LOGO 02_DEFINE - Understanding Doc.Nr.

Customer Expectations Rev Nr./

/ Tarih
2-7 PRACTICE: Problem Definition-
Case Study Cold Delight Ice Cream

CASE STUDY: Cold Delight Ice Cream

Production
The Company
Cold Delight is one of the biggest brands of frozen desserts and dairy products in the United States.
Cold Delight sells its products to end customers and also to wholesale retailers such as Walmart. Cold
Delight was founded in 1956 and it has a range of different products such as shaves ice, sorbet, snow
cones (based on flavored water), sorbet (based on fruit purées, ice creams and frozen yogurt (based on
milk and cream), frozen custard, and others. Within the dairy products they produce butter,
buttermilk, cheese, cream, etc.
Recently, Cold Delight has been experiencing revenue losses, and even though these lossses are not
that big, your boss is concerned that if the trend goes on, it might affect this year’s profits. In order to
find out why revenues are dropping, the company sent a questionnaire to its customers, asking them to
give feedback on the Cold Delight products. Some of the responses of the customers are quoted
below:

 “The texture of the ice cream is poor. It is too watery.”

 “This chocolate ice cream does not taste as chocolate! It taste like dirty feet!”
 “I just bought an 500ml ice cream the other day and for my surprise, when I opened the box,
it was clear there was less than 500ml inside!”
 “This ice cream is not worth the price.”
A retailer said: “We were supposed to get your product every Friday, but it’s been two weeks in a row
that we cannot supply our customers”

Cold Delight Ice Cream - Instructi ons and Task

Instructi ons and Task

After reading these responses, your boss believes that there might be something wrong in the
manufacturing process and asks you to investigate the process. Your boss then reminds you that the
company has started a Business-Improvement-Program, which encourages employees to suggest
project ideas based on identified opportunities for improvement. (Your boss suggests you to use this
opportunity to participate in the program, if you want the promotion you were talking about last
month.) The program requires you to suggest project ideas in a detailed document specifying what
problem(s) does the project need to solve and what effects do these problems have in terms of
customer satisfaction and financial losses. This document is going to be the baseline of a project
proposal.

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 LOGO 02_DEFINE - Understanding Doc.Nr.
Customer Expectations Rev Nr./
/ Tarih
2-7 PRACTICE: Problem Definition-
Case Study Cold Delight Ice Cream

Cold Delight Ice Cream: Manufacturing Process 1

Cold Delight produces batches of ice cream that is packaged in pint and half-gallon
containers.

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Customer Expectations Rev Nr./
/ Tarih
2-7 PRACTICE: Problem Definition-
Case Study Cold Delight Ice Cream

(This process was taken from http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Ice-Cream.html)

Cold Delight Ice Cream: Manufacturing Process 2

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 LOGO 02_DEFINE - Understanding Doc.Nr.
Customer Expectations Rev Nr./
/ Tarih
2-7 PRACTICE: Problem Definition-
Case Study Cold Delight Ice Cream

(This process was taken from http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Ice-Cream.html)

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 LOGO 02_DEFINE - Understanding Doc.Nr.
Customer Expectations Rev Nr./
/ Tarih
2-7 PRACTICE: Problem Definition-
Case Study Cold Delight Ice Cream

Cold Delight Ice Cream: Quality Control

A quality control of the products is always done during and after the process. Examples of the quality
control procedures are:

 Every mixture is randomly tested during the production process.

 Butterfat and solid levels are tested.
 The bacteria levels are measured.
 Each mixture is also taste-tested.
 Ice cream producers also carefully monitor the ingredients that they purchase from outside
suppliers.

(This process was taken from http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Ice-Cream.html)

Cold Delight Ice Cream: Define the Problem

Now it is your turn. You have read about the company, Cold Delight, and its manufacturing process
for ice cream, including the quality controls at the end of the process.
Please take your time, and look back at the case.
1) Identify and describe the problems that Cold Delight is experiences.
2) What are possible causes of these problems that could be potentials for Business-
Improvement-Project at Cold Delight?
Use a pen and paper - and do not check the answer first!

Cold Delight Ice Cream: Check your Answer-Explanation

 Problem 1: Ice cream quality --> consistency is poor (Ice cream is too watery!)
 Problem 2: Ice cream quality --> taste is poor (This chocolate ice cream does not taste like
chocolate!)
 Problem 3: Ice cream availability (quantity) --> too little ice cream in serving size of 500ml
(There was less than 500ml inside!)
 Problem 4: Ice cream consumption of resources --> too many or too expensive resources
used, so price is high (Too expensive product!)
 Problem 5: Ice cream availability (time) --> Late delivery of the products!
Please look back at your notes. Did you identify these problems? Did you also already start to identify
possible CAUSES of these problems? This exercise should be an illustration of how easy it is in the
problem definition phase of the DMAIC flow to already start "solving" the problem.

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