How to build what buyers want: Unveiling customer preferences for prefabricated homes

An increasing number of buyers demand houses that are configured according to their personal needs and wants. However, in order to be effectively responsive and to control variety, it is important to determine what buyers wish to customise and to what degree. The prioritisation of customised attributes in house design still remains an unknown by builders. This indicates the importance of developing an appropriate model to determine customer preferences that can be adapted to different house building methods. This research identifies buyer preferences in prefabricated house building projects through the application of a modified Analytical Hierarchy Process approach, using a paired comparison-based preference measurement. This method considers changing attribute positions in a survey, which compels respondents to continuously reconsider the importance of a feature. This paper contributes by applying a preference measurement method in order to prioritise and identify what buyers of prefabricated homes really focus on when configuring a house. This is important as only knowledge of the preferences will enable practitioners to be effective in customisation efforts and also ensuring operational efficiency.