A biattribute quality analysis of the food industry

Abstract

A biattribute model of quality control in the food industry is developed and used as a management tool. Here quality control is of utmost importance because of the public health consequences, and the necessity to follow national and international regulations. Furthermore, as vividly illustrated by the recent case of mineral water quality failure, market consequences can be extreme. At the same time, production scheduling problems should be addressed to match shelf life. Other criteria include cost, public health and the image of the firm. Two conflicting attributes are considered in the present case study: an internal attribute, production and storage cost of quality control, and a bidimensionnal external attribute that includes the following components of risk of hygiene protection failure and advertising investment The example of transforming milk into reduced fat cream is used to illustrate the approach: two single attribute utility functions representing the decision maker preferences on the external and internal attribute are derived, and then the corner coefficients of a multiplicative biattribute utility function are assessed. The theoretical assumptions and uncertainties are discussed, and a possible use for food industry quality control management is proposed.