Statistical process control in the production of Requeijão: a case study in a dairy industry in the south of Minas Gerais state, Brazil

Abstract

Being typically Brazilian and especially useful in the reprocessing of mozzarella, the Requeijão has become a product of high consumption and production in Brazil. Over time, the increased competitiveness among the dairy industries has improved the productivity of Requeijão. However, it is essential to increase the production and productivity of Requeijão without losing quality. It is known that a way to promote high productivity and high quality in a process is by using the Statistical Quality Control (SQC), which aims to help the production process to correct the identifiable errors throughout the process, in order to increase the profitability of production. This paper presents the process of Statistical Process Control (SPC) implementation in a Requeijão production line of a dairy industry in southern Minas Gerais. Control charts were used for variables and capability indexes, to monitor critical variables of the Requeijão production process, in order to meet the specifications of the Technical Regulation on Identity and Quality. After analysis of the results, it was found that the process variables are under statistical control and are capable to meet the specified standards. However, by analyzing the variability of the data, non-randomness patterns were identified, which indicates that the process variability is not under statistical control. The main cause which was pointed out was the poor accuracy of the data collected in the production process, which shows the effectiveness of SPC tools.