QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF THE CARTOGRAPHIC PROCESS AT THE MILITARY GEOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE OF CHILE

R. Barriga

IGM

rbarrigav@igm.cl

For the Military Geographic Institute of Chile (IGM) the true assessment of quality is the degree of satisfaction among our users. The quality of the cartographic process, as our main strategic product, is key to our success, it being vital for the IGM to understand and use our Quality Management System to ensure the positioning of the organization. The success of its results makes it possible to ensure that the system is maintained and that both the main production process and the supporting process undergo continuous improvement. The scope of this system is applied to all the areas involved with the cartographic production processes and related support activities.

The first phase of achieving compliance with the parameters for cartographic quality is the design, documentation and implementation of the Quality Management System of the Cartographic Process of the IGM, based on the ISO 9001:2000 standard, which was achieved towards the end of 2006.

The IGM is an organization committed to the principles of Quality Management, based on the following premises :

Achieve the satisfaction and confidence of the clients, providing products and geo-cartographic services that fulfil their needs and expectations.

Attain a continuous improvement in production and management processes.

Detect opportunities for improvement in the management system, through regular reviews by the senior management oriented towards suitable decision-making and taking measures promptly.

Evaluate the usual suppliers that comply with the quality requirements defined by the IGM and record those evaluations.

Have available enough competent personnel on the basis of ongoing training.

Subsequently, it is necessary to coordinate the inclusion of those parts of the ISO 19100 series referring to geographic information, especially those which are most directly applicable, including:

ISO 19113:2002. Geographic information - Quality principles. Definition of the scheme for quality applicable to geographic data.

ISO 19114. Geographic information - Quality evaluation procedures. Development of the guidelines for the methods of specifying and evaluating the quality of the data.

ISO 19115:2003. Geographic information - Metadata. Definition of the scheme required for describing geographic information and services.

ISO/CD 19126.  Geographic information - Profile - FACC (Feature and Attribute Coding Catalog) Data Dictionary. This international standard is a profile based on the rules and methods defined in the Standard ISO CD 19110 (15046-10) – Geographic Information Methodology for Feature Cataloguing, in the context of the DGIWG (Digital Geographic Information Working Group). This defines a data dictionary and includes the definition of the features and their characteristics only, where these may be of use to the wider international community.