After Program Homework - Understanding the Future of Fine Chocolate
At the end of the program we would like you to buy a copy of our book Raising the Bar - The Future of Fine Chocolate. We want you to have a global understanding of the future of chocolate but didn't want you to take time out of your study of the program curriculum in order to read that.
We self published the book and have kept the cost of the book very low to just cover our hard costs. Our goal is to educate the public, as well as our students, that not all chocolate is the same. To reach consumers we promoting the book ourselves but we also have to rank highly on Amazon search so consumers will find us when they search for chocolate books.

Research Assignment 7: Sourcing Your Chocolate, Ingredients and Packaging

Learning Objective: Decide on the type of chocolate you will use for your chocolate products and what supplies and packaging you will need for your operation.

Assignment: Sourcing your Chocolate, Ingredients & Packaging

This assignment is all about the chocolate, ingredients and packaging that you will need to sustain your business.

Chocolate

Obviously the most important consideration for a chocolatier is what brand of chocolate to use in making their chocolate products.

For this assignment you will research chocolate producers from the program's lecture entitled Research: Bulk Chocolate Producers. Once you have decided on your preferred chocolate(s) you will then search for distributors to supply you with the chocolate on a consistent basis in your local area.

Ingredients

For the ingredients you will be looking at such things as bulk sugar, nuts, fruit purees, and flavorings. Local bakery and restaurant supply companies should be able to supply most of your needs.

Packaging

Packaging for retail is a big business and you should be able to find distributors in your local trading area the will sell you packaging wholesale. You find out the retail costs for the packaging by looking through the packaging sites in theResearch: Sourcing your Packaging lecture from Module 2 and reduce the retail price you see by about 25% to have an idea of what your costs per box or bag would be if you were buying in wholesale amounts.

 

You will report on your findings by answering the following questions:

If you are emulating packaging you saw on a chocolatiers website, include the website address.

• What brand(s) of chocolate do you prefer to use and why?


• Who distributes this chocolate in your local area? If there is no local supplier, how are you going to source the chocolate?


• What is the minimum order from that supplier and approximately how long will it take from order to delivery?


• What is the wholesale cost per kilo (or lb) of the chocolate(s)?


• What company(s) will you use to supply your ingredients?


• Describe your packaging, its color theme and how your packaging would be decorated i.e. ribbons, stickers, etc.


• Determine the cost for packaging a one lb gift box (or equivalent). What % is that packaging cost to the total cost of the product.

Note on your report content: what we are looking for is a concise report on your research or practice coupled with a thoughtful response to our questions. We are grading strictly on content - not how well or how much you write. There is a maximum of 1500 words allowed in the box but we are in no way expecting or want you to fill it.

Click on the "Add Submission" button below to submit your assignment.

When you click on the "Add Submission" button - a text submission box will appear at the bottom of the page. You may have to scroll down to see that. You have a choice of typing your report directly into the box and then clicking the "Save changes" button below it to submit.

OR WE VERY, VERY HIGHLY SUGGEST that you create your assignment report in another editor in your computer and save that.Then copy and paste the text in your saved report into the submission box and click the "Save changes" button to submit. This process makes sure that you have a saved copy of your report in case something happens when you submit.

Confirming your assignment submission and viewing grades:

Once you've submitted your assignment, A message appears that says "Your changes have been saved". Also you will see under the Assignment Due Date a new line that starts with"Last Edited....". That confirms that your assignment has been submitted and when.

Don't forget to be generous and share a copy of this assignment report with your classmates by posting it to the Chef's Table in the appropriate assignment discussion.

We wait until after the Assignment due date (see below) to start grading the assignments - you can expect to see your grade posted within 10 working days after the due date has passed.

 

Business Assignment 6: Creating a Production Plan

Learning Objective: Create a plan for the equipment you will use and the production of your products.

Assignment: Creating a Production Plan

For this assignment, you will not create a complete operations plan but will concentrate on your equipment and production facility. This will give you a starting place for the formal operations plan you will need to do for your business later.

Keep your report to no more than 1500 words.

Specialized Equipment

Depending on the size of your operation, you will need specialized commercial equipment. For this assignment when we refer to specialized equipment, we mean commercial equipment used in chocolate and confection making such as enrobers, tempering machines, vibrating tables, depositors, extruders, etc. The program's Module 2 lecture entitledChocolate Equipment Suppliers will be useful in identifying the type of equipment available before you approach local distributors. We highly recommend that you start your research early in the program.

Items such as mixers, storage units, trays, sinks, tables, stoves, refrigerators, air conditioners and small appliances as well containers and utensils are readily available from restaurant equipment, department and kitchen stores so we won't concern ourselves with those for this assignment.

You will report on your research findings for this assignment by answering the following questions:

• What specialized chocolate making equipment will you be planning to use in your operation?


• Who distributes this equipment in your local area? If there is no local supplier, how are you going to source the equipment?


• Approximately how long will it take from order to delivery of the equipment?


• What is the cost for each piece of equipment?

Production Plan

You will report on the organization of your production facility by creating the following:

• Discuss the flow of your production process for your most important product. This should be a list of steps as I used in the lecture: Planning for Production which will be available when Module 5 opens. 


• A list of the equipment you will need in order to produce and store this product. 


• Describe in words, not visually, the rough physical layout of your production facility including where you will store both raw ingredients and finished products. The reason we don't want you to make a visual representation of your layout is that we have had problems many times in the past with accessing drawings in separate files. Just walk us through the space verbally in your report itself.


• Determine how many people the process will require and how long do you think a typical production cycle will take to complete.

Note on your report content: what we are looking for is a concise report on your research or practice coupled with a thoughtful response to our questions. We are grading strictly on content - not how well or how much you write. There is a maximum of 1500 words allowed in the box but we are in no way expecting or want you to fill it.

Click on the "Add Submission" button below to submit your assignment.

When you click on the "Add Submission" button - a text submission box will appear at the bottom of the page. You may have to scroll down to see that. You have a choice of typing your report directly into the box and then clicking the "Save changes" button below it to submit.

OR WE VERY, VERY HIGHLY SUGGEST that you create your assignment report in another editor in your computer and save that.Then copy and paste the text in your saved report into the submission box and click the "Save changes" button to submit. This process makes sure that you have a saved copy of your report in case something happens when you submit.

Confirming your assignment submission and viewing grades:

Once you've submitted your assignment, A message appears that says "Your changes have been saved". Also you will see under the Assignment Due Date a new line that starts with"Last Edited....". That confirms that your assignment has been submitted and when.

Don't forget to be generous and share a copy of this assignment report with your classmates by posting it to the Chef's Table in the appropriate assignment discussion.

We wait until after the Assignment due date (see below) to start grading the assignments - you can expect to see your grade posted within 10 working days after the due date has passed.

Learning Objective: Understand what is included in this module

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Creating your plan of action