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Transport Industry and Coding
January 02 2024
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Transport Industry and Coding
Do you know 'Dualism'?
It’s a philosophical stance to argue that there are two fundamental kinds or categories of things in a system and these elements are mutually independent so cannot be reverted to the other.
Here are the perspectives that the representative dualism in an industry is divided intoand .
Definition of Software
Things that used to be possible only with hardware, and therefore costly, are now possible with software.
This is the concept in definition of software. That is, the function which used to be done by hardware is replaced with software of computer hence the physical cost can be saved. With this, the flexibility of system has been better as we can utilize the performance of the computer that has been getting better and easy update is possible.
This is the same in transport. Unlike physical things such as civil engineering or construction, cost should be reduced if there are many parts to be processed by computer.
However, there are still many things in software which have not been improved for long time.
Railway signals or a variety of information system are the case in point. Although there have been complaints for the improvement, it is difficult to handle them easily due to formidable cost.
They say working with software saves cost but why is it different when it comes to improvement?
That's because the companies running transportation are not capable for making software by themselves.
Software work has naturally been outsourced as it is difficult and complicated hence the issues have been entailed additionally such as increased cost and difficulty of modification. / Outsourcing
This is the significant issue that removes the strength of software.
Age of Digital Revolution
However, times are changing now.
The era of digital revolution where anybody can learn programming. Has been formed the generation who are familiar with the word in 'coding' and you can often see the banner about coding academy for your children.
The recognition on coding has been changing to something that everyone including professionals such as office workers, independent businessmen, public servants, doctors and lawyers should do.
It’s time to stop being ‘coding illiterate’ now?
In the past, not knowing how to use a computer was considered a problem, known as computer illiteracy, but now we're becoming a society where not knowing how to code is a problem. (coding illiteracy)
Coding is the ability to speak in the digital age.
The transport industry cannot avoid this too.
In the past, we had to outsource the software production as we couldn't build it.
However, productivity and flexibility can be increased dramatically if we raise our coding ability and handle the software by ourselves.
This is the essential course in the world where the portion of hardware is getting smaller but the one of software is getting bigger.
The concrete performance has already been also seen in transportation sector in Korea.
Incheon Transit Corporation developed and uses its facility control program, named SMART Control System.
It can adjust the ventilation in a railway station by getting the information on fine dust outside and easy UI was developed together for easy operation.
Similarly, it created the program that automatically displays CCTV footage of the location on a monitor when a platform safety door or machinery is alarmed, the program that displays the operation status of ventilation facilities on a graphical screen, and even the program that generates reports on the operation of these facilities.
UI Structure Data / Monitoring / Control / Analysis / Source: Incheon Transit Corporation / Incheon Transit Corporation Facility Control Program
If a transit company can build its own program to use by itself, it would have following strengths;
Less trial-and-error and higher completion as the production starts with good understanding on the system /
Fast responding to program errors /
Know-how on the production process remains in the company hence itself becomes property and keep being advanced.
The reason Korean industry has not been advanced as much as we expected despite the digital revolution age might be the lack in software skills.
Likewise, there are many things like this in the transport industry that is stagnant in progress.
If transit companies do coding by themselves and utilize their own built software for management, it would be a new turning point for Korean transport industry advance.
* This card news is produced by modifying and supplementing ‘[Finding Hidden Transportation] Transport Industry and Coding’ of Monthly Transportation issued January 2023.