Despite the growing emphasis on digital twins in construction, there is limited understanding of how to enable effective human interaction with these systems, limiting their potential to augment decision-making. This paper investigates the research question: “How can construction control rooms be utilized as digital twin interfaces to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of decision-making in the digital twin construction workflow?”. Design science research was used to develop a framework for human-digital twin interfaces, and it was evaluated in a real-world construction project. Findings reveal that control rooms can serve as dynamic interfaces within the digital twin ecosystem, improving coordination efficiency and decision-making accuracy. This finding is significant for practitioners and researchers, as it highlights the role of digital twin interfaces in augmenting decision-making. The paper opens avenues for future studies of human-digital twin interaction and machine learning in construction, such as imitation learning, codifying tacit knowledge, and new HCI paradigms.

This study aims to use modularity to impact various facets of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and explore the relationship between product modularity, process modularity, and DfMA within the context of Offsite Construction (OSC). The study fills this gap through an exploratory single case study by identifying perceptual measures of these three concepts. The study shows the alignment between multi-dimensionality of modularity, such as product modularity and process modularity, enhances the capability of DfMA. From a modularity perspective, the reconfiguration of abstraction, information hiding, and interface is an essential strategy to change the traditional design process. This reconfiguration is to adapt to the new scenarios brought by OSC and digital fabrication technologies and the new design tasks associated with these scenarios. This study has theoretical implications for the modular approach to DfMA and practical implications for those who expect digital fabrication techniques in offsite construction.

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) is an emerging concept introduced from the manufacturing sector to transform the construction industry and accelerating “off-site” capabilities. Enhancing the sustainability of DfMA is challenging and requires accounting for various environmental and managerial impacts on the process of manufacture and assembly, especially for the parametric buildings with irregular shapes and unstandardised components. It is essential to compare and make decisions among design alternatives for the best-fit sustainability in the DfMA process. However, there is presently a gap in the DfMA field. This paper proposed a novel BIM-enabled Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method for the sustainability assessment of parametric façade design. An under-construction parametric building was used to test and illustrate the method. A parametric façade was selected to demonstrate the application of DfMA to enable mass “off-site” customisation. This is a labour-intensive assembly process, which could significantly benefit from the implementation of such a method. Data collection involves archival data and semi-structured interviews. An integrated fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS was used to analysis the data. This research sheds new lights on DfMA sustainability and its decision support systems. Unlike the usual attention to the construction sustainability of on-site construction, the method involves consideration of both manufacture and assembly stages. It provides practitioners with a decision-making method to select the most sustainable façade alternative available for the parametric design. The findings carry implications for parametric façade design and show the deployment of mass customised unstandardised components. This research opens up new avenues for sustainable DfMA development.

Integrating building information to support decision-making has been a key challenge in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. The synergy of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is expected to improve information integration and decision-making. The aim of this paper is to identify strategies to improve the synergy between MCDM and BIM. From the earliest literature (2009) to the present, this study examines 45 articles combining MCDM with BIM. We find that the five major application domains are sustainability, retrofit, supplier selection, safety, and constructability. Five established strategies for improving the synergy between MCDM and BIM were discussed and can be used as a benchmark for evaluating the application of decision techniques in practice. This study points out gaps of combining MCDM and BIM in the current literature. It also sheds new light into combining MCDM with BIM for practitioners, as to promote integrated decision-making.

Rapid deployment of modular hospital facilities has become an essential action in the COVID-19 response. Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) has played a significant role, with governments commissioning emergency hospital projects. Due to the conflict between some DfMA strategies/guidelines, their integration requires further thorough investigation. This study aims to explore the integrated approaches to DfMA. A three-step method, including a focus group, 18 designer interviews, and archival study, formed the basis and validation of the case. Finally, the study identified 31 DfMA measures and revealed three organizational (concurrence, integration, and collaboration) and five design attributes that correspond with integration strategies for DfMA. Critical to the integrated approaches to DfMA is breaking the mirroring trap. This study contributes to the theory development of DfMA in terms of systems integration. Future practitioners can take the example by the case to adapt the project organizational structure to the building production.

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) has been introduced into the construction industry to enhance production efficiency. DfMA is a design approach and evaluation system for improving manufacturability and assemblability. This paper outlines the past and ongoing Artificial Intelligence (AI) development in manufacturing-oriented DfMA, and provides a literature review of the concept and the use of DfMA in the construction. The applications, challenges and barriers of design optimization through DfMA and BIM-enabled DfMA are summarized. This desk study shows that studies related to construction-oriented DfMA are still in infancy. At present, articles about DfMA are focused on optimizing design and engineering for manufacturability and assemblability, but rarely describe its digital enablement. This study makes up for the lack of literature review in the evaluation of DfMA with concluding a preliminary application framework, and proposes a future-oriented study and new direction for BIM-enabled DfMA.