A configurator is a platform which serves the goal of mass customization. It contains a set of common components from which a stream of derivative products can be efficiently developed and launched. Configurators in the construction industry have the potential to help integrate t
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A configurator is a platform which serves the goal of mass customization. It contains a set of common components from which a stream of derivative products can be efficiently developed and launched. Configurators in the construction industry have the potential to help integrate the design-to-production supply chain. Integration is required because there is a rising complexity in design and construction projects due to an increased number of parties involved in each venture. Configurators achieve integration by ensuring that a design is within the production capacity. (Cao et al., 2021) identified three distinct typologies of existing construction configurators: planning, design, and production configurators. These typologies primarily indicate the stage of the construction phase in which the configurator is used. An integrated configurator includes all typologies/phases. The application of configurators in construction is limited and immature, this is especially the case for integrated construction configurators. The application of configurators in construction is limited because current configurators lack scalability, many configurators may only be fit for one generation of products from one company. This issue originates from insufficient cross-organizational collaboration and integration with supply chains. Additionally, academia indicates a need for research on increasing the design space of modular buildings. For this reason, the research question of this thesis is: How can the design space of integrated construction configurators be enlarged? The approach for developing an integrated construction configurator which increases the design space is inspired by games with building systems such as Valheim. It consists of a grid, modularity on building component level, and configuration rules which dictate how components are placed on the grid. However, a major limitation of these games is the lack of proper analytical tools to validate configurations for physical construction. A configurator was developed which overcomes this limitation by implementation of a structural analysis. The configuration process of this configurator consists of 3 parts: the grid, the components, and the analysis. The grid defines the design space in which components can be placed, components from a building product database ensure product manufacturability, and analyses ensure that the assembly of components is possible. In each iteration of the configuration process, the configuration is controlled by editing the grid and placing or removing components on the grid. Then, the configuration is evaluated by means of analysis, results from the analysis are the basis for edits to the configuration in the next iteration cycle. The main benefits of this type of configurator compared to BIM are that by integrating the manufacturing and assembly constraints in the design process, early design decisions are evaluated on manufacturability. This can avoid design issues that require reorganisation efforts and put pressure on the supply chain. Consequently, the configurator reduces the time and cost for the design and production phases, allowing users of the configurator to develop buildings faster and cheaper.