In manufacturing, the gap between what customers want and what companies can easily sell is massive. Customers want products configured precisely to their specifications. Manufacturers can produce custom configurations, but connecting customer desires to manufacturing reality requires sales representatives, engineers, lengthy quote cycles, and manual processes that slow everything down and introduce errors.
Product configurators help customers design what they want with real-time visuals, accurate pricing, and confidence that every option is manufacturable. The strongest solutions do more than automate quotes. They improve the customer experience and streamline everything from order capture to production.
But what does a great configurator look like in practice? How do top manufacturers use them to increase custom orders, raise conversion rates, and improve operational efficiency? And which features truly separate a smooth configurator from a frustrating one?
In this article, we look at real-world configurator examples across building materials, furniture, and other customizable products. You’ll see what makes each approach effective, learn practical takeaways for your own strategy, and understand how manufacturers are using these tools to gain market share and increase profitability.
We start with a configurator that has helped boost custom product sales through standout configuration and visualization: Threekit.
Threekit: Enabling Manufacturers to Deliver Exceptional Configuration Experiences
Threekit is a visual commerce platform designed for manufacturers selling configurable products. The platform combines configuration logic, photorealistic 3D visualization, AR capabilities, and seamless integration with ERP, CAD, and eCommerce systems.
What sets Threekit apart is its focus on manufacturing realities. The platform handles the sophisticated business rules, dependencies, and constraints that govern what's actually manufacturable, and it generates production-ready specifications that flow directly into manufacturing systems. It does all this while delivering customer-facing experiences that convert browsers into confident buyers.
Threekit's impact on manufacturers is measurable. Companies using the platform see up to 56% more leads compared to standard website visitors. This improvement comes from enabling customers to interact with products meaningfully (configuring options, visualizing results in real-time, and even placing virtual products in their actual spaces using AR).
For building materials manufacturers specifically, Threekit recently launched AI for Building Materials, a suite of AI-powered tools designed for windows, doors, kitchen and bath, flooring, and related categories. The AI capabilities include Discovery and Guided Selling (helping customers apply specifications through natural language), Home Vision (visualizing products in customers' actual spaces), and Lead Intelligence (capturing buyer intent and syncing to CRM systems automatically).
Leading manufacturers across categories trust Threekit to power their configuration experiences. Kohler, Sloan, Fortune Brands, and numerous building materials companies use the platform to enable sophisticated product customization with exceptional visualization. The platform handles everything from simple finish selection to dimensional customization with dynamic pricing.
Now let's examine specific manufacturer implementations that demonstrate what's possible with effective product configuration.
A-dec: "Dream in 3D" for Dental Equipment
A-dec, the leader in dental operatory equipment, faced a challenge common to manufacturers of configurable products: their product configurator was solid from a business rules perspective, but the customer-facing experience wasn't delivering the speed and engagement needed to drive conversions effectively.
According to Rob Ayers, A-dec's Manager of Digital Customer Experience: "We had a robust configurator in place, but we needed a customer-facing tool to deliver faster, more dynamic, and visually engaging product experiences."
A-dec partnered with Threekit to launch their "Dream in 3D" AI Configurator as part of their digital design experience. The new system combines AI-powered configuration with real-time 3D visualization of dental equipment in configured states.
What Makes It Work:
AI-Powered Simplification: Dental equipment is highly technical, with numerous specifications. The AI Visual Configurator lets customers describe what they need conversationally, then intelligently recommends appropriate configurations. This process removes the burden of understanding every technical detail upfront.
Real-Time Visualization: As customers make selections, the 3D model updates instantly, showing the configured equipment from multiple angles. Dental professionals can see exactly what they're specifying.
Speed and Efficiency: The new configurator reduced customization clicks and time spent by as much as 60% compared to the previous system. Faster configuration means higher completion rates and better conversion.
Confidence Building: By seeing photorealistic renderings of their exact configuration, customers gain confidence that the equipment will meet their needs. This confidence directly translates into order placement.
Results:
A-dec's Dream in 3D configurator demonstrates how AI can make configuration feel simple. By reducing the difficulty of the process through intelligent guidance while maintaining complete configurability, A-dec created an experience that drives both conversion and customer satisfaction.
The dental equipment market requires precision and significant investment, and practitioners need confidence in their equipment selections. A-dec's configurator provides that confidence through visualization and guided configuration, shortening sales cycles while improving order accuracy.
Key Lessons:
- Don't sacrifice configurability for simplicity. AI can make nuanced products feel simple without removing options.
- Visualization builds confidence. For high-value, technical products, accurately representing configurations matters.
- Speed matters. Reducing clicks and time to complete configuration directly impacts conversion rates.
- Intelligent guidance helps all users. Even experienced professionals benefit from AI that helps them navigate options efficiently.
Door and Window Manufacturers: Visualizing Installed Products
Door and window manufacturers face unique configurator challenges, and products must meet precise dimensional requirements, comply with building codes, match architectural aesthetics, and function in specific applications. Customers need to visualize how products will actually look installed in their homes or buildings, not just as isolated showroom samples.
Multiple door and window manufacturers have implemented sophisticated configurators addressing these challenges:
Therma-Tru Doors provides a configurator that answers the classic question customers ask: "What will my door look like on my house?" Customers can customize door style, finish, glass type, and hardware, seeing real-time updates as they make selections. The configurator addresses a critical pain point. Doors are expensive ($2,000+) custom-manufactured products, and customers need confidence before committing.
What makes Therma-Tru's approach effective:
- Real-world context: Rather than showing doors in generic settings, the configurator helps customers visualize doors in contexts similar to their actual installation.
- Style guidance: The system helps customers navigate options with recommendations based on architectural style and preferences.
- Complete configuration: Customers configure all aspects of their door, such as style, material, finish, glass, and hardware, in one integrated experience.
- Pricing transparency: Real-time pricing updates as options are selected, eliminating surprises.
Industry-Wide Best Practices from Leading Implementations:
Successful door and window configurators share several characteristics:
- Dimensional Flexibility with Constraints: Allow custom sizing while enforcing manufacturability limits. A customer can specify width and height within acceptable ranges, and the configurator prevents invalid dimensions that don't meet building codes or manufacturing capabilities.
- Material and Finish Visualization: Accurately render wood species, painted finishes, and material textures. Color accuracy matters. Customers must see what they're actually getting, not approximations.
- Glass and Hardware Options: Handle various combinations of glass types (clear, textured, decorative, low-E), grille patterns, and hardware finishes. These options have compatibility rules that configurators must enforce seamlessly.
- Building Code Compliance: For certain applications (egress doors, fire-rated doors), configurators should validate that configurations meet code requirements or clearly communicate limitations.
- AR Visualization: Mobile AR capabilities that let homeowners place virtual doors or windows on their actual house exteriors dramatically reduce purchase hesitation. Seeing the product in real context eliminates the abstraction of showroom samples.
Threekit's AI for Building Materials addresses these requirements for door and window manufacturers. The platform handles custom dimensions and material combinations, and provides AR visualization that shows configured products in customers' actual spaces. The AI Home Vision feature lets customers upload photos of their homes and see how different door and window configurations will look installed.
Results Door and Window Manufacturers See:
- Reduced quote-to-order time as configurations are accurate from the start
- Lower return rates because customers see exactly what they're getting
- Increased average order values as customers discover options through exploration
- Improved dealer satisfaction as configurators reduce support burden
- Better manufacturing efficiency with complete, accurate specifications flowing directly to production
Key Lessons:
- Context matters enormously. Abstract product views don't build the same confidence as contextual visualization.
- Material accuracy is non-negotiable. Colors and textures must render faithfully, or customer expectations won't align with reality.
- Dimensional customization requires sophisticated logic. Support custom sizing while enforcing manufacturing and code constraints.
- Mobile AR is becoming expected. Homeowners increasingly expect to visualize products in their actual spaces before purchasing.
Furniture Manufacturers: Customization at Scale
Furniture manufacturers pioneered mass customization, and the best implementations demonstrate how configurators can handle extensive customization while maintaining manufacturability and profitability.
Tylko: Bespoke Storage Furniture
Tylko is a next-generation furniture company delivering premium, customized storage furniture configured entirely online. Their configurator integrates with their manufacturing process, including automatic CNC drawing generation from customer configurations.
What makes Tylko's implementation exceptional:
Exceptional Interaction Design: The 3D model is highly interactive. Customers can open shelves, adjust heights, and change configurations. The interface feels more like a design tool than a traditional product configurator.
Comprehensive Customization: Customers configure style (pattern, mosaic, slant), density, dimensions (width, height, depth), and color. The system handles thousands of possible combinations while enforcing design feasibility.
Scale Reference: A human figure appears in the visualization, helping customers understand proportions. Seeing configured furniture at scale prevents size-related surprises.
Inspiration Integration: When customers select a finish, the interface displays a gallery of high-resolution photos featuring that finish in real spaces. This contextual inspiration helps customers envision their choices.
Social Sharing: Customers can save designs and share via social media, getting feedback before purchasing. This social validation increases purchase confidence.
Manufacturing Integration: Configured products automatically generate CNC drawings for manufacturing. Customer configuration translates directly to production instructions without manual engineering work.
Gat Creek: Made-to-Order Solid Wood Furniture
Gat Creek offers handcrafted furniture from three wood species, 64 finishes, and various hardware options, including extensive customization possibilities that traditional catalogs struggle to communicate effectively.
Their configurator enables customers to:
- View available wood types and pair them with finishes
- See final products in 3D from multiple angles
- Visualize furniture using augmented reality in their actual spaces
- Configure with confidence knowing exactly what they're ordering
Why It Works:
Visual Fidelity: The 3D models accurately represent wood grain, finish quality, and hardware details. Customers see photorealistic representations of their exact configuration.
AR for Context: Placing virtual furniture in actual rooms eliminates guesswork about fit, style compatibility, and scale. This capability significantly reduces returns due to size or style mismatches.
Extensive Options Without Overwhelm: Despite offering thousands of possible combinations (3 woods × 64 finishes × multiple hardware options × numerous furniture pieces), the interface guides customers through selections to avoid decision paralysis.
Manufacturing Alignment: Configuration options align precisely with what's manufacturable. There are no "sorry, we can't actually make that" situations after customers configure products.
Results from Furniture Configurators:
Leading furniture manufacturers report (SQ Magazine):
- Conversion rate increase when implementing 3D/AR configurators versus static imagery
- Reduced return rates as customers receive exactly what they visualized
- Higher average order values as customers discover up-charge options through exploration (our clients have reported upwards of 130% revenue growth since implementation!)
- Lower customer service costs as configurators answer questions that would otherwise require support
Key Lessons:
- Manufacturing integration is critical. Configuration must generate production-ready specifications automatically.
- AR drives furniture sales. Seeing configured furniture in actual spaces dramatically reduces purchase hesitation.
- Handle complexity gracefully. Thousands of options require intelligent interface design that prevents overwhelm.
- Inspiration aids decision-making. Showing configured products in real-world contexts helps customers commit.
Industrial Equipment and Machinery: Complex B2B Configuration
Manufacturing industrial equipment and heavy machinery presents the most complicated configuration challenges. Products have intricate technical specifications, compatibility constraints, performance requirements, and often require engineering review. Yet customers still expect self-service configuration capabilities.
Siemens Industrial Equipment
Siemens offers an advanced configurator for industrial machinery, allowing customers to customize motors, converters, control systems, and components to match specific industrial requirements.
The configurator handles:
Technical Specifications: Customers configure based on performance requirements, including power ratings, voltage, speed, torque, and other engineering specifications. The system validates that configurations will meet stated requirements.
Component Compatibility: Industrial systems have detailed compatibility rules. Certain motors require specific converters. Control systems must match drive systems. The configurator enforces these relationships automatically.
Standards Compliance: Different regions and industries have regulatory requirements. The configurator ensures configured systems meet applicable standards.
Documentation Generation: When customers complete configurations, the system generates complete technical documentation, including specifications, drawings, and installation instructions.
Why Complex B2B Configurators Succeed:
Technical Precision: Industrial buyers are engineering professionals who need accurate specifications. Configurators must handle technical details without simplifying to the point of uselessness.
Integration with Engineering Systems: Unlike consumer configurators, industrial configurators often integrate with CAD, simulation tools, and engineering databases. Configurations might trigger FEA analysis or thermal simulations to validate performance.
Quote and Proposal Generation: B2B sales require detailed quotes, proposals, and technical documentation. Configurators must generate these materials automatically.
Multi-stakeholder Workflows: Industrial purchases involve multiple decision-makers. Configurators should support saving configurations, sharing for review, and collaborative decision-making.
Performance Impact:
Manufacturers of industrial equipment report (Siemens):
- Quote generation time reduced from days/weeks to minutes/hours
- Engineering review time decreased dramatically as configurations are validated upfront
- Higher quote-to-order conversion rates due to faster response times
- Reduced configuration errors that would require redesign or production delays
Key Lessons:
- Don't oversimplify for technical users. B2B customers often need and appreciate technical depth.
- Validation is critical. Configurators must validate that configurations will actually work as specified.
- Documentation automation drives ROI. Automatically generating technical documentation saves massive engineering time.
- Support collaborative decision-making. B2B purchases involve multiple stakeholders who need to review and approve configurations.
Kitchen and Bath Manufacturers: Material and Spatial Complexity
Kitchen and bath manufacturers face unique configurator requirements: products exist in specific spatial contexts, materials must be visualized accurately, and configuration involves coordinating multiple products (cabinets, counters, fixtures, hardware).
Kohler: Comprehensive Product Configuration
Kohler, a leading manufacturer of kitchen and bath products, uses Threekit to power configuration experiences across their product lines. Customers can configure faucets, sinks, toilets, showers, and other products with real-time visualization.
What makes Kohler's implementation effective:
Material Visualization: Finishes are critical in kitchen and bath. Kohler's configurator accurately renders brushed nickel, chrome, bronze, matte black, and other finishes so customers see true-to-life representations.
Spatial Context: For larger products like shower systems, the configurator shows products in realistic bathroom contexts, helping customers understand scale and aesthetic fit.
Cross-Product Coordination: Kitchen and bath purchases often involve multiple products that should coordinate aesthetically, and visual configurators that remember finish preferences across products help customers maintain design coherence.
Specification Generation: For professional contractors and designers, configurators generate complete specifications including model numbers, finishes, dimensions, and installation requirements.
Industry Best Practices:
Successful kitchen and bath configurators incorporate:
- Finish Accuracy: Materials like metals, stones, and ceramics must render with accurate color, texture, and reflectivity. Poor color matching creates customer disappointment.
- Installation Context: Showing products in realistic spaces helps customers evaluate aesthetic fit. A modern fixture looks different in traditional versus contemporary settings.
- Dimensional Accuracy: Especially for spatial products like shower systems or vanities, accurate dimensions prevent installation problems.
- Style Recommendations: AI-powered style recommendations help customers navigate options by architectural style, color preferences, or design period.
- Professional-Grade Information: Contractors and designers need technical specifications, installation details, and compatibility information beyond what consumers require.
Results:
Kitchen and bath manufacturers with sophisticated AI configurators report:
- Increased web-to-lead conversion as engaged configurators generate higher-quality leads
- Better alignment between customer expectations and delivered products
- Reduced returns due to finish or style mismatches
- Enhanced dealer relationships as configurators reduce dealer support burden
- Higher customer satisfaction scores
Key Lessons:
- Material rendering quality directly impacts conversion. Poor quality renders damage to trust.
- Context matters as much as the product itself. Show products in realistic settings.
- Support both consumer and professional workflows. B2B and B2C users have different needs.
- Cross-product coordination creates better outcomes. Help customers maintain aesthetic consistency across products.
Common Success Factors Across All Examples
Analyzing these diverse manufacturer examples reveals consistent factors that drive configurator success:
- Visualization Quality is Non-Negotiable
Every successful implementation prioritizes exceptional 3D visualization. Photorealistic rendering, accurate material representation, multiple viewing angles, and (increasingly) AR capabilities are essential for building purchase confidence.
According to industry research, replacing basic product photography with 3D or AR configurators can boost conversions by as much as 40%. But this only holds when the visualization quality is excellent. Poor rendering damages credibility rather than enhancing it.
- Manufacturing Integration Drives Operational ROI
Configurators that treat customer-facing experiences and manufacturing workflows as connected systems deliver the highest ROI. When configurations automatically generate CAD drawings, BOMs, and production specifications, engineering costs plummet and lead times decrease dramatically.
- Intelligent Guidance Improves Conversion
The latest AI-powered configurators don't just present options. They instead actively guide customers through configuration using natural language, style recommendations, and intelligent filtering. This guidance reduces abandonment and helps customers discover options they wouldn't have found through manual exploration.
Threekit's AI capabilities demonstrate this approach: customers describe what they need conversationally, and the system recommends relevant configurations. This approach removes friction from selection processes.
- Mobile and AR Capabilities Are Becoming Expected
Consumer behavior has shifted dramatically toward mobile research and decision-making. Configurators must work flawlessly on smartphones and tablets. More importantly, AR capabilities that let customers visualize products in their actual spaces have moved from novel to expected, particularly for furniture, doors, windows, and other products where spatial context matters.
- Performance and Speed Matter Enormously
Slow configurators frustrate users and tank conversion rates. Real-time 3D rendering, instant pricing updates, and responsive interfaces are critical. Research shows that A-dec reduced customization time by 60%, directly improving conversion rates, and every additional second of lag increases the risk of abandonment.
- Omnichannel Deployment Maximizes Value
The most successful implementations deploy configurators across all customer touchpoints: direct eCommerce sites, dealer portals, sales representative tools, and mobile apps. Using a single configuration engine with consistent rules and pricing across channels ensures accuracy while maximizing the investment.
- Continuous Optimization Based on Data
Leading manufacturers treat configurators as living systems requiring ongoing optimization. They track metrics like configuration completion rates, abandonment points, popular options, and conversion rates. They use this data to refine interfaces, adjust business rules, and improve experiences.
Implementing Your Own Configurator: Lessons from Leaders
What can manufacturers learn from these examples when planning their own configurator implementations?
Start with Customer Pain Points
The most effective configurators solve specific customer frustrations. ThermaTru addresses "What will my door look like?" Tylko enables bespoke furniture design at mass-production scale. A-dec simplifies dental equipment specification. Identify what frustrates your customers most, then design configurators that eliminate those frustrations.
Prioritize Visualization Quality
Budget for exceptional 3D modeling and rendering. Work with platforms like Threekit that specialize in photorealistic visualization rather than trying to build rendering capabilities in-house. Poor visualization quality undermines the entire configurator experience.
Integrate Deeply with Manufacturing Systems
Plan configurator integration with ERP, CAD, and production systems from the beginning, not as an afterthought. The operational benefits of automated specification generation justify significant implementation investment.
Design for Your Specific Audience
A consumer-facing furniture configurator needs different interfaces than an industrial equipment configurator for engineering professionals. Understand who will use your configurator and design experiences optimized for their expertise level and needs.
Implement Iteratively
Don't attempt to configure your entire product catalog in the first release. Start with high-value products that benefit most from configuration, prove value, then expand. A-dec improved an existing configurator rather than starting from scratch. Incremental improvement reduces risk.
Invest in Change Management
Configurators change how companies sell and operate. Sales teams need training. Customers need education. Dealers require enablement. Internal processes must adapt. Budget time and resources for change management, not just technology implementation.
Choose the Right Technology Partner
Platform selection matters, and purpose-built visual commerce platforms like Threekit provide capabilities, integrations, and domain expertise that general-purpose tools can't match. Evaluate partners based on manufacturing experience, not just technology features.
Plan for Continuous Improvement
Launch is the beginning of an optimization journey. Establish metrics, monitoring, and processes for continuous improvement based on user behavior and business results.
The Future of Product Configuration in Manufacturing
Product configurators continue evolving rapidly, with several trends shaping the future:
AI-Powered Intelligence: Natural language configuration, style recommendations, and intelligent guidance are becoming standard. Customers increasingly expect conversational interfaces that understand intent rather than requiring technical specification knowledge.
Augmented and Virtual Reality: AR visualization is moving from novel to expected, particularly for products where spatial context matters. VR for immersive product experiences is emerging in B2B applications where customers want to "experience" industrial equipment before purchasing.
Generative Design Integration: Future configurators will incorporate generative design capabilities, where AI proposes optimized configurations based on performance requirements. Rather than selecting from predefined options, customers will describe desired outcomes and receive AI-generated designs optimized for those goals.
Sustainability Integration: Customers increasingly care about environmental impact. Configurators will include sustainability metrics showing the carbon footprint, recycled content, and environmental impact of different configuration choices.
Seamless Omnichannel Experiences: The boundary between online and offline experiences will blur further, and customers will start configurations on mobile devices, continue on desktop, share with collaborators, review in AR, and complete purchases through dealers.
Hyper-Personalization: Configurators will remember individual customer preferences, learning over time to make increasingly relevant recommendations, and returning customers will see suggestions based on previous configurations, purchase history, and stated preferences.
Manufacturers who invest in configurator capabilities now position themselves to adopt these emerging technologies as they mature. The fundamentals (robust configuration logic, exceptional visualization, AI-driven product discovery, and manufacturing integration) provide the foundation for future enhancements.
Conclusion: Configurators as Competitive Advantage
The manufacturers highlighted in this article show that product configurators are far more than marketing tools. They reshape how customizable products are sold and produced.
A-dec cut customization time by 60%. Door and window brands help customers see products in their own spaces. Furniture manufacturers manage thousands of options without creating production errors. Industrial equipment makers generate technical documentation automatically and move from week-long quotes to same-day turnaround.
The takeaway is simple. Clear visualization builds trust. Guided choices increase conversion. Direct links to manufacturing create real operational gains. The manufacturers winning today are the ones who make buying easier with modern configuration and visualization platforms.
The technology is mature, fast to implement, and built specifically for manufacturing workflows. At this point, the real question is how quickly you can launch a configurator before a competitor does.
For building materials companies, Threekit's AI for Building Materials shows what purpose-built configurator technology can deliver. AI-driven discovery, home visualization, and lead intelligence are helping manufacturers match customers with the right products more efficiently.
Across every example, we see configurators working for a wide range of product lines, sales models, and customer types. Whether you sell doors, furniture, or industrial systems, a strong configuration strategy creates a measurable advantage.
We believe that the manufacturers who will lead the next-gen market are those who let customers configure with confidence, see exactly what they will get, receive instant pricing, and generate production-ready outputs in one smooth workflow. That is the impact of an exceptional product configurator, and it is well within reach for any manufacturer ready to move.
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Ready to implement a product configurator that drives custom orders and streamlines operations? Discover how Threekit's visual commerce platform powers configuration experiences with a free demo.
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