The Product Quality Improvement: An Example from a Rice Milling in Indonesia

This study aimed to determine the quality attributes of rice products which were important for the consumers and the level of consumer satisfaction with these attributes. Recommendations were then given to improve the quality of rice products based on consumer voices. The research was conducted at the Sri Margo Joyo (SMJ) rice milling that produces packaged rice with the King Banana brand. QFD was used in this study for product design, process planning, process design, and process control. Variables in this research were determined based on quality dimension. Respondents in this study were 60 King Banana rice consumers and 2 expert respondents. The results showed that King Banana rice products need to make improvements to the attributes of colour, texture, product damage level when received by the consumers, and variations in packaging weight. The priority of technical response to improve the quality attributes of rice products were the improvement of storage processes, proper maintenance of machinery and equipment, and scheduling of spraying and fumigation every 1 month. Process control that needs to be applied to the SMJ rice mill were monitoring the mixing of grade A and grade B grain, adding the process of ignition, monitoring temperature, humidity, and insecticide use in the rice storage room, monitoring the maintenance scheduling of rice processing machinery and equipment, and monitoring the vacuum packaging.