Product configuration in the house-building industry

The UK house-building industry has often been criticized for failing to meet the housing needs of the country with the relatively narrow range of its products. There have been calls for the sector to adopt the concept of mass customization, which sees the convergence of the distinct approaches of mass production and custom-build industries to bring the benefits of wide-ranging product choice efficiently and economically to the mass market. For a customer to be truly involved in the definition of the product, the design process has to be extended to include the sales and service functions, and the customer interface has to be accordingly re-engineered. For a complex product like a house, effective communication of options available, the accurate and efficient capture of the choices made and their translation into build requirement can be a difficult process. The paper presents work on the development of a home configuration system to support the different stages of the house-buying process – pre-sales research by the customer, product selection and its translation into a format that the business can utilize for order fulfilment. The system aids the selection process with a flexible but robust way of navigating through the choices and with product visualization.