Crude Palm Oil Product Quality Control Using Seven Tools (case study: XYZ Company)

Abstract

Competition in the palm oil processing industry in Indonesia is very competitive. One of the factors that influence the good name of the company is the quality of the product produced. PT. XYZ is a palm oil processing factory with export and domestic market share. In order for the company to be able to compete with other companies engaged in similar industries, the company is required to need to carry out strict checks on product quality. PT. XYZ faces several obstacles to meet the quality standards of its main products namely Crude Palm Oil (CPO). The problem that is often found related to quality in CPO is the quality of CPO that does not meet consumer standards even though the company has implemented quality control in CPO production. This can reduce consumer confidence in the products sold by the company. CPO product quality standards set are free fatty acid levels (FFA) (<5%), water content (<0.15%) and impurities content (<0.02%). This study aims to determine what types of defect affect the quality of CPO and what causes the defect. This research uses seven tools method consisting of stratification, check sheet, histogram, pareto diagram, scatter diagram, control chart and cause and effect diagram. From the results of the Pareto diagram analysis it appears that the dominant defect that occurs in CPO is high free fatty acid levels with a percentage of 39.3%, then followed by defect with high impurities content of 35.4% and high water content of 25.3%. By using the Pareto 80/20 principle, the defect factor which is further analyzed is the defect of high free fatty acids and high levels of impurities. Through scatter diagrams and correlation analysis, the value of r = 0.5, where the value indicates that high free fatty acid defects and high impurities have a positive effect on the number of defects. By using a causal diagram analysis (fishbone diagram) it was found that the factors causing the high level of damage to this palm oil product are influenced by 3 main factors, namely raw materials, humans, and machinery.