Mass-customisation of cross-laminated timber wall systems at early design stages

Abstract

Low profitability of the building industry has driven the adoption of industrialised production methods in this sector. In an industrialised context, mass-customisation (MC) is a set of strategies aimed to offer tailored products at prices close to those of mass-production. MC can be achieved through integrating market knowledge and supply-chain processes into the building design. Nonetheless, the MC-related literature is slim in optimising designs for such an integration. The goal is to find optimal design configurations for the load-bearing spanning systems that incur minimum product waste and manufacturing process waste. The paper uses Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) buildings as cases of highly prefabricated systems. The preliminary layout of a building is first mathematically modelled. Then, genetic algorithms are adapted to optimise wall dimensions and billet cutting plan. The example case demonstrated significant waste reduction compared to the building industry benchmarks. This highlights the practical benefits of the systematical implementation of MC from the early design stages. The present study contributes to the body of knowledge by introducing a novel design support tool that facilitates the adoption of MC in the building industry.