoroughly the blender is removed, and the smoothie moves to the output tray, ready for you to enjoy.

The Blender cleans itself by blending inside of a water filled container. This container is slightly bigger than the cups to make sure that nothing stays at the edge of the splash guard. To save water this container is emptied and refilled automatically after 10 uses or after an idle time of 1 hour.

Frozen fruit
In The Blendit Smoothie Machine we use frozen fruit. This helps maintain the fresh taste, while still staying good for multiple days, so the machine doesn't need to be refilled every day. Since the fruits are just cut and not pureed, they will be freshly blent right inside of your cup for the best taste.

To keep the impact on the environment as low as possible we use local, and fair-trade fruit, and dairy products in our machines. Also, we try to use fruits that are slightly deformed. In supermarkets these would otherwise often have to go to waste, since it isn't bought. But in a smoothie the shape doesn't matter.

On the technical side, the fruits and dairy are cooled by a standard heat pump system that is found in many freezers and fridges. The compartment is split into two separate areas, one for the frozen fruit at -18°C and one for the juice and dairy, cooled tot 4°C. To save energy these two are cooled by the same heat pump, instead of two separate ones.

Cups and lids
The cups have standardized shapes. They have a filling volume of 400 mL and a top fill of 550 mL. The eventual smoothie volume will be 350 mL, but taking into account that the fruit needs to be blended, a bigger cup than 350 mL is needed. After the cups are ordered they will be printed with our logo to make them recognizable. The lids are also standardized, but a bit different than normal lids, because they have a drinking hole in them to allow drinking straight from the cup without taking of the lid. This way no straws are needed which is better for the environment, more about this can be read at sustainability.

Containers
The fruit containers have a volume of 2.4 liters. In the machine there is place for four containers which means a total of 9.6 liters. This amount of fruit should be enough for one week. The containers are designed in the proportions of the collomodule system. There is chosen for four smaller containers instead of one big container, because not every fruit will be used in the same amount and now the stock in the machine can be customized to the needs of the customers. On top and at the bottom of the containers a plastic seal is placed. These seals can be removed, when they are on top of each other, by pulling a lip that is sticking out.

Liquid containers
The design of the liquid containers depends on the provider of the liquids. Probably, it will be bag-in-box containers, Friesland Campina is currently developing a package for milk in vending machines. The packages should have a volume of approximately 10 liters.

3D-model

In the animation on the left, the functioning of the vending machine can be seen. A cup is moved from the left to the right and stops underneat the chosen fruit containers. When the cup arrives at the right, a blender moves downwards into the cup. After the smoothie is blended, the doors open and the consumer can take his smoothie.

To experience the 3D model in Virtual Reality, you can download the programs underneath.

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User Interface

On the right you can see the prototype for the interface that will be placed on the front of the machine. With the user interface customers can order their smoothie and pay for it. They can choose one of the five preset recipes or make one of their own. When the fruit content of the machine is changed, the interface will be updated as well. This is done by Blendit.

Business model

Business to business
Our business model is aimed at the Business to Business market (B2B). In this way, we hope to achieve partnerships with current catering companies. By cooperating with those companies, we can directly make use of their customer loyalty, ensuring the use of our product.

Customer loyalty
In this model we supply the vending machines, the fruit and the liquids. We will make sure that the vending machines are refilled and get a big cleaning once a week. The machines are still owned by us, so we keep the responsibility for the machines ourselves. The only thing we require from our partner companies is that they will do the day to day cleaning of our machines. We will compensate our partners for that. To make sure they will put effort in cleaning the machines, they will receive part of the profit made from the machines in addition to the daily compensation for the cleaning and renting of their space.

Goods supply
We will provide everything from our distribution centre. Here the fruit, liquids and cups come in and the filled maintenance carts go out. A fruit packaging company will freeze the fruit and fill the containers. The liquids and cups will also come from an external company. We will decide on which fruit to use depending on what is on the market and what fits the season.

Value propositions
Customer
The added value for the companies is that they can offer smoothies to their consumers without a lot of work. They do not have to buy fruit, blend it, and cooling space for the smoothies. So, they get money without a lot of costs, they only have to clean it every day.

Consumer
A value proposition for consumers is that they can customize their own smoothie and they see that it is prepared on the spot. That is the added value of the transparent part, they really see the customizable part of the product. This adds to the healthy image of our product, because they see their smoothie being freshly prepared. The smoothie vending machine is also a healthy alternative for other vending machines which are mostly selling unhealthy products.

Fruits
Another value proposition of our company is that we use left-over and deformed fruit. This fruit will not be sold as fruits to the customer, but for our smoothies it does not matter, because everything will be diced and freezed after dicing. With this concept we prevent food-waste and the fruit will be cheaper for us to buy. We want to use fairtrade fruit as much as possible.

Profit model

The minimal investment needed for this project is 820612 euro. This is because, the minimum number of machines that we need to return the investment is 50 per year. We expect at least 100 smoothies to be sold per week per machine, on average. For the first 2 years, a loss of 820612 is turned because of the investment in machines and the reservations that have to be made for maintenance. After the maximum of 2 years, there will be enough machines to make a small profit of 17943 euro, this profit will grow to over the next two years to 581953 per year. Then, after a maximum of 5 years the profit will be returned.

Your investment is completely save, because the first 50 machines will be expected to turn a profit of 110000 euro per year. This will earn enough profit in 5 years to cover the original investment of 545706 euro.

Sustainability

The machine will have both a frozen and a cooled section. The frozen section has to be cooled to a temperature under -18 °C, because the frozen goods will have to be that temperature in order to stay well. The cooled section will have a maximum temperature of 4 °C, and will be cooled to a temperature below that. The temperature of both the cooled and frozen part will be logged. If the temperature of one of compartments reaches respectivily more than -15 or 7 °C, a signal will be sent to us, so we can check on the machine immediately. When needed, maintenance will be carried out on the same day.
There are also sensors placed in the machine concerning the filling of the fruit. In this way we can always monitor if a certain machine needs a refill, but we can also log what fruits are mostly eaten and thus align the stock in the machine to the demand of the consumers.

Choice of materials
The whole machine is made easy to clean. The surfaces that need to be wiped off at the daily cleaning have a surface roughness of 0,8 µm. This to prevent pathogens from growing and getting stuck. All parts which come into touch with the cleaning water are angled towards the central wastewater container in a separate compartment of the machine. The fruit containers are made of greaseproof cardboard, this is chosen because the containers will be disposable so cardboard is the cheapest usable material. Non-disposable containers will be more expensive and they need cleaning.

As said the frozen part of the machine will be -18 °C. Under these temperatures, materials might become brittle, so their ductile to brittle transition temperature should be at least lower than -18 °C. Besides that, the materials should be able to withstand these temperatures they are also recyclable. Both these points were taken into consideration for the materials of the machine. The shell will be made out of metal which could be reused for new vending machines. It will be covered with a sticker which is easy to remove, so the metal does not get polluted. Eventually, the shell could be made into a new cover for another vending machine, this way the loop of the material of the vending machine will be closed.

The frozen fruits will be put into the cups, so the cups can also withstand temperatures of -18 °C before they become brittle. Therefore the cups will be made out of PET, which has a ductile to brittle transition temperature of -40 °C, so it will not become brittle in the customers' hands. This material is also suitable for food use and is, of course, recyclable. The same goes for the lids of the cups, but these lids have a special addition. They have an integrated drinking hole, and therefore straws are not necessary anymore. This way less plastic is being used which is better for the environment. If it appears that customers do not like the lid, paper straws will be used, because plastic straws are also going to be prohibited, and paper works just as good.

Future Vision

At this moment, the project is ofcourse not yet finished. There are a lot of plans and ideas that might be incorporated in the future.

For example, when expanding, the plan is to not only serve customers in offices and universities, but to also start selling smoothies in public spaces like city centres and train stations. Especially for the vending machines in the city, we also want to offer garbage bins to throw away the empty cups afterwards. They would be positioned in the average walking distance, of drinking one smoothie, from the machine. This would not only help the environment but also be a great way of advertising and reinforcing the brand and its image.

Another environmental friendly idea we have is to offer the possibility to use your own reusable cups, instead of disposable ones. However, we would have to make sure that the blender actually fits and that the cup doesn't overfill. To solve this problem we could either blend the smoothie inside of the machine and then just pour the finished drink into your cup, or actually measure the cup automatically to make sure everything fits. Another Idea is to actually offer our own reusable cups, which gives us the possibility to tune them to fit our machine perfectly. Also, they could be used as promotional material, since we can put our logo on them. It would also be possible to, for example, give those out as a free gift after you bought a certain amount of smoothies.

To offer an even bigger variety of fruits, and maybe even things like nuts, seeds or spinach and kale a second, bigger version of the machine could be made in the future. It might also be able to make hot drinks, which would especially be nice in the winter. This machine would probably not be the new standard, but only be available in places that sell a lot of smoothies, since it might not be necessary and profitable everywhere. It could also be a separate machine with hot drinks which could replace the smoothie machine during winters to keep a constant profit. Also, the smoothie machine could be fixed and maintained during this period, so that it can even work for more years.

Another recommendation is to further work out the maintenance cart, to make the refilling and cleaning as efficient and fast as possible. A better way of just restocking the liquid ingredients, should also be added in the future, since currently everything that is left needs to be thrown out for hygienic reasons.



About us




Healthy and green
Our mission is to make a healthy lifestyle easily accessible for everyone. No longer do you have to make your own smoothies at home with expensive equipment. With our machine you can make freshly blended smoothies at your work. By working together with catering companies, we can bring these smoothie machines easily to companies.




Good for you, good for the environment
Our company strives to be as sustainable as possible by making sure our machines are made recyclable. Our machines are designed for a circular economy, making sure that when our machines reach their end of life, they can be easily recycled. Read more about sustainability in our machine under that tab.




Fairtrade
We care about our partners, and therefore we care about fruit. We buy biological and fairtrade food stock. By buying fairtrade goods, we ensure that the farmers get all the profit that they have worked so hard for. We also like to invest in fruits that are difficult to sell for farmers, because they might be deformed. Since we freeze our fruits, they will stay well for 10 months! So not only does your smoothie taste better, you also have done something good for the environment.

The team


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Ellen Lucas

Art Director
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Lieven Jan Westerbeke

Business Developer
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Marvin Resing

Mechanism Engineer
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Mirka Buist

Webdeveloper
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Rianne Hagen

Style and Sustainability Developer
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Wilke de Jong

Interaction Designer