Hamid Reza Feili - Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering, Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC)
Ebrahim Molaee Aghaee - Ph.D student, Faculty of Veterinary, Department of Food Hygiene&Control, University of Tehran
Navid Akar - Young Researchers Club, Karaj Islamic Azad University

Considering the variety of cultivated fruitsand fruition of different areas in Iran and on theother hand, having long term sunlight, so driedfruits could be one of the most profitableagricultural products both for export anddomestic market. Drying process has majoreffects on chemical, microbiological andorganoleptic properties, so selecting anappropriate drying method such as solar dryingwhich meets standard and market requirements aswell as cost benefit and energy saving isimportant. In this paper, Fuzzy Quality FunctionDeployment as a quality management tool byemphasizing technical and customerrequirements has been implemented in order toimprove quality parameters, optimizingtechnological expenses and market expansionstrategy. Subsequently, Analytical HierarchyProcess based on survey from customers andlogical pair-wise comparisons are employed todecrease costs and increase the efficiency and theeffectiveness of economic indicators. Using bothmethods will result in cost benefit, qualityimprovement, the customer satisfactionenhancement, and the increase in dried fruitsexports.

Solar Drying, Dried fruits,Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), FuzzyQuality Function Deployment (FQFD)