Decision support for housing customization: A hybrid approach using case-based reasoning and genetic algorithm

Customization has been an important business strategy for market promotion. The customization of housing, however, requires intensive communication between the customer and the supplier, as well as complicated processes in design and construction phases. Non-professional customers' inability to analyze the cost and quality of customization may produce difficulty in decision making and discrepancies between expectation and result, which will eventually give rise to dissatisfaction with the service and the product. This paper presents a system to support decision making in housing customization using a hybrid approach combining case-based reasoning (CBR) and genetic algorithm (GA). With this system, a customer is able to participate in the design process by customizing the house according to one's preferred layout, finishing and budget without time-consuming communication with professional designers. The paper concludes that the method should make customization efficient and profitable when applied to pre-sale housing in Taiwan. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.