2010 – March – McGregor – Using Six Sigma to Improve Track Circuit Reliability

Peter McGregor BEng(Elect) Grad Dip (Systems) MIRSE Head of Signalling Design – Professional Services Division, RailCorp Is Six Sigma just another management fad? Is it just another business opportunity for the consultancy industry? Yes, it could be if you let it. For RailCorp our six sigma journey has commenced with an initial number of projects in the Asset Management group focusing on reliability improvements which were being sought by the organisation. In the first part of the paper I give a brief introduction to six sigma and what it is. I than go onto describe how we commenced using six sigma and how it was applied to our reliability improvement projects. In the third part of the paper I describe in more detail a project where we used some of the six sigma tools and methodology to improve the reliability of FS2500 jointless track circuits in a critical area of the RailCorp network and how using a simple clip on ferrite solved a problem with Receiver (RX) lockup.