Busan Transportation Corporation Wins Presidential Award for 7 Consecutive Years at National Quality Innovation Competition

Five Teams Participate, Winning Three Silver and Two Bronze Awards
Proving Top-Tier Quality Innovation Achievements Nationwide

At the 2025 National Quality Innovation Competition (the 51st National Quality Circle Competition), five teams from Busan Transportation Corporation won three silver awards and two bronze awards, once again securing the Presidential Award this year.

With this achievement, the corporation has continued its record of winning the Presidential Award for seven consecutive years since 2019.

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

This year’s competition was held in August at the Jeju International Convention Center, where teams from across the country competed to showcase their on-site innovation achievements.

The National Quality Innovation Competition is the largest domestic contest where quality circles that lead quality improvement in industrial sites present their annual innovation cases.

Jointly hosted by the National Institute of Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, and organized by the Korean Standards Association, this year’s event saw 2,600 participants from 316 teams-who passed regional preliminaries in 17 cities and provinces-compete in the finals. Amid fierce competition, all five teams from Busan Transportation Corporation, which had previously won top honors at the Busan City Quality Circle Competition in June, advanced to the finals and achieved awards.

The corporation’s teams competed in a variety of fields, including on-site improvement, freestyle (service), big data and AI, service, and equipment maintenance (EAM), earning recognition for their problem-solving capabilities. In particular, the activities of the three silver-winning teams stood out.

The “Mulebang-a” team improved the maintenance process of train braking systems, successfully reducing failure rates. The “Baekmanvolt” team developed its own performance monitoring device for overhead power lines, achieving a sevenfold increase in monitoring accuracy and a fivefold improvement in response efficiency compared to existing systems. The “HUMETRO” team significantly reduced failures of the ID recognition device in automated ticket machines, thereby enhancing customer convenience.

The achievements of the bronze-winning teams were also noteworthy. The “City Rail” team improved the train operation system for special events, increasing efficiency in managing train congestion and standardizing transport quality. The “Infinity Track” team established a master plan for maintenance management to improve the overall equipment efficiency of aging trains, earning recognition in the equipment maintenance category.

Since 2007, Busan Transportation Corporation has consistently participated in the National Quality Circle Competition, helping to foster a culture of quality innovation. As of this year, the corporation has accumulated six gold, eighteen silver, and seventeen bronze awards. The corporation explained that it has continuously supported quality circle activities that directly address on-site challenges, thereby strengthening its internal culture of innovation.

Lee Byungjin, President of Busan Transportation Corporation, stated, “This achievement is the result of our employees’ continuous research and improvement efforts to proactively solve problems on the ground. We will actively support quality innovation activities to provide citizens with an even safer and more convenient urban rail system.”

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