The Challenge
Do you like solving logic puzzles? Great! So do we and we would like to give you a challenge today.
You may recognize this classic puzzle, The Einstein Riddle, as it sometimes appears in the quiz section of newspapers etc. It is often claimed that Einstein came up with this puzzle and has said only 2% of the world’s population could solve it. Although that probably is not true it still offers a fun challenge.
The Einstein Riddle is not only a challenging puzzle to solve but also offers a great way of understanding the attributes and constraints that are important features of a configurator. Many manufacturers struggle with the constraints of their product portfolio, using spreadsheets to track changes between sales and engineering. This leads to quoting errors and incorrect product configurations. With Tacton Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions its easier than ever to make these errors go away. But we’ll give you the chance to see if you’re smarter than Einstein and our configurator before you see if you need a CPQ. Good luck!
For that reason, the puzzle has also been modified to an easy to understand the product that is also often configured: cars.
Your task
Your task is to figure out which car is Environmental Friendly (a Sales Pitch) using the given situation and clues.
The situation
- We have 5 car brands, with five different Colors, parked in a parking space next to each other.
- Each car uses a specific type of Fuel, is a certain Car Type, and has a specific Sales Pitch.
- No car uses the same Fuel, has the same Color, the same Sales Pitch or is the same Car Type.
Clues
The Volvo is Red
The Land Rover is Safe
The Toyota runs on Diesel
The Green car is parked Left to the White car
The Green car runs on Hydrogen
The Truck is Exclusive
The Yellow car is a Van
The car parked in the Center runs on Electricity
The Ford is parked in the First (leftmost) parking lot
The Sports Car is parked Next To the car that is Fast.
The Economical car is parked next to the Van
The Compact car runs on Natural Gas
The Renault is a Station wagon
The Ford is parked next to the Blue car
The Sports Car is parked next to the Gasoline car
As you may notice, the Sales Pitch does not in itself hold any logic towards the Car Type, e.g. the Sports Car does not necessarily have to be marketed as the Fast Car just as the Truck is obviously the Exclusive car.
The contest
Solve the puzzle and fill in the form below with the answer to ”Which car is environmentally friendly” as soon as you are done.
Next week we will publish the correct solution and the week after we will explain how the Tacton configurator can be used to solve this puzzle as well as far more complex versions of the puzzle.
The Hint:
*Here’s a helpful hint: By now, you may have figured out that the logic used in this puzzle is quite similar to the way the Tacton Configure, Price, Quote tools works. The clues in this puzzle are similar to the rules (or constraints as we call them) we use in the configurator. These rules are hard to figure out without some help. Imagine struggling with this daily, that’s what many manufacturers do with their product variance. Tacton CPQ makes it easier than ever to solve any riddle, even Einstein’s Riddle!
Interested in learning more about how manufacturers can solve the riddles that hamper efficient operations and great customer experience? Check out our Manufacturers’ Guide to Smart Commerce eBook that covers the essentials of CPQ, visual configuration and much more!