Abstract
This article presents a study in which an attempt has been made to achieve the following two objectives: (a) to determine the optimal quantity of four major ingredients (factors) for manufacturing high-quality B. B. Custard biscuits and (b) to investigate economic aspects of the optimal mix that resulted in the production of high-quality biscuits. The first objective was achieved through the application of the Taguchi method, which is a powerful tool in design optimization for quality. As recommended by the Taguchi, an orthogonal array, main effect analysis, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to investigate the factors that affected quality of biscuits. Through this study, not only the optimal factor levels could be obtained but also the main factors that affect the quality could be found. Experiments were carried out to confirm the effectiveness of this approach. After obtaining the optimal level of factors from the Taguchi method, cost analysis was performed to achieve the second objective.
Results of the study indicated that the factors; i.e., wheat flour, fat, and skimmed milk powder significantly affected the quality of the biscuits. It was also found that the biscuits produced from modified mix; i.e., mixture of optimum level of factors could save 54,725.76 Saudi Riyal (SR) per year.