Using the supply-chain operations reference model (SCOR) to model the production of nautical charts by the SA navy hydrographic office

Abstract

The SA Navy Hydrographic Office is the national authority for the provision of hydrographic services for South African and Namibian waters. The mission of SA Navy Hydrographic Office is to provide hydrographic information and products essential for the navy; whilst providing a professional hydrographic service to the maritime community in order to aid safe navigation around the Coast of South Africa. The vision of SA Navy Hydrographic Office is as follows: The hydrographic office is recognised as the Centre of Hydrographic Excellence in Africa by the International Hydrographic Community through its proven professional conduct, products, innovation and supreme service. Since chart production can be seen as a supply chain, it was decided to model the chart production using the SCOR model in order to determine whether the current high standard of chart production can be further improved upon. The SA Navy Hydrographic Office produces various products ranging from the National Nautical Chart Series in paper format and electronic format in the form of Electronic Navigational Charts, General Bathymetric Charts of the Oceans (GEBCO's), monthly SA Notices to Mariners (Correction of Charts and Publications) through to Navigational Publications (SAN HO). The specific product that is used in this research is the National Nautical Chart Series published in paper format by the SA Navy Hydrographic Office.