Quality assurance strategy development (case study in small scale tapioca agroindustry )

Abstract

The main food crops in Indonesia consist of paddy, cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and soybeans. Among these six main food crops, cassava is one of important crops in which cassava is the most potential and important in many kinds of tuber crop to produce starch as a raw material for agroindustries producing many commodities to customers. Before processing tapioca, the crude tapioca so called “Aci” is produced from cassava by the small scale tapioca agroindustry (SSTA). In this particular two processing steps, the quality of Aci is a key issue to ensure its quality to produce tapioca in reliance of quality addressed to customers and end-users to satisfy their requirement including local food industries. The objectives of this research were 1) to identify the factors including problems and issues in SSTA from view point of quality assurance, and 2) to develop the necessary strategy for improving quality assurance in SSTA. The research was implemented by three components, namely field survey, data analysis, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Data analysis was done by Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat (SWOT) method. The determination for strategy development was carried out by QFD to identify the requirement by SSTA and processing importance. The result indicated that the requirements of cassava ’s attribute identified in SSTA were freshness, discoloration, contaminant, variety, and size. The identifications of processing importance were cassava procurement, smashing, waste handling, sieving, sun drying, grinding, and marketing. Among these processing steps, the most important processing were cassava procurement and marketing of Aci. The current condition of Aci producer was analyzed its position being in the quadrant-I with the value of 2.54 and 2.81 in SWOT matrix showing that Aci producer allows to take an aggressive strategy development approach to improve their quality assurance capability such as systems of the cassava procurement and its quality requirement, processing technology improvement, and diversification of Aci marketing. One of the conducive factors was a development of Aci quality standard for both Aci producer and customers. It also suggested that the external factors should be reviewed in order to extend support for SSTA to provide the better environment for Aci production. Moreover, further study and or research is recommended to carry out from aspects of technology improvement of processing, quality standard of Aci, institutional supporting system, and marketing diversification. To study further, it is better to implement a baseline study involving the Aci producer, cassava producer, and the related institutions aiming at institutional building for better SSTA’s social and economic contribution