An AHP-based procedure for sensory data collection and analysis in quality and reliability applications

The quality of several industrial products can only be fully measured through sensory evaluation of some of its properties. Sensory evaluation is widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industry for product quality optimization. It is also used for reliability analysis of products that degrade rather than fail as judged by sensory attributes. In this paper, we propose a pairwise comparison-based method for sensory panel data collection and analysis grounded on AHP principles. Our method presents two important features that may appeal to the product development practitioner: (1) sensory panel data may be elicited from panelists not exposed to intensive training, and (2) a consistency index objectively measures how well each panelist performs. The use of the method we propose is illustrated in two case studies. The first is from the food industry and seeks to find a new formulation for a product. The second is from the plastics industry and its goal is to find an appropriate warranty policy for a product that degrades over time.