Knowledge-based Decision Support System Quality Function Deployment (KBDSS-QFD) tool for assessment of building envelopes

• This study identifies the actual decision-making problems faced by the design team.
• The tool is developed to facilitate the team to mitigate such the problems.
• The results suggest that the tool has the potential to mitigate the problems.
• The tool leads to better design management and higher level of productivity.

A building design team has faced several decision-making problems when assessing building envelope materials and designs for a private high-rise residential building in the early design stage. This study developed an automated fuzzy Knowledge-based Decision Support System Quality Function Deployment (KBDSS-QFD) tool to facilitate the team to mitigate such problems. A case study of the design team comprising an architect, a civil and structural (C&S) engineer and a mechanical and electrical (M&E) engineer was selected as the research design of this study. Results from the qualitative data analysis showed that the tool has the potential to mitigate the decision-making problems. The contributions of using this automated tool include not only achieving better design management but also raising the level of productivity in the construction industry.