Busan Transportation Corporation Wins Presidential Award for 6 Consecutive Years at National Quality Innovation Competition

Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Hosts National Quality Control Circle Competition: 2 Teams Win Silver, 1 Team Wins Bronze

Efforts to Reduce Train Door Failures, Ensure Operational Continuity, and Improve Light Rail Tires

Busan Transportation Corporation (President Lee Byung-jin) was recognized for its quality competitiveness by receiving the Presidential Award for six consecutive years at the awards ceremony of the ‘50th National Quality Innovation Competition’ held at COEX, Seoul on the 20th.

The National Quality Innovation Competition is jointly hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s National Institute of Technology and Standards, Gyeonggi Province, and Suwon City, and organized by the Korea Standards Association. The competition evaluates the quality improvement efforts in various work sites autonomously carried out by companies to innovate quality and strengthen competitiveness, and annually discovers and awards excellent quality improvement teams.

This year’s competition featured a total of 298 quality improvement teams selected through preliminary rounds from 17 cities and provinces nationwide competing in the finals.

The corporation participated with three teams in three categories: On-site Improvement, R&D, and Free Format (Service), achieving excellent results with two teams winning Silver Presidential Awards and one team winning Bronze Presidential Award.

The ‘Mullebanga’ team, competing in the On-site Improvement category, received the Silver Award by improving and applying the maintenance process of the door device, one of the causes of train failures, reducing the train failure rate by 41%. By analyzing failure causes such as drive device shocks, they developed measures including optimizing rubber packing and changing the shape of buffer rubber, standardized these into maintenance guidelines, thereby reducing repair costs and work time and enhancing the stability of urban railway operations.

The ‘City Rail’ team, competing in the Free Format (Service) category, established a preemptive section operation judgment procedure to prepare for abnormal weather, minimizing citizen inconvenience by reducing emergency operation suspensions. They also actively enhanced customer convenience by creating exclusive timetables for section operations at each station and adjusting transfer connection intervals by line, earning the Silver Award.

The ‘HUMETRO’ team, competing in the R&D category, developed high-performance, high-durability tires for light rail and a real-time monitoring system, winning the Bronze Award. By improving tire materials and patterns to address early replacement issues caused by abnormal rubber tire damage, maintenance costs were reduced. They also developed a system to monitor tire temperature, pressure, and speed in real time, enabling efficient maintenance by promptly identifying abnormal tire conditions.

Based on an autonomous company-wide quality improvement culture, the corporation has participated in the National Quality Improvement Team Competition every year since 2012. Over 13 years including this year, a total of 38 teams have participated, achieving five Gold Awards, twelve Silver Awards, and twelve Bronze Awards, all of which are Presidential Awards.

Lee Byung-jin, President of Busan Transportation Corporation, said, “The employees’ spirit of challenge and relentless efforts toward quality improvement at work sites have led to the excellent result of winning the Presidential Award for six consecutive years. We will do our best to support various research activities of our employees to provide the highest quality of service.”

Busan Transportation Corporation is taking a commemorative photo after winning the Presidential Award for six consecutive years at the National Quality Innovation Competition. Photo by Busan Transportation Corporation

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.