Name: Lê Nguyễn Quang Đức – IEIEIU19046

Lê Trương Ngọc Hiền – IEIEIU19083

THE INFLUENCE OF TOTAL QUALITY

MANAGEMENT IN DANISH AGRICULTURE

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent centuries, Total Quality Management (TQM) was created and had a primary role not
only in practice but also in the theory affecting the increase of all types of management fields in many
countries around the world. The fundamentals of quality assurance are to meet the expectation of customers
and maintain stable performance; therefore, this factor attracts the attention of experts and researchers who
elaborate all shapes of methodology and develop related important tools such as seven tools in quality
management, or standard assurance ISO 9000. According to Oakland, the important effect of total quality
management was the highlight as getting the benefit chains of many organizations to succeed in applying
ISO 9000; these series combine innovative business construction, advanced operation management,
improving financial, and rise of stock value. In more detail, Total Quality Management had a close
relationship with global agriculture from tradition to modern which was ranked top criteria by many
organizers. In addition, development milestones were established to promote the growth of economies,
especially in low-income countries. In some parts of the world, agriculture has not been a spearhead field
due to the high probability of long-term development risks such as high labor costs, difficulty in
homogenizing the size, quality, and output of agricultural products by Pinho, 2008. Besides, there are still
many successful countries in this traditional field, one of the most developed agricultural powers can be
mentioned as Denmark. This is a small country with 5.8 million inhabitants, where it means that a lack of
human resources leads to relatively high labor costs. However, the accomplishment of this Nordic country,
which is independent of the breadth of the natural area, accompanied by outstanding agricultural technology
and management. In the past centuries, including the advantages of fertile and flat land along with a mild
and quite distinct climate in four annual seasons, agriculture played an important role in most of the
economies of Denmark. Today, Danish agriculture remains one of the most productive and developed
agricultural sectors in the world, this achievement can be attributed to the Danish cooperative movement of
quality management level in education and organization, besides the natural factor of agricultural lands soil
by Danish Agriculture & Food Council, 2015. At each period, the definition of quality is presented by
various researchers in different ways, but the most general definition is to satisfy customer expectations.
One of the initial definitions is provided by Dr. Edward Deming:" Quality is likely an anticipated level of
the homogeneous which relies on reducing cost ". Methodologies of his research proposed that statistical
controls are techniques used to measure the standard deviation of the performance level and monitor the
progress of the process. Furthermore, all of Deming's theories strive to foster "pleasure in work” collecting
process knowledge from experience as well as coordination from theory and focusing on equality of people
relationships. In other opinions, J.M.Juran claimed that quality is compared as fitness for purpose, he was
also among the first to recognize the risks of poor quality. The "Juran Trilogy" is a cross-functional
management method comprising three managerial processes: quality planning, quality control and quality
improvement. The relevance of these two assertions is demonstrated by their frequent recitation in recently
published papers, and thus used as a starting point for analyzing quality-related publications in this study. In
recent years, organizations have been fixated solely on theory; however, there are many challenges still
exist in this abuse. Firms try to implement the perfect total quality management that leads to the appearance
 of a lot of trends and the concentration on incorrect orientations. Because of the more complicated Total
Quality Management, a lot of information may be required to produce it effectively. However, when the
emphasis on documentation becomes excessive the operation of the system is endangered. All employees
and even senior management in the company have been seen to get overwhelmed by the excessive
documentation, leaving them disillusioned with the entire process. The examination of the direct effects and
outcomes of quality management concepts and methods of agriculture quality performance, on the other
hand, is still an ambiguous problem.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
From then until now, quality remains to be an important element of the Common Agricultural
Policy, as well as an achievable objective of the Rural Development Policy. In fact, efforts to improve food
quality out all over Europe was depended on the regional development policy of EU and learning
opportunities for practical deployment reliant on actions in each individual country by Strano, et al., 2011.
Specifically, the researchers argue that productivity is seen as a key factor in the Danish industrial sector. All
procedures are optimized and economically sustainable from farm to fork. Denmark leads in productivity
due to continuous innovation in many areas such as utilization of high qualified fertilizer and chemical
substances, construction of large-scale industrial farming, and standardization of the professional workers in
livestock farms, etc.
Although the effectiveness of this factor cannot be denied, productivity is not the primary key for
determining the sustainability of agricultural reality. Farmers frequently face daily complex decisions, which
are dependent on food produced. For example, the way to prevent locusts from destroying crops,
undermining food security, and reducing output quality of products. An alternative approach is necessary to
comprehensively consider all the factors leading to the success of the nation with approximately 2.62 million
hectares of agricultural land area (Juran’s quality control handbook, 2019). However, the study of the
application of Total Quality Management in agriculture in Denmark has not been thoroughly studied, partly
because the comprehensiveness of this method leads to a few factors that are not really outstanding or
because of researchers' approach. Indeed, although Total Quality Management was initially applied in
industry and gradually approached in service and education models, there is very little research on TQM in
agriculture. Even though none of the major regulatory firms has a specific quality management baseline,
nevertheless, agriculture in Denmark still has many risks when not realizing the importance of quality. In our
study, we are trying to gather evidence about the applicability of TQM to the Danish agricultural system by
using the eight criteria of Total Quality Management. After that, looking at the collected data and assessing
the core of the country's agricultural sector to demonstrate the success of Danish agriculture depended on all
the factors in Total Quality Management. With this new approach, we can take a more promising look at the
overall view of this system and synthesize it into a principle for agriculture-oriented countries to apply and
develop.
This paper determines the correlation between quality management and Danish agriculture by
following thought process. The first step is auditing the standards of quality management and comparing
which ones will be appropriate with agriculture in Denmark. The following step is examining the practical
level of these methodologies in contemporary Danish agriculture. Finally, a list of difficulties in agricultural
Denmark will be collected and handled by giving the improvements. The objective of this paper is that our
research can be applied to various tools and methodologies of TQM for improving the quality of agriculture
manufacturing in Denmark. Moreover, our effort to develop correct orientations will lead to useful
information for agriculture around the world.
REFERENCES:
[1] Aguayo, R. (1991). R. Dr Deming: The American who taught the Japanese about quality. London:
Mercury Books.
[2] Danish Agriculture & Food Council. (2015). Fact and figure 2015. Danish agriculture and food 2014, 7.
[3] Juran, J. M. (1951). Juran’s quality control handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill.
[4] Oakland, J. S. (1995). Total quality management and operational excellence. New York: Routledge.
[5] Pinho, J. C. (2008). TQM and performance in small medium enterprises: The mediating effect of
customer orientation and innovation. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 25(3),
270-277.
[6] Strano, A., Hudson, T., Redman, M., Meskell, J., Stopes, C., Schalenbourg, C., . . . Toland, J. (2011).
Agricultural product quality: a success factor for EU rural areas. EU Rural Review, 7.