This autumn the Finnish Transport Agency's Hydrographic Office was granted an international ISO 9001 certificate for all of its activities. This is a quality certificate, which guarantees that the activities of the Hydrographic Office are effective, customer-oriented and meet the quality standards.
– When we started to build the management system of the Hydrographic Office we first clarified what we actually do and how our activities relate to each other, says Rainer Mustaniemi, Director of the Hydrographic Office. In addition we wanted to follow the example of our colleagues: in Sweden and Norway the activities of the hydrographic offices were certified years ago according to the same ISO standards. – We have been discussing if we are taking the right approach to our work and how everything works as a whole. We have also gathered customer feedback in order to establish the quality level required by seafarers. We have asked ourselves how we best could carry out the idea of our quality system and how it can be controlled in order to sustain the quality.
Quality is a boundary condition for the activities of the Hydrographic Office
– The greatest benefit of our management system is that it secures the standard, effectiveness and customer-orientation of our activities. It forms the framework for management and control, within which we are systematically looking for development objects as well as managing risks. All our activities aim at detecting errors and defects before they can cause damage to seafarers and yachtsmen, says Mustaniemi. – The activities of the Hydrographic Office directly influence traffic safety, so this quality certificate matches our activities extremely well, says Mustaniemi.
The Hydrographic Office will continue to implement its management system and develop its activities. The certificate is valid for three years, but audits will be carried out regularly every year.