In this paper, 3-dimensional numerical model of an escalator is developed to study the vibration characteristics. This proposed model is able to consider the elastic deformation of the frame during transient dynamic analysis. Deformation modes which are used to calculate the elastic deformation are selected from the FE model analysis. Because low frequency vibration is very important to the ride quality of fore/aft direction, low frequency deformation modes of the frame below 20Hz are considered. To show validity of this dynamics model, longitudinal acceleration of a step is compared with test data in frequency domain. Then robust design technique is applied to determine important design factors and improve ride quality with small number of experiments.