Teaching target value design for digital fabrication in an online game: Overview and case study

Digital fabrication (DFAB) for construction automation is emerging in the industry. However, DFAB requires better integration of fabrication-related information and organisation into the design process. Discrete processes in traditional delivery models such as Design-Bid-Build can hinder DFAB implementation when stakeholders find it hard to manage project costs. Target Value Design (TVD) has been proposed as possible approach to manage the DFAB design process, but management of DFAB using TVD is still new in the industry. Meanwhile, existing educational games have been successful at teaching players the basic principles of TVD principles. However, these games do not explicitly consider how players should select from advanced fabrication processes. They also have not yet been adopted for online play. This work presents an overview of an online TVD for DFAB game that can 1) help players understand basic TVD principles and 2) explicitly considers fabrication processes and resulting production times as an additional project value. The paper presents the results of a validation case played by 36 construction professionals, researchers and students in December 2020. Overall, this work contributes to the body of knowledge in learning and teaching TVD, online lean games, and technology adoption.