A Study on the Application of the Six Sigma Techniques to Railway Safety

Using transportations like railway, aviations and roads have been increasing continuously. Traffic accidents have been increasing as well. To prevent or lessen these accidents become a big issue to solve. Therefore, more enforced safety levels are being required to meet. In railway field, continuous efforts of railway safety are being executed to prevent traffic accidents. In present, railway accidents have been decreasing since subway accident happened in Daegu Subway in 2003. However, safety levels in railway field have not yet achieved as much as in advanced countries. Basic concept for enforced safety level in railway system is to prevent or minimize accidents by managing systems like related facilities, management method, organization, education. This is the same concept to minimize error rate in six sigma theory. In this paper, we are to apply six sigma techniques used in manufacturing industry to railway safety and go through ways to make more efficient railway safety system.

철도안전의 6시그마 기법 적용방안 연구

안전관리를 위해 정량화된 데이터를 바탕으로 통계기법을 통해 분석, 해석, 관리하는 기법은 제조업에서 수행하고 있는 6시그마 혁신운동과 거의 유사한 절차를 통해 수행되므로 철도안전관리에 있어서도 이러한 기법을 도입 하여 정량화된 관리기법이 도입되어야 한다. 본 연구에서는 경영혁신운동인 6시그마와 철도안전관리의 차이점에도 불구하고 제조업에서 성공적으로 활용하고 있는 6시그마 기법들을 철도안전에 적용할 수 있는 방안을 모색함으로써 일부 안전관리 과정에서 해결하지 못하거나 많은 어려움이 존재하고 있는 부분에 대한 해결책을 찾아 효율적이고 체계적인 철도안전관리에 일조하고자 한다.