APPLICATION OF QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT IN ORTHODOX

BLACK TEA INDUSTRY IN INDONESIA1)

Rohayati Suprihatini
Indonesian Tea and Cinchona Research Institute
Gambung PO Box 1013, Bandung 40010, Phone: (022) 5928185, 5928782, Facs.: (022) 5928186
E-mail: gambung@bdg.centrin.net.id
1)Article in bahasa Indonesia has been published in Jurnal Pengkajian
dan Pengembangan Teknologi Pertanian Vol. 8 No. 3, 2005, p.
426-435.

ABSTRACT
Indonesian tea market experienced a decrease in the world tea
export from 10.3% in 1993 to 6.4% in 2003 due to the quality
problem. A study aimed to identify current position of the
Indonesian orthodox black tea quality and main efforts to increase
the satisfaction level of the Indonesian tea buyers. The Quality
Function Deployment (QFD) and the Eickenrode weighing
methods were applied to analyze the data. Results of the study
indicated that position of the Indonesian tea quality is lower than
that of the Sri Lankan tea. Two actions need to be done to improve
quality of the Indonesian orthodox black tea, namely improvements of the tea shoot quality and the rolling process.
[Keywords: Orthodox black tea, tea industry, quality function
deployment, marketing improvement]

INTRODUCTION
In the past decade, the Indonesian tea export had been
decreasing drastically, from 123,900 tons in 1993 to only
88,175 tons in 2003 or an average of 2.1% annual decrease
(International Tea Committee 2004). This condition has
caused Indonesian tea export segment in the world market
decreased from 10.8% in 1993 to 6.4% in 2003. On the
other hand, export segments of other tea producers, such
as Sri Lanka and Kenya increased. At the same period, tea
export of Sri Lanka increased from 18.2% to 21.1%, while
that of Kenya increased from 16.4% to 19.4% (International
Tea Committee 2003). Some of the tea major markets that
had previously been controlled by Indonesia, had been
taken over by other tea producing countries such as
Pakistan, England, the Netherlands, Ireland, Russia, the
United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Syria, Taiwan, Egypt,
Morocco, and Australia (Suprihatini 2000).
In the Jakarta Tea Auction (JTA), the only tea auction
authority in Indonesia, the total portion of unsold
Indonesian tea also increased. In 1997, the total amount
of unsold tea reached 15.4% of the total offered and
increased to 38.5% in 2003. Based on the price gain, since
1991, the Indonesian tea price in the JTA had always been
lower than that of Sri Lankan tea in the Colombo Tea
Auction (CTA). The average Indonesian tea price was
only 64% of the Sri Lankan tea in the CTA (Tim Pengkajian
Pemasaran Teh 2001).
One of the reasons for the decrease in market segment,
the increase of unsold tea, and the relatively low price of
Indonesian tea was the tea product quality offered had

not been fully met the market taste. Inagreement with the
tea quality was particularly on the inagreement with the
organoleptic grade and quality (taste, aroma, and color)
as required by the buyers. This had increased the unsold
tea in the JTA. To increase satisfaction of the Indonesian
tea buyers, therefore, improvement of the Indonesian tea
quality must be done to meet the market desire through
application of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD).
The QFD was first applied in early 1972 by the
Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, Japan. QFD is a systematic
approach to fulfill the consumers needs and accurately
related with the technical design, production planning,
and production process. In principle, QFD helps listening
the consumers voice and very useful in a brainstorming
session with a team of product development to decide the
best efforts to serve consumers expectation (Parsaei and
Sullivan 1993). Besides, QFD could also be used as a
reference document for product development in the future
(Sadono et al. 2000).
This study aimed to determine position of the
Indonesian orthodox black tea quality as compared to that
of the Sri Lankan black tea and to identify effort priority to
increase satisfaction of the Indonesian tea buyers.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data Collection
Primary data and information to arrange house of quality
(HOQ) and selection of the tea attributes were collected
Application of quality function deployment in orthodox black tea ... 29
through an interview respondents representing Indonesian
tea buyers in August-December 2002. The interview was
done with all tea buyers members of the Jakarta Tea Buyers
Association (JTBA), which consisted of 22 traders and
buying agents from Europe, Russia, Middle East, and the
United States. The interview was also done with the Joint
Marketing Office as the organizer of the JTA.
Information was collected to improve satisfactions of
the Indonesian tea buyers through discussions with five
experts in tea processing, consisting of two researchers
from the Indonesian Tea and Cinchona Research Institute,
Bandung, and three tea plantation supervisors of the PT
Perkebunan Nusantara VIII, West Java, and two tea tasters.
The interviews were related to relationship between each
attribute of tea quality and steps in the tea production
processes. The Sri Lankan tea was used as comparison
(control) for the Indonesian tea, because the tea production
system in Sri Lanka is similar to that in Indonesia,
particularly on the climate, soil, tea clone generally used
(TRI 2025), and mostly produced in the form of black tea
using an orthodox (conventional) system.

Data Analysis
Weight measuring method in each tea attribute, which is
also used to select the consumers expectation attributes
of the tea product, was done by the method of Eickenrode
(Maarif and Tanjung 2003) using the following steps:
1. Respondents were asked to rank all the criteria. In this
study case, the criteria used were tea grade, performance of dry tea particles, taste and aroma of tea
mix, packaging material used as well as product delivery
and payment system.
2. Preparing a table, such as shown in Table 1.
Weight calculation (B1..Bn) was done using the
following equation:
n
Ni = Jrij * Rn-1
j=1
m
Total value = Ni
I=1
K1...Km = expectation attribute of customer (Table 2)
Bi = Ni/total value
Ni = value of the ith criterion
Jrij = number of respondents who chose the j th rank
for the ith criterion
Jr32 = number of respondents who chose the 2nd rank
(R2) for the 3rd criterion (K3)
Rn-1 = times or folding factor
A QFD approach was done to determine position of
the Indonesian tea and to develop strategies for the
improvement priorities. The QFD produced matrixes of
consumers and technical needs of the tea companies named
the House of Quality (HOQ). According to Subagyo in
Marimin and Muspitawati (2002), the steps in using the
QFD were the following:
1. To identify the customers wishes. In this case the
customers were asked about the characteristics of a
product they need. In the case of tea product, amongst
the tea characteristics needed were strong tea taste,
fresh, not bitter, clear color of tea drink, and affordable
price.
2. To learn technical procedures for product development,
such as a flowchart of tea processing, factors of
processing that affect tea quality, and interrelationship
between each tea quality attributes with each of the
processing steps. These were based on the available
data, activities, and resources used to obtain product,
in efforts to fulfill the customers needs.
3. To correlate between customers needs and the
technical regulation. The correlations may be weak,
medium, or strong. Each aspect of the customers was

Table 1. Tabulation method of Eickenrode.

Criteria Ranking number Value Weight
R1 R2 R3 .. Rn
K1 Jr11 Jr12 J13 .. Jr1n N1 B1
K2 Jr21 Jr22 Jr23 .. Jr2n N2 B2
K3 Jr31 Jr32 Jr33 .. Jr3n N3 B3
.. . . . .. .. . .
Km Jrm1 Jrm2 Jrm3 .. Jrmn Nn Bn
Folding factor Rn-1 Rn-2 Rn-3 .. Rn-n Total value 1.00
Source: Maarif and Tanjung (2003).

30 Rohayati Suprihatini
given a measure to determine its effect on the product
quality.
4. To compare performances. This step was done to
compare the performance of the company and its
competitor. The grades used for the performances were
5 for the best and 1 for the worst. For examples, the
best grade (5) is used for tea particle with blackish color,
and the worst (1) is for tea particle with grayish color.
5. To evaluate customers to compare their opinions on
quality of tea product of a company and its competitor.
The grades used in this test were 1 to 5; a ratio was
then made between the target and each category.
6. To determine effects of relationship between activities
in the tea processing or one resource with another.
Matrix of House of Quality (HOQ) is the most well
known of the QFD. The HOQ is used to translate customers
requirement, results of market research, and benchmarking
data into a number of priority targets.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Customers Expectation Attributes
Results from the brainstorming with the Indonesian tea
buyers enable to identify 12 expectation attributes of
customers of orthodox black tea pour out. Results of the
selection of the customers priority of expectation
attributes were analyzed using the method of Eickenrode
(Table 1) as shown in Table 2. The data indicated that the
attribute priorities used to analyze the QFD consisted of
eight attributes, i.e., (1) market price of dry tea; (2)
agreement between the tea type and tea grade offered with
the consumers need; (3) taste of the tea mix; (4) appearance
of the dry tea; (5) ease of finishing the claim; (6) color of
the tea mix; (7) type and strength of the packaging material
to export the tea, and (8) appearance of tea dregs (infused
leaf).
Analysis of the Indonesian tea QFD was only based
on the condition of the Indonesian black tea (with orthodox
or conventional processing) as one of the commonly
produced poured out tea in Indonesia, consisted 65% of
the total Indonesian tea production. The other poured out
tea produced in Indonesia were green tea (23%) and black

tea Crushing, Tearing, and Curling (CTC) amounting to

11% (International Tea Committee 2003).
House Quality of the Indonesian Orthodox
Black Tea
Matrixes of the HOQ were the most well known form of the
QFD. The quality house was used to translate customer
requirements, market research results, and benchmarking
data into a number of priority targets. HOQ of the
Indonesian tea are presented in Figure 1. It was indicated
that some of the customers expectation attributes, i.e.,
type and grade of the tea, price, dry tea appearance, taste
and aroma of the tea, color of the tea mix (stir, infusion),
and appearance of the tea dregs of the Indonesian tea
were always lower than those of the Sri Lankan tea. The
criteria on packaging and service on claim finishing
attributes of the two tea types, however, were comparable.
Based on the price, the most important criterion, the
price of Indonesian tea (FOB) was much lower, only 75%
Table 2. Result of selection of attribute priorities used to analyze the Quality Function Deployment
(QFD).
Attribute Value1) Weight (%) Priority
Type and grade appropriateness 218 14.6 2
Price 229 15.3 1
Appearance of dry tea 188 12.6 4
Taste and flavor of tea mix 205 13.7 3
Color of tea mix 142 9.5 6
Infused leaf or appearance of tea dregs 112 7.5 8
Packaging 114 7.6 7
Easiness to finish claim 149 10.0 5
Delivering system 3 7 2.5 1 0
Payment system 66 4.4 9
Marketing system 9 0.6 1 2
Transport system 24 1.6 11
Total 1493 100
1)Using the Eickenrode formula as shown in Table 1.
Application of quality function deployment in orthodox black tea ... 31

of the Sri Lankan tea (FOB). Based on the tea type and
grade criteria, the second most important criteria, the tea
product of Indonesia was also lower than the market need,
but close to the tea product of Sri Lanka.
Based on the type and grade agreement of the orthodox
tea, according to the JTBA (22 respondents), the Sri Lankan
tea offered through CTA had met the ideal condition
needed. In this case, most of the othodox tea offered by Sri
Lanka were of the low grown type, with certain grades that
had been trend analyzed according to the market demand.
As an illustration, the composition of the tea product from
Sri Lanka in 2001 was dominated by the low grown tea
type (52-56%), while the rest were consisted of the high
grown type (27-29%) and medium grown type (18-19%)
(Table 3; KPB-PTPN 1-XIV 2001). On the other hand,
composition of the Indonesian tea product was dominated

by the medium grown type (50%), and the rest was

composed of low grown (30%) and high grown (20%)
types, respectively.
1 = tea shoots; 2 = withering process; 3 = rolling process; 4 = milling process; 5 = wet sortation process; 6 = enzymatic oxidation process; 7 = drying
process;
8 = dry sortation process; 9 = packing process; 10 = storage process; 11= marketing activity.
++ = positively very strong linkage; + = positively strong linkage; = very strong linkage, value = 10; = moderately strong linkage, value = 5
Weight: weight value based on Eickenrode then converted to rank of 1-8.
Value: result of the multiplying between weight and each attribute importance value.
Relative value: value divided by total value.

Figure 1. Quality house of Indonesian tea.

Weight 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Indo- Sri Target Ratio
nesia Lanka
HA Grade 7 3 5 5 1.67
RA Price 8 3 4 4 1.33
PA 5 3 4 4 1.33
N Taste and aroma 6 3 4 4 1.33
PE Color 3 3 4 4 1.33
LA 1 3 4 4 1.33
NG Package 2 4 4 4 1.00
GAN 4 4 4 4 1.00
Value 180 125 140 170 120 70 60 120 55 30 120
Relative value 0.15 0.11 0.12 0.14 0.11 0.06 0.05 0.11 0.05 0.03 0.11

Among the customers expectation attributes, the

highest ratio between target and performance of the
Indonesian tea was on tea type and grade that reach 1.67.
Improvement of the Indonesian tea type and grade to meet
the market demand, therefore, should be prioritized,
followed by other attributes, such as price, taste and aroma
Table 3. Composition of tea products of Sri Lanka.
Tea type Composition of reduction (%)
2000 2001
High grown 29.0 26.5
Medium grown 19.1 18.0
Low grown 51.9 55.5
Total 100 100
Source: KPB-PTPN I-XIV (2001).

32 Rohayati Suprihatini
of the tea mix, appearance of the dry tea, and color of the
tea mix. These include improvements in shoot quality,
milling process, rolling process, withering process, wet
and dry sortations and marketing, enzymatic oxidation
process, drying and packing processes, and storing
process.
Further discussion was focused on efforts to improve
shoot tip quality and rolling and milling processes in the
program for improvement of the production process ranked
first and third priorities, respectively. In relation to
improvement of tea shoot quality, The Indonesian Tea and
Cinchona Research Institute (Pusat Penelitian Teh dan Kina
1994) reported that the quality of dry tea is very much
dependent on the quality and handling of the dry shoot
during picking, in the collection place, in the containment,
and during transport to the factory. A good tea picking
type is medium purity with results of shoot analysis reached
minimum 65% fine. Generally, the type of tea picking in

Indonesian plantations still used the medium pick with

shoot analysis between 50-60%, hence the picking quality
needs improvement. On the other hand, the shoot handling
has not been observed critically, so that the freshness
from picking till ready for processing in the factory needs
to be improved simultaneously with the shoot picking
quality.
Mahanta et al. (1990) studied the effect of shoot picking
and processing on quality of the Indian black tea. The
rough picking standard was correlated to the high fiber
content and causing the low tea quality. On the other hand,
the smooth picking standard increased the amount of
soluble compound, hence improved the tea quality.
Owuor and Othieno (1988) also reported effect of postpicking period on black tea quality in Kenya. Some
postpicking factors influencing the tea quality were shoot
handling and transportation, including picker, picking
basket, transport to shoot collection place, technique and
condition of weighing, and transport to the factory.
Results of discussions with five tea processing
specialists and two tea tasters indicated that the conditions
of the shoots had a strong positive correlation with other
processing steps including withering, rolling, milling, wet
sortation, enzymatic oxidation, dry sortation, packaging,
and marketing. The raw material of fresh shoots (picking
and handling qualities) was the main factor in the tea
quality.
Results of discussions with plantation managers
indicated that basic strategy on tea picking in each
plantation was varied and very much dependent on the
management strategy, whether the tea production is
focused for production of high quality tea or only for
medium quality tea. The tea picking strategies in most
Indonesian tea plantations were generally done to keep a
balance between quality and quantity, so that most of the
Indonesian tea products were in the category of medium
quality.
In relation to the quality improvement, Deming (1986)
mentioned the role of product quality improvement in the
company performance. In this case, the quality was
designed and produced to fulfill the customers demand. A
product has a good quality when it meets the customers
need, can be used properly, and is produced using a good
and proper techniques. The quality improvement will
reduce reprocessing cost, level of mistakes, and slowness,
so that the productivity could be increased. The
improvement in quality and reduce in cost will increase
market occupation and bussiness and finally absorb labors
and increase more return of investment.
Kolarik (1995) also stressed on effort to improve

product quality, which was shown by improving product

performance, reducing cost, and increasing precision in
time of transfer. The decrease in reprocessing cost of tea is
particularly in cost reduction during sortation of dry tea to
remove the stalky and fibrous materials.
The role of quality improvement was also stated by
Gasperz (1997). Full attention on quality improvement
resulted in positive impacts to the company, at least in two
ways, i.e., (1) impact on production cost, and (2) impact
on income return. The impact on production cost was
gained from development of product that has high level of
agreement with the standard, thus free from possible
damages or physical defects. Hence, the production
processes that pay attention on quality will produce
qualified high quality product that free from damages. This
will prevent from wasting and inefficiency, hence the
production cost per unit product becomes lower, and finally
results in more competitive products.
The impact on increase in return income occurred
through increase in selling of high quality product with
competitive prices. The high quality products will have
some specialties that enable to improve the consumers
satisfaction in using the particular product. Every
consumers will maximize their satisfaction in consuming
the product, hence only the high quality product with
competitive price will be chosen by the consumers. This
condition enable to increase selling or trading the product,
and thus will improve the market segments and finally the
companys income.
Further analysis was done in relation to the
improvement of rolling and milling in the tea processing.
Basically, these processes are efforts to make the best
physical condition for reaction of the oxydase enzyme and
the polyphenol. Chemical changes that occur during rolling
are the starting point of oxydation process that produce
brown color and specific aroma. Chemically, the reaction
between polyphenol and the polyphenol oxydase is due
to the presence of oxygen and as a base for the formation
Application of quality function deployment in orthodox black tea ... 33
of inner quality of the tea. The tea rolling bruised the leaves
and damaged the cell walls, and the cell liquid came out
evenly to the surface and by this time, enzymatic oxidations
occurred. The rolling helps the milling process easier.
Abbas et al. (1999) reported that results of the rolling
and milling processes were influenced by pressure on the
material (withered shoots), speed of the rolling cylinder, as
well as rolling and milling times. Controlling these factors
enable to manage powder quality of the tea
Among the objectives of the milling are: (1) to make

the size of the tea roll smaller to meet the customers

requirements; (2) to cut the roll size shorter; (3) to squeeze/
grind shoots in order the cell liquid to come out maximally
and to obtain more curled dried product; and (4) to obtain
as much as wet powder. Criteria for the success of rolling
and milling, besides the chemical properties reached, also
obtain much wet powder. Besides, the rolling loss is still in
a proper limit, which is about 0.5-4.0%.
In relation to the use of milling program using an
orthodox rotorvane, Bambang et al. (1991) reported that
three time milling using a rotorvane was not recommended,
because the dried tea resulted has reddish color, bitter
taste, and the tea mix is dark, although its strength is
significant. The use of the rotorvane increases the amount
of wet powder obtained. It is suggested, therefore, that
the use of the rotorvane is done as early as possible (RV 23) to obtain high percentage of the prime tea.
Results of discussion with five tea processing
specialists and two tea tasters showed that rolling and
milling processes had strong positive correlation with some
other processes, such as withering, wet sortation,
enzymatic oxydation, drying, dry sortation, packaging, and
refinement level of the raw material of shoots used.
Therefore, improvements of the rolling and milling will
increase the performance of other related next steps.
CONCLUSION
Among all the consumers expectation attributes, the
orthodox black tea from Indonesia was always lower than
that from Sri Lanka, except the packaging attribute and
claim finishing service that have been done appropriately.
Improvement of Indonesian tea type and grade attributes
to meet the customers expectation must be the main
priority. In this case, the type and grade offered by Sri
Lanka through the Colombo Tea Auction (CTA) were
considered nearly ideal. Composition of the tea product
from Sri Lanka was dominated by the low grown type (5256%), followed by high grown type (27-29%) and medium
grown type (18-19%).
Some technical aspects of tea processing need urgent
improvement in an effort to increase satisfactions of the
Indonesian tea buyers. Priorities need to be done based
on the ranks as follow: (1) improvement of tea shoot quality;
(2) improvement of milling process; (3) improvement of
rolling process; (4) improvement of withering process; (5)
improvement of wet sortation, dry sortation and marketing
activities; (6) improvement of enzymatic oxydation; (7)
improvement of drying and packing process, and (8)
improvement of storing process. Some efforts need to be
done to improve shoot quality, such as (1) picking quality

(minimum 65% refined shoots); (2) handling and transport

of tea shoots from picking, placing in the container (basket),
transport to the collector, condition and method of shoot
weighing until transport to the factory, and (3) handling of
the tea shoots in the factory prior to the withering process.
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