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Spot weld connections are used extensively in the automotive industry to join panels of automotive structures. Spot weld connections play a very vital role in the overall structural rigidity and integrity of the Body in White. The spot weld connections and layout have direct impact on functionability of automotive structure and capital investment for robots, guns and operators. There is continuous pressure on automotive engineers to reduce the number of spot weld connections in a structure without compromising on the structural performance across various disciplines such as crash, NVH & durability. Hence the need is felt to develop a generic and systematic CAE simulation procedure which will guide the designer towards arriving at an optimum design, with minimum number of spot weld connections, which meet all the performance requirements of the structure.

Cost reduction is an essential and continuous process to meet the competitive environment of product pricing and to increase the profitability of an organization. Integrated cost reduction exercise encompass all the possible avenue., e.g. Alternate material & it's procurement system, batch size, material handling, manufacturing process improvements, logistics and finally review & make changes to derive an optimum design and cost reductions to maximum extent. This paper presents a systematic approach for achieving the cost reduction of an existing 5.7Tonnne LCV truck frame from design consideration.