Designing route buses: from bespoke to mass customisation

This thesis investigates the question How can the design of buses and systems of design for route bus bodywork manufacture reduce the negative effects of specification diversity? by examining the application of mass customisation processes to an area of bespoke production – the public route bus. The route bus is an essential element of the transport system providing cost efficient public transport, but route buses are manufactured to the specification of bus operators and this design may differ significantly from other bus operators whose supply of vehicles is from the same bodywork manufacturer. The bus bodywork manufacturer must accommodate this specification diversity. The present method for doing so is by means of bespoke production to ensure the bus meets the operator’s explicit specification, but this process is time consuming and expensive in design and manufacture. Where diversity is accommodated by bespoke manufacturing there are functional benefits to the bus operator and passenger, however there are negative consequences in manufacture. This research set out to determine methods of reducing the repercussions of specification diversity; vehicle cost, design and engineering time, and production efficiency. This was achieved by generating physical designs and design methods balancing the bus operators’ access to a suitable product and the manufacturer’s ability to increase efficiency and quality of that product. The research methods explored mass customisation theories through product design experiments. This method required seeking out theoretical perspectives on the research problem and bringing them to bear on two studio experiments – the design of a driver’s area and a bus interior to meet the requirements of all stakeholders in bus transport. The research resulted in four critical interventions to the present bespoke manufacturing methodology, establishing means of reducing the negative impacts of specification diversity in route bus design. The four interventions are demonstrated in the development of a bus driver’s area and a suite of bus interior components. The bus driver’s area has been carried through to full production for the Australian bus market, while the bus interior demonstrates an extended implementation of intervention four; where the diversity of user requirements in the bus interior necessitate a completely modular system of components. 1. Determine user needs before the bus specification process. 2. Designs to be developed by the manufacturer in response to user needs. 3. This design should be standardised where possible, as suggested by the user needs. 4. Where user needs dictate product variations, apply a mass customisation approach to accommodate these needs. The interventions constitute a contribution to knowledge by their implementation in two design projects, one of which resulted in products adopted by the route bus manufacturer and market.