Enhancing efficiency and sustainability in construction: a product configurator for customizable off-site building solutions

Research on expert systems and configurators has gained momentum in manufacturing. Although comparable approaches in construction date back to early 70s, literature on the application of configurators in the construction industry remains few and far between, and existing configurators do not benefit from knowledge transfer/integration from manufacturing. This study utilizes design science research method with case study as an exploratory research instrument to develop a configurator to enable co-design and automate sales and production of a modular annex building typology. The technical development of the garage configurator along with an algorithm to customize the garage structure, realize and personalize the 3D model, detail the connections, and generate off-site production documents and assembly details have been explored. The configurator is based on a three-tier distributed system architecture that demonstrates the potential of a fully automated tool to engineer the value chain. Preliminary results indicate that the configurator facilitates more effective data handling, reduces delivery time and resources, and enables more effective management of materials for the company with potentially measurable contributions to waste reduction and circular economy.