AIJSTPME (2009) 2(2): 79-87

Methodology of Bus-Body Structural Redesign for Lightweight Productivity

Improvement
Manokruang S.
Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology
North Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand.
Butdee S.*
Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology
North Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand. *Corresponding author.
Abstract
Due to the lack of competitiveness, bus-body structural design in Thailand does not concern much with either
structural weight or total weight. This results in high fuel and over material consumption, long process time,
and high cost, which lead to lower efficiency and performance. The paper proposes a new methodology for a
bus-body structural redesign with less weight, less material used, less fuel consumption, and less cost. This
research investigates existing bus structure, creates the CAD model of a bus, and obtains opinions from
experts in a bus company on how to reduce the elements of the bus structure based on their experience.
Analysis by using FEM and reduce weight by taking out unnecessary elements. The paper presents bus-body
structural redesign, the method of calculation and analysis the suitable weight of Thai bus structure, and
suitable material that supports eco-design and sustainability concepts. This research benefits manufacturing
process by reducing cost, fuel consumption, material usage, and production lead time.
Keywords: Redesign, Lightweight Design, Bus Body Structure, Structural Finite Element Analysis
(FEA), Productivity Improvement
1 Introduction
Continuous product development is recognized as a
key success factor for manufacturing enterprise. It
can be developed by different strategies such as
variant management, fixed redesign, product
modification, and even innovative design. In the case
of a large and complex product with a long life cycle
such as the bus-body structure, the fixed redesign is
more suitable than other strategies. This study
involves with a 30-years-old bus-body manufacturing
company in Thailand who has tacit knowledge
emerged and capitalized from one generation to the
next. Although the bus structure has a small variety,
companies usually have an ability to make unique
models to create their own identity. Since the market
demands is changing, product redesign and
modification is necessary; however, design experts
usually do not modify the product in terms of
engineering redesign. Mostly, they modify the
product style and apply minor changes to satisfy

customers. Nonetheless, the non-engineering

redesign and modification methods do not satisfy the
global requirement for sustainable development and
eco-design. Good methods should reduce material
and energy usage, process complexity as well as
supporting material consumption and so on.
Lightweight material has been considered by many
researchers in redesign and modification. A type of
material can be replaced by a lighter material with
the same engineering properties. Composite material
is lightweight material that is popularly used and
continually developed, but it can be substituted in
only few components. Therefore, its usage in the
redesign process is limited. This paper proposes the
lightweight redesign of the components of major
structural parts. The bus-body design processes relate
to manufacturing processes. In general, the bus body
can be divided into three parts; the chassis and
engine, the body structure, and the interior including

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

79

Manokruang S. and Butdee S.

light and sound system [1]. Recognized as the major
part of the bus, the chassis must be approved by the
accreditation agency. In this study, the chassis with
an engine is bought from the well-known automotive
brand such as MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Isuzu,
Daewoo, Hino, Scania and so on., The chassis
commonly consists of two types; the first type has a
single piece with a single level and the second type
has three pieces with two levels. The second part of
the bus is its body structure, which consists of six
major parts: the front, the back, the left, the right, the
top, and the bottom. Each part supports different
functional components. The front part supports the
windshield, the console, main front lights, and the top
part. The back part supports the rear window and the
top part. The left part supports the front door, a
middle door or/and a back door, windows, the left
side panel made of sheet metal with primer coats and
paints, and the top part. The right part supports the
driver door, an emergency door, windows, the right
side panel, and the top part. The top part supports
both fixed and varying loads. Fixed loads consist of
an air conditioner, an LPG or NGV vessel, lights, and
stereo system; and varying loads consist of bags and
luggage. The bottom part also supports both fixed
and varying loads. Fixed loads are the wooden floor,
seats, and the other five parts; and vary loads are
passengers and carry-on objects. Designer experts
must consider all functional components for
appropriate structural strength and safety.
For design safety assurance, design experts
traditionally attempt to maintain all required
structural parts and elements, which raises the
production cost and the product price. Moreover, it
increases the weight and the fuel consumption of the
bus. This research applies computer-aided
engineering (CAE) method to design analysis to
ensure that the design meets all engineering
requirements and transportation regulations. In case
of the excessive strength of the design, the safety
factor is very high, so we can reduce the structural
weight to meet the sustainability concept. This
research selects the Principle Components Analysis
(PCA) to evaluate opinions and ideas on redesigning
from design experts. The questionnaire of discarded
elements is created and data are collected from the
bus-body design experts. The result shows that parts
with the high probability of having less functions are
taken off. The redesigned structure is repeatedly
analyzed by CAE-finite element method (CAEFEM). This paper presents literature reviews, the
research method, a case study, and a conclusion.

80

2 Literature reviews
The section presents related research studies and then
explains the new development in the field of study.
First, redesign products are discussed. Secondly,
lightweight method is explained. Thirdly, the busbody structural design is presented. Then, future
trends for product development and management are
discussed particularly on sustainable design, lifecycle design, and ecology design. Finally, a vision
for the future design concept that needs responsibility
for society and environment is explained.
2.1 Lightweight methods
Lan et. al. [2] study lightweight structures in busbody design. A new common medium-sized busbody structure is modeled and analyzed using the
computer-aided design (CAD) package, UG, and
finite element (FE) solver, ANSYS. This research
provides a basis for structural design optimization
with bus-body weight reduction. Junbo and
Ulfvarson [3] study the static and dynamic structural
behavior of a lightweight deck, as lightweight
structures are increasingly used for high-speed ships.
A theoretical model, made to study the interaction
between the car on the ship and the ship deck,
indicates that the car chassis is the significant part of
the problem and influences the solution. As a result, a
FE model of the ship deck is generated and special
parameters, such as the material of panels and the
numbers and the locations of loaded cars, were
studied. Results obtained from the finite element
analysis (FEA), show how a conventional steel
structure can be improved by introducing lightweight
material. Asnafi et. al. [4] study a new developed
lightweight metal-composite-metal (MCM) panel.
The MCM panel exhibits slightly smaller stiffness
than the aluminium panel but larger dent resistance
than the aluminium and the carbon steel panels.
Although the MCM panel is 46% heavier than the
aluminium panel, it is 60% lighter than the carbon
and stainless steel panels. This new panel is expected
to have many applications in manufacturing of parts
for car, train and bus bodies, appliances, and
household machines.
2.2 Optimisation
Zhang et. al. [5] study lightweight design of
automotive front-side rail based on robust
optimization with the consideration of the variation
in sheet gauge, geometrical size, and material

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

Methodology of Bus-Body Structural Redesign for Lightweight Productivity Improvement

parameters, caused by environmental factors and
other uncertainties. The response surface method
(RSM) coupled with the design-of-experiment (DOE)
technique is employed to create the approximate
functions of structural performances. The lightweight
design, considering the impact of the tolerance in
sheet gauge, mechanical parameters of material, and
structural performances, is guaranteed to be reliable
when random structural varieties are present. The
weight reduction achieved by using robust
optimisation reaches 29.96%. Cui et al. [6] study an
optimal design method of lightweight automotive
body assembly using multi-material construction
with low cost penalty. Unlike current constructions
of automotive structures that use single types of
material, e.g., steel or aluminium, the multi-material
construction selects suitable material for an intended
function. This problem is then solved using a multiobjective genetic algorithm. An artificial neural
network is employed to approximate the constraint
functions and reduce the number of FE runs. Wu and
Cheng [7] study the advanced development of
explicit FEA in automotive applications, The report
presents the selected applications in safety
simulations and other CAE activities, all done by
Ford in-house crash simulation code FCRASH.
Hwang et. al. [8] develop a fuel cell system and its
integration into the lightweight vehicle known as the
Mingdao hydrogen vehicle (MHV). The MHV
performs satisfactorily over a hundred-kilometer
drive thus validating the concept of a fuel cell
powered zero-emission vehicle. Measurements show
that the fuel cell system has an efficiency of over
30% at the power consumption for vehicle cruise,
which is higher than that of a typical internal
combustion engine. Chan et. al. [9] study Parallel
design methods for optimising lightweight structures.
The gradient-based approach to ending the optimum
structural design is not naturally suitable for
parallelisation by the `divide and compute' strategy,
which
simultaneously
computes
different
independent designs, used by the random search
based approach. The authors report reasonably high
levels of efficiency for a relatively coarse grain
Transtech Paramid parallel computer. Duijne van et.
al. [10] study how designers respond to information
about users perspectives and use patterns, when
redesigning a consumer product. The findings from
this field study were provided to the designers under
three experimental conditions, which varied the
presentation format and the type and availability of
in-depth information (tabular data vs. narratives vs.
audio/video descriptions). The study describes the

usage of the information by the designers in the

design process. We emphasise here the richness of
the contextual and process information derived from
the study, rather than any quantitative conclusions.
Eldonk van et al. [11] study redesign of technical
systems. The paper describes a systematic approach
to support the redesign process. Redesign is the
adaptation of a technical system in order to meet new
specifications. The approach presented is based on
techniques developed in model-based diagnosis
research. The essence of the approach is to find the
part of the system which causes the discrepancy
between a formal specification of the system to be
designed and the description of the existing technical
system. Maxwell et al, [12] study functional and
systems aspects of the sustainable product and
service development approach for industry. The
Sustainable Product and/or Service Development
(SPSD) approach is a pragmatic industry support
encompassing a range of strategies aimed at
maximising environmental and social performance in
all types of offerings whether they are
products, services or Product Service Systems
(PSS). This provides valuable information on how
functional and systems related considerations can be
practically and effectively included in sustainable
offering development. Ning et al., [13] present design
and development of thermoplastic composite roof
door for mass transit bus. Light weight composites
possess high specific strength and modulus and have
been widely used in various applications such as
transportation, marine, and aerospace. Replacing
metallic components with reinforced composites in
mass transit helps to lower weight and therefore
increase fuel efficiency and decrease maintenance
cost without compromising performance. Weight
savings of 39% and reduction of free-standing
deflection of 42% were realized using the composite
approach compared to the metallic counterpart.
Chang and Van [14] study researching design trends
for the redesign of product form. This paper
illustrates how to conduct pre-design research
properly before redesigning a product form if we
want to increase the success rate of a redesigned
product in the market. The general trend of style
formulation techniques applied to the new printers
was summarized from these analyses and was applied
in the design of another new redesigned printer. The
successful story of this new redesigned printer shows
that well-planned design research can help to find the
right direction and enhance the chances of success
for a redesigned product. Gautam and Singh [15]
study lean product development by maximizing the

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

81

Manokruang S. and Butdee S.

customer perceived value through design change
(redesign). Application of optimization model for
perceived value and change trade-off in general is
presented along with some special policy cases for
different scenarios. Salhieh [16] study a methodology
to redesign heterogeneous product portfolios as
homogeneous product families. The methodology
proposed to homogenize the portfolio begins by
analyzing the current product offerings to determine
customer needs and functions.
3 Research Design and Methodology
This section explains the research design and
methodology. Firstly, the existing environment of the
bus body manufacturing is studied and explained in
terms of designing process. Secondly, the bus body is
created on CAD modeling. The model must be suited
and completely transferred to CAE analysis using
FEM. In this case, wire frame modeling is selected
and a beam mate as the method for FE analysis is
used. Individual part is decided for the FE analysis.
Then, the PCA method is used to eveluate the busbody design experts opinions on how to reduce
some less important elements with fewer functions in
the bus-body structure. The research design process
shown in the Figure 1 aims to point out at the
productivity improvement using the light weight
strategy.
The bus-body redesign is developed from the existing
design based on the capitalization of knowledge
obtained from the expert working in the division of
the bus-body design and manufacturing. Special
check sheet is designed and used to collect data,
which are then used as guidelines for reducing an
element of the bus-body part. The redesign part is
analyzed by FE process and the result is compared to
the accepted safety standard value and the previous
analysis result from the existing design. Because of
the design and manufacturing process are dependent,
the existing design and manufacturing process are
studied. It includes existing design, load data and
problem analysis.
The existing design is not
available for analysis because 2D hand-sketched
drawing is currently used. Therefore, the CAD model
of the bus body is needed. To be analyzed by the
beam method on FEA, an effective design has to be
modelled by wireframe. Load data are necessary for
analysis as well. The loads, either point loads or
distribution loads, come from the weights of bus
components such as seats, air conditioners, light and

82

sound system, doors, windows, liquid or gas tank,

etc.
This research conducts analysis on each part
separately. Therefore, loads from one part have to be
correctly transferred to another before the analysis
can be preceded
4 Case study
This section presents the details of the research
design process. The design method has been
implemented in a Thai bus-body manufacturing
company where has used to produce bus bodies for
more than 25 years. First, the existing design and
manufacturing process is studied. Second, design and
drawing are created on the CAD modeling. Third,
static and dynamic loads are collected for testing the
designed model. Fourthly, a bus body is analyzed by
using FE. Then, knowledge capitalization from bus
body and manufacturing experts is collected to use as
guidelines on how to reduce bus-body elements for
the lightweight target. Next, the existing bus-body
model is redesigned based on the knowledge guided
from the previous step, which is a modification
method that does not redesign from scratch. The
redesigned model is followed by an analysis to
ensure that the design is still within the boundary
conditions of transportation engineering design and
regulation.
4.1 Existing design and manufacturing process
This section explains the study of existing design and
manufacturing process from one of the bus-body
manufacturing company group in Thailand, SME
companies. This company group runs their firms by
using project manufacturing; therefore, there is no
line production to make continuous manufacturing
process. By contrast, buses are made one by one
either making by the small or the big lot of
production.
Figure 2 shows the manufacturing
process in priority. The first is the production step of
the front part. The second and the third are the
production process of the left and the right parts.
Next is the production process of the top part. After
that, four parts, the left, the right, the top, the floor,
are assembled, followed by the process of external
covering with a sheet metal part. Then, the interior
covering process is performed. Finally, the premier
coating and paint finishing are done.

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

Methodology of Bus-Body Structural Redesign for Lightweight Productivity Improvement

Existing Design and

Process Study

Load Data

Analysis Result
Comparison

Bus-Body
Modeling

Existing Design

Problem Analysis

Bus-Body
Analysis

Capitalization
Knowledge

Productivity
Improvement

Bus-Body
Redesign

Lightweight
Strategy

Bus-Body
Re-analysis

Figure1: Research Design Process

In addition to the existing bus-body manufacturing
process, the body design is studied. Only 2D drawing
with dimensions is used as a reference for
manufacturing process, shown in the Figure 3. The
drawing limits a needed analysis, which can
quantitatively validate the design. The quality of bus
body is left to bus-body manufacturing experts on the
shop floor. The bus body is always re-worked and
redesigned, which increases production costs. The
analysis can be done by computer and analysis
software only if the model is created in the form of
CAD modeling. Therefore, the next section explains
the bus-body modeling on CAD.
4.2 Bus body modeling
This section presents the method and process of busbody modeling on CAD. Wire frame method is
selected because the bus-body structure must be
transferred to CAE as a beam format. It is started by
point and length. Figure 4 (a) shows the wireframe
bus-body modeling, whereas Figure 4 (b) displays
the material profile applied to the wireframe to
become a beam before applying meshing. The beam
mesh is then directly analyzed.
4.3 Load data collection
Load data are necessary and important. It can be
point loads or distribution loads. This research

mainly considers the vertical loads such as an air

conditioner, windows, and the top or the roof part. In
this case the collection data from the sample buss
company is the followings. The roof load is 2,893.5
N. The air conditioner load is 2,452.5 N. The total
window load is 2354.5 N. In addition, the yield
strength of the material obtained from the supplier is
351.571 N/mm2.
4.4 Bus body analysis by finite element
This research proposes the bus body analysis by
FEM, shown in Figure 5. The analysis is done on one
part at a time. The load collection is applied on the
element of the part before the analysis can be done.
4.5 Capitalization knowledge
Capitalization knowledge is a process of utilization
or reuse previous knowledge. As mentioned above,
bus companies build or develop buses by experience.
They occasionally redesign without proving that the
modification is safe or acceptable by the national
transportation
regulation, and even customer
association. This research adopts the capitalization
knowledge concept. The drawings, shown in the
Figure 6, are used to indicate each element. The goal
is to interview the design experts which element is
not important, less important, moderate, important, or
very important. The priority is indicated by number,

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

83

Manokruang S. and Butdee S.

Figure 2: Existing process for Bus Body manufacturing

Figure 3: The existing drawing and Assembly

as shown in the Table 1. The number 1
corresponds not important which is can consider
reducing that element. The number 2, 3, 4, 5
correspond to less important, moderate, important,
and very important respectively.
4.6 Redesign bus body model
The bus-body model is redesigned based on the
capitalization knowledge check sheet of the expert
suggestion in Section 4.5. Figure 7 (a) and (b)
shows the bus body element before and after 6
elements are taken off, respectively.

84

4.7 Re-analysis to obtain lightweight design

This section shows and explains the re-analysis the bus
model compared between before and after element
reduction according to Section 4.6. Figure 8 shows reanalyzed results. Table 2 shows the result comparison
between before and after redesign the bus body only the
left side part. The result shows that the element is
reduced by 6 elements. The weight reduction is 13.57
kg, or 4.62 %.
The methodology of the bus-body redesign using CAD
model referring on the factory production process is
effective both for design analysis and productivity
evaluation. The capitalization knowledge is used to
collected experiences and ideas from the bus factory
experts, which aims to reduce a buss weight by

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

Methodology of Bus-Body Structural Redesign for Lightweight Productivity Improvement

(b)

(a)

Figure 4: The Bus Body Modeling on Wireframe (a) and Applied Profile (b)

(b)

(a)

Figure 5: The Old Left Part Analysis (a) and the Modification Redesign Left Part Analysis (b)
Table 1: The Capitalization Knowledge Check Sheet
Position

Priority
1

Result
2

3
4

(a)

5
6

7
8

2
x

(b)

10

x
x

5
4

(c)
Figure 6: Element Preparations for Capitalization
Knowledge from Expert

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

85

Manokruang S. and Butdee S.

Table 2: The Result Comparison Between Before
and After Redesign
Comparison
Before
65

59

293.53

279.96

Tension (N/mm2 , Mpa)

1.10E+00

1.22E+00

Compression (N/mm2,Mpa)

2.67E+01

1.40E+01

Quantity of elements (pcs)

Total weight (Kg.)

(a)

Element reduction

(b)
Figure 7: The Left Part of the Bus Before (a) and
After (b) element Reduction

After

Weight reduction (Kg.)

13.57

Percentage of reduction (%)

4.62

removing insignificant structural elements and

redesigning. Then, the new redesign bus structure is
tested by FEM to check the strength based on the
safety standard. These advantages of this
methodology are measurable and adaptable by
scientific method, collaborated by factory experts and
design engineers, and able to improve productivity.
5 Conclusion Remarks

(a)

This paper presented the methodology of bus-body

structural redesign to obtain lightweight productivity
improvement. The existing data, design and
manufacturing process are surveyed as well as the
knowledge capitalization is obtained from design
experts in the bus company, who use experiences as a
guideline for element reduction. After that, the bus
body model is redesigned by modification method.
The redesign model is reanalyzed to ensure that the
new design is acceptable by transportation regulation
and safety aspect.
References

(b)
Figure 8: The Finite Element Re-analysis between
Before (a) and After (b) Element Reduction

86

[1] Butdee S. and Vignat F., 2008, TRIZ method

for light weight bus body structure design,
Journal of Achievements in Materials and
Manufacturing Engineering, 31(2):456-462.
[2] Lan F., Chen J. and Lin J., 2004, Comparative
analysis for bus side structures and lightweight
optimization, Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, Part D:
J. Automobile Engineering, 218:1067-1075.
[3] Junbo J. And Ulfvarson A., 2004, A parametric
study for the structural behavior of a lightweight
deck, Engineering Structures, 26:963-977.
[4] Asnafi N., Langstedt G., Andersson C.-H.,
Stergren N.O. and Hakansson T., 2000, A new

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

Methodology of Bus-Body Structural Redesign for Lightweight Productivity Improvement

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

lightweight metal-composite-metal panel for

applications in the automotive and other
industries, Thin-Walled Structures, 36:289-310.
Zhang Y., Zhu P. and Chen G., 2007,
Lightweight Design of Automotive Front Side
Rail Based on Robust Optimisation, ThinWalled Structures. 45:670676.
Cui X., Wang S. and Hu S. Jack., 2008, A
method for optimal design of automotive body
assembly using multi-material construction,
Materials and Design, 29:381387.
Wu S.R. and Cheng J., 1997, Advanced
development of explicit FEA in automotive
applications, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech.
Engrg, 149:189-199.
Hwang J.J., Wang D.Y. and Shih N.C., 2005,
Development of lightweight fuel cell vehicle,
Journal Power source, 141:108-115.
Chan K.L., Kennedy D. and Williams F.W.,
2000, Parallel design methods for optimising
lightweight structures, Advances in Engineering
Software, 31:819-825.
Duijne van F., Hale A., Kanis H. and Green B.,
2007, Design for safety: involving users
perspectives Redesign proposals for gas lamps
using a pierceable cartridge, Safety Science,
45:253-281.
Eldonk van S.J.M., Alberts L.K., Bakker R.R.,
Dikker F. and Wognum P.M., 1996, Redesign
of technical systems, Knowledge-Based
Systems, 9:93-104.
Maxwell D., Sheate W. and Vorst van der R.,
2006, Functional and systems aspects of the
sustainable product and service development
approach for industry, Journal of Cleaner
Production, 14:1466-1479.
Ning H., Pillay S. and Vaidya U.K., 2009,
Design and development of thermoplastic
composite roof door for mass transit bus,
Materials and Design, 30:983991.
Chang W.-c. and Van Y.t., 2003, Researching
design trends for theredesign of product form,
Design Studies, 24:173-180.
Gautam N. and Singh N., 2008, Lean product
development: Maximizing the customer
perceived value through design change
(redesign), Int. J. Production Economics,
114:313-332.

[16] Salhieh SaEd M., 2007, A methodology to

redesign heterogeneous product portfolios as
homogeneous product families, ComputerAided Design, 39:1065-1074.

King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok Press, Bangkok, Thailand

87