Focus Group Shapes Redesigned Front-Engine Thomas Built Buses Saf-T-Liner EFX
A
ttendees at this month’s NAPT Summit trade show in Cincinnati will lay their eyes on the newest Type D front- engine, transit-style, 90-passenger school bus to be made
available to the industry by next year. Tomas Built Buses finalized the new design, which features
improvements made to both the exterior and interior, over the summer after holding focus groups with customers, dealers, Tomas employees and even purchasers of competitors’ buses. Te most obvious change besides the body is the name, as Tomas opted to call it the EFX to reflect extra features such as additional storage space for drivers, increased access for technicians to the forward- located engine and to electrical components and added information on the dash. Kelley Platt, president and CEO of Thomas, said the process
began with heading to the field to hold initial conversations about what customers would want in the latest model. That idea quickly evolved into formal discussions at the company’s headquarters in High Point, N.C. “We are trying very hard obviously to make sure that we build
buses that our customers are particularly interested in,” said Platt in August. “It made good sense for us to get a group of customers together — people who are current customers as well as people who drove our competitors’ products and our dealers — and we wanted people who owned them, who drove them, who fixed them, to really tell us what would make this their bus of choice.” Te company dissected the collected data and set out to do
a redesign that would not only be attractive to customers but would also meet their specific needs for a forward-control bus. Te result is a sleek new Type D that Platt said is cost effective from both a purchase or financing perspective as well as at the pump. “We didn’t look specifically at the fuel economy,” added
Platt. “We’re always working on fuel economy and making improvements.” Te new EFX is powered by the same Cummins ISB diesel
engine on a Tomas chassis but offers new swing doors that allow easier access to the front engine and to wiper motors,
THOMAS BUILT BUSES’ COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM SHAPES NEW PRODUCTS Tomas Built Buses’ new Saf-T-Liner EFX was created using
a proprietary product development from parent company Daimler AG that is followed by its subsidiaries. “Our commercial vehicle development system (CVDS) is
a standardized method for integrated product development projects,” said Jed Routh, product planning manager for Tom- as. “Te process is scalable, meaning it can be used for projects that affect multiple organizations on a global scale or for proj- ects focused on a single organization or group.” CVDS promotes
cross-functional collaboration within
Tomas’ organization, so all employees have an opportunity to contribute to the project’s success. A typical development team includes representatives from every major discipline in the organization, along with outside development partners. Input from internal and external representatives is collected
34 School Transportation News Magazine October 2011
and published in project specifications. Tese specifications are used to evaluate the project throughout the entire process. In- put from end-users is also included. Te process includes 11 checkpoints, which ensure all cross-
functional requirements are met before proceeding with the next phase. Te first step focuses on clearly defining the scope of the project to minimize scope, creep (the gradual deforma- tion of a plastic solid under stress) and project complexity. At each defined phase of the project, the cross-functional teams report to the executive team on its status. Te project team continues to monitor the product for a
year after the start of production to assess the process and learn from it for future projects. Only after the product has been in the market for at least a year, and the team reflects on what it has learned, is the project considered complete.
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