The quality of scientific data is highly dependent on maintenance of the instrumentation. Some of the key factors are:

• Calibration
• Procedures
• Inventory
• Automatic Scheduling
• Manuals – Current manuals, annotated for errors and updates readily available to all users while at sea or ashore
• Software – Repository of the current and previous version of software
• Logbooks

After having defined the primary functions needed to improve the quality of the data collected with the instrumentation under our care, we searched for suitable products which are already commercially available. This result of these efforts determined that commercially designed marine quality control software was directed at preventive maintenance of fleets of ships and not well suited for use with scientific instrumentation. Modifying the software to better suit our needs was determined to be prohibitively expensive.

Thus, to administer the integration of all of these interrelated processes, the Marine Technology Group (MTG), developed the QUality Improvement Control (QuIC) System.

The QuIC system at this stage of development meets all of the primary needs. QuIC allows individual users to control the inventory of all shared-use equipment, keep historical records of individual items, provide a knowledge base of technical documentation, This system notifies users of upcoming expirations of sensor calibrations. Calibration cycles can be entered for each specific item and can be entered for the periodic maintenance of test equipment. All items are searchable by many various fields and can be whittled down to specific sensors, at specific locations, within specified periods.

Additionally, the QuIC system controls the process of creation and implementation of Quality Control procedures ashore and on board the vessel during the cruise. These updates can be easily synchronized either when the vessel returns or in real-time if an Internet connection is available. It will also provide more accurate daily cruise reporting by using templates or with simple text while the cruise is underway, allowing for informational and post-cruise assessment and analysis purposes. The QuIC system is based on a moduler concept and can be customized to add additional features as required. The QuIC system has drastically improved quality and at the same time has provided for more efficient use of resources. more>