Application of Combining Weighting and Efficacy Coefficient in Cigarette Physical Quality Evaluation

Abstract

Cigarettes are the ultimate consumer products of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), and the physical indexes directly affect the stability of product quality. In order to objectively evaluate the quality stability of cigarette products, a novel method combined weighting and efficacy coefficient is established to assess the stability of cigarette physical quality, and the weight calculated by the efficacy coefficient method is normalized to the comprehensive scores. Meanwhile, this method has also been used to evaluate the rationality of key parameters of the rolling machine. The results show that the comprehensive scores calculated via the combined weighting method (CWM) exhibit the satisfied linear relationship with the production qualification rate (R = 0.9190), demonstrating this CWM could organically integrate the subjective and objective weights, which also objectively consider the decision makers’ preferences as well as the inherent regulations between acquired data. In actual production, the obtained comprehensive scores can reflect the overall quality level of cigarette products as the changes of operation groups, equipment units, and operation parameters. The appropriate parameters of guide plate height and accelerator roller interval should be controlled at the range of 61~67 mm and 0.25~0.65 mm, respectively. In conclusion, these further indicate that the novel combined weighting and efficacy coefficient methods show a better superiority for objectively evaluating cigarette quality and offering evidence for parameters optimization.