Shafiee, S; Piroozfar, P; Forberg, L F; Hansen, H N and Farr, E (2025) Enhancing efficiency and sustainability in construction: a product configurator for customizable off-site building solutions. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 21(3), pp. 450-466. ISSN 1745-2007
Abstract
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.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | configurators; customizable building solutions; environmental impact; expert systems; modularity; off-site construction |
| Index terms: | environmental impact, expert system, knowledge transfer, documents, integration, system architecture, waste reduction, design science research, modularity, exploratory research, building typology, off-site production, delivery time, off-site construction, construction industry, case study, value chain, efficiency, circular economy, engineer, 3D model |
| Subjects: | environmental impact, computational design, research dissemination and communication, construction type, design theory, sustainable design, research methods, sustainability assessment, manufacturing engineering, time analysis, building construction, data collection methods, profession, professional development, value chain strategy, performance management, design practice, design flexibility, industry analysis, organizational analysis, data management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Sustainability, Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Design Practice, Digital Applications, Organizational Design, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here