Aviation | Capacity Development | QMS
Quality Management Systems (QMS)
The requirement for all WMO Members to ensure that their meteorological authorities for aviation establish and implement a properly organized quality system comprising procedures, processes and resources necessary to provide for the quality management of the meteorological information to be supplied to the aviation users is an ICAO and WMO standard which came into force in 2012.
This standard is complemented by several recommended practices as follows:
- The quality system should be in conformity with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 series of quality assurance standards and should be certified by an approved organization;
- The quality system should provide the users with assurance that the meteorological information supplied complies with the stated requirements in terms of the geographical and spatial coverage, format and content, time and frequency of issuance and period of validity, as well as the accuracy of measurements, observations and forecasts. When the quality system indicates that meteorological information to be supplied to the users does not comply with the stated requirements, and automatic error correction procedures are not appropriate, such information should not be supplied to the users unless it is validated with the originator;
- In regard to the exchange of meteorological information for operational purposes, the quality system should include verification and validation procedures and resources for monitoring adherence to the prescribed transmission schedules for individual messages and/or bulletins required to be exchanged, and the times of their filing for transmission. The quality system should be capable of detecting excessive transit times of messages and bulletins received.
- Demonstration of compliance of the quality system applied should be by audit. If non-conformity of the system is identified, action should be initiated to determine and correct the cause. All audit observations should be evidenced and properly documented.
In 2017, WMO published a major revision to WMO-No. 1100, Guide to the Implementation of Quality Management Systems for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and Other Relevant Service Providers. The purpose of the Guide is to provide guidance to WMO Members on how to develop and implement a QMS, detailing the steps required to obtain certification of compliance with the ISO standard ISO 9001:2015, Quality Management System – Requirements (ISO, 2015c). It also provides the steps for transition from ISO standard ISO 9001:2008 (ISO, 2008) to standard ISO 9001:2015 (ISO, 2015c). It is especially focused on National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of WMO Members; however, it can be successfully utilized by other service providers, such as non-NMHS aeronautical meteorological service providers, to help them meet the above-mentioned quality assurance requirements.
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