Maintaining the Quality of Tuna of Aceh for the Japanese Export Market

This study aims to reduce the number of Tuna processing in Aceh products that will be exported to Japan. The decline in the defect level of this product is a critical point to reduce the number of customer complaints so that business continuity with trading partners abroad is maintained. The main fish products export from Aceh are fresh tuna loin fish. There are often complaints from customers in export destination countries because the fresh Tuna Loin products received by them are not up to standard. The color of the tuna is less red and tends to be pale, the fish looks less fresh, and the texture of the fish is broken and mushy. To solve this problem, the PDCA method is used, which consists of Planning by doing observation in the fish processing unit starting from the reception of the fish until the final product processing. It does by improving the weakness of the process such as tightening the time of purchasing fish, adding fish containers, improve cooling room temperature, standardization of production process providing dry ice inside the packaging to maintain the quality of loin. Control by evaluating the number of complaints and compare it to the previous one. Action by doing standardization of the process and publish Standard Operation Procedures booklet as a guide to be followed during the production stage. This effort was supported by the use of 7 quality control tools, namely check sheet, histogram, Pareto chart, control chart, cause and effect diagram, and FMEA. There was also one expert Tuna from Japan is staying in Aceh to ensure the quality of Tuna delivered in accordance with Japanese market expectations. Improvements have been made to reduce the number of defects and complaints from customers. The number of defects items, both the color and texture of Tuna meat as of July to August 2018 felt by 45% and 42% respectively compare to the period of March-May 2018. Consequently the number of fresh tuna loin complaints has also decreased because all of the loin shipped to them were already in good quality. This research only takes samples on the processing of Tuna fishermen product in in Banda Aceh, and only for Japanese market. Further research suggested to cover area beyond Aceh and also for other countries apart from Japan, for export destination. Research on improving the quality of Tuna with PDCA method as long as the author's knowledge has never been done in Aceh because the export of Loin Tuna Aceh to Japan has only recently developed.