Case study
How d line Lets Specifiers Build a Complete Shower System in 3D - Every Part Listed, With Its Item Number.
A shower system is eleven parts, seven finishes and a product list that changes with the market.
d line makes architectural hardware in Denmark: door handles, bathroom fittings and shower systems, specified by architects for projects and sold through dealers in many countries. A built-in shower is assembled from parts, each with its own item number, and the list around them changes with the market: the parts on offer, the product descriptions, and the national plumbing numbers that Denmark, Sweden and Norway add on top of d line's own. What the specifier needs at the end is that list: every part, in the right finish, with the right numbers for their country. A product photo shows one part in one finish, and a price list covers one market. We built d line a Product Configurator for its bathroom range, live on configurator.dline.com: pick a market and a product category, build the system in 3D, download the product list.
Choose the market, then build the system
The configurator opens with the country. Product descriptions, national plumbing numbers and the parts on offer differ from market to market, so that choice comes first, before any product is shown. d line's own product data drives the rest: the range is maintained in the spreadsheet the company already keeps, and the configurator's product data is imported from it. Then the product category: washbasin, shower, bathtub, or shower and bathtub together. In the shower category the first choice is 1-way or 2-way. Switch to 2-way and the hand shower, its hose and its wall outlet appear on the model by themselves, and the choice between head shower and hand shower leaves the panel. The rules that make a system complete sit in the configurator, so what a specifier builds is a shower d line can deliver as one set.
Seven finishes, applied to every part at once
d line finishes its hardware in satin stainless steel, satin PVD copper, brass, black and bronze, and in polished stainless steel and polished PVD brass. One click changes the finish across the whole system: control, head shower, arm, hand shower and holder together, in the finish they will be delivered in. The thermostat is a choice of its own, made in the same panel, and a tiltable shower holder can be added as an optional part. Each choice updates the model and the parts list behind it in the same moment.
Every part listed, with its item number
The product list is the outcome. For a 2-way shower with thermostat it runs to eleven lines and ten item numbers: two built-in connection parts, the built-in part for the two-way shower, the control with thermostat, the diverter, the hand shower, the hose, the wall outlet, the holder, the rain shower and the arm. Each line carries d line's item number, and in Sweden the RSK number as well. The list downloads as a PDF, ready to be dropped into a project specification or sent on to a dealer.
Four product categories and a new market on the same setup
The shower went live first. The bathtub, the combined shower and bathtub, and the washbasin followed as categories in the same configurator, each with its own parts and its own rules, on the same product data and the same functions: finish selection, product list, save and share, view in AR. North America was added as a market later in the same way: a country in the selector, the parts that apply there, and the numbers to go with them. The configurator has passed 5,000 configurations built.
