Spaetzle Machine

The brief

Spaetzle are delicious micro dumplings native to Germany. Making spaetzle is something of an art which can take lots of preparation. We were approached by Housewares Germany, to develop a low cost easy to use spaetzle making machine for the domestic market. The idea behind the product was to speed up the production of spaetzle and make the process easier for home cooks. The machine needed to produce different sizes of spaetzle for different tastes, and produce a consistent size with every stroke of the paddle.

The bang

The concept had been developed up to the stage of a working rig prototype when it was brought to us, however, to turn the idea into a commercial product there was much work to be done. For a start the rig was heavy and unwieldy, the operation was clunky and there was no way to attach the spaetzle maker to the side of a pan. We started by coming up with multiple concepts to improve the usability, adding a wide-mouthed hopper for the batter, a means of attaching the unit to the side of a pan and a comfortable handle. From the start considerations for production were made in line with the predicted volumes and a required commercial unit cost.

The result

The product was an instant hit on QVC Germany. The product hit its required commercial unit cost whilst offering a high level of usability. This was achieved through innovative simple features and considerations for manufacturing from early on in development. One of the innovative features was a three-tier pan locking mechanism which required no moving parts this improved usability and reduced overall product cost. The paddle was developed to fit perfectly in hand then neatly stow away when the product was stored. The size of the spaetzle is dictated with an intuitive dial. We worked with our far-east manufacturing partners on value engineering, making the product from as few parts as possible to reduce the cost of assembly and tooling. Delicious.