Improving Quality Function Deployment Method by Integrating Kano and Sensory Profile Analysis Into the House of Quality Matrix

This research aims to improve the performance of the quality function deployment (QFD) method when it is used to develop a food product. Kano model is implemented to capture and analyze the consumers’ voices while quantitative descriptive analysis is utilized to characterize the sensory profile of the product. Four samples of steamed brownies produced by bakery outlets in Surakarta were evaluated and one of those samples is the developed product. A focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted to identify the quality attributes of the product based on consumers perspective. 12 quality attributes are defined where 4 attributes are related to the brownie’s quality itself (intrinsic attributes) e.g., taste (Q1), aroma (Q2), texture (Q3) and appearance (Q4). Meanwhile, 8 attributes are indirectly related to the brownies or called extrinsic attributes e.g., labeling and packaging (Q5, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q9), trustworthy and brand image (Q10 and Q11) and distribution (Q12). 35 panelists were asked to complete the Kano questionnaires and the result shows that Q1 and Q5 are categorized as Attractive (A), while Q2, Q3, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q10, Q11, Q12 are in One-dimensional (O) group and Q4 and Q9 are noted as Indifference (I). On the other side, 15 panelists were selected and trained to characterize the sensory profile of the steamed brownies. This leads to 9 sensory attributes that influence the intrinsic quality e.g., sweet taste, sweet chocolate taste, bitter chocolate taste, burnt chocolate taste, chocolate aroma, sweet aroma, hardness, and smoothness texture. Further, the HOQ shows that one sample outperformed the developed product where the taste (Q1) is the Kano attractive attribute and is the most important attribute for customers as well.