Productivity Software Group uses UE5 to transform construction and manufacturing
Project at a glance
Creating "live mirrors" of physical products: The Productivity Software Group leverages Unreal Engine to power its Productivity Configurator, enabling companies to visualize and customize a wide range of products down to the nuts and bolts, from modular housing and construction site layouts to manufacturing sales.
Driving massive efficiency gains: By building a digital twin of the real-life product using Unreal Engine, the Productivity Configurator compresses multiple weeks of coordination across sales, design and production into just a couple of hours.
Confidence through unrivaled visual fidelity: Unreal Engine’s high-quality, real-time visualization ensures the digital model closely matches the final physical product, giving stakeholders total confidence in what they are configuring and selling.
"By using Nanite, customers no longer have to compromise on detail or realism. It allows us to maintain a high level of visual quality and create a close match to the real-world product—something that was previously out of reach. By combining Nanite with Lumen and Substrate, the configurator brings us closer than ever to a true one-to-one representation of the actual product." - Yorben van Oosten, Lead Game Developer at Productivity Software Group
The construction and manufacturing industries in Europe are under pressure. Scan a newspaper in London, Berlin, or virtually any of the continent’s capitals and you’ll find stories on labor shortages, low productivity, and housing crises.
What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how products and projects are designed and delivered.
That’s exactly where the Dutch company Productivity Software Group (PSG) is focusing its efforts.
With the upcoming launch of its Productivity Configurator in Q1 2026, PSG is using Unreal Engine to help construction and manufacturing partners digitize and streamline product configuration—providing a path to solving some of Europe's most complex challenges around growth and productivity.
What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how products and projects are designed and delivered.
That’s exactly where the Dutch company Productivity Software Group (PSG) is focusing its efforts.
With the upcoming launch of its Productivity Configurator in Q1 2026, PSG is using Unreal Engine to help construction and manufacturing partners digitize and streamline product configuration—providing a path to solving some of Europe's most complex challenges around growth and productivity.
A product-oriented solution to industry challenges
The European labor market is beset by challenges, including an aging workforce, retiring experts, and difficulty onboarding new talent.
At the same time, housing shortages—particularly visible in countries like the Netherlands—are driving up prices, extending waiting times, and straining affordability. There’s a need for rapidly deployable, scalable, and repeatable solutions (like modular and prefab housing) to alleviate this.
Layered on top is a persistent problem of low efficiency and productivity. Fragmentation is rife, with data silos between sales, design, engineering, and production producing long feedback loops, costly errors, and slow decision-making.
Productivity Software Group’s solution to these issues is to take a product-oriented perspective—that is, to treat buildings and houses, construction sites, and urban areas as configurable products.
That’s where the Productivity Configurator comes in.
At its core, the Productivity Configurator enables companies to efficiently configure customer-specific products across a wide range of use cases—from modular and prefab housing to construction site layouts and manufacturing sales configurators.
It guides the user through validated product options, directly visualizing the results based on CAD and BIM models, and providing stakeholder confidence that it can be manufactured and built.
The configurator forms part of a single digital backbone that provides a single source of truth across sales, design, engineering and production.
“Think of it as the digital twin of the real-life product,” says Jan Harmen Wiebenga, CEO of PSG.
It guides the user through validated product options, directly visualizing the results based on CAD and BIM models, and providing stakeholder confidence that it can be manufactured and built.
The configurator forms part of a single digital backbone that provides a single source of truth across sales, design, engineering and production.
“Think of it as the digital twin of the real-life product,” says Jan Harmen Wiebenga, CEO of PSG.
Configured products can be exported back into CAD or BIM software and used for production and realization of the design.
Whereas in the past you had different data sources between departments, now there’s a single digital truth, which avoids data silos.
Wiebenga gives the example of a customer who was struggling to create a configuration to match the needs of a certain location.
In the past, time would be lost in communication between different teams, resulting in weeks of waiting and optimizing as new information was drip-fed from the various stakeholders.
“With our configurator, there was less need to communicate between these different teams, and configurations could be made within a couple of hours compared to multiple weeks of communication and editing before,” he says.
Whereas in the past you had different data sources between departments, now there’s a single digital truth, which avoids data silos.
Wiebenga gives the example of a customer who was struggling to create a configuration to match the needs of a certain location.
In the past, time would be lost in communication between different teams, resulting in weeks of waiting and optimizing as new information was drip-fed from the various stakeholders.
“With our configurator, there was less need to communicate between these different teams, and configurations could be made within a couple of hours compared to multiple weeks of communication and editing before,” he says.
Combining BIM, CAD, GIS and the power of Unreal Engine
While traditional CAD and BIM tools excel at precision and engineering detail, they fall short when it comes to interaction, visualization, and communication—especially for non-technical users.
BIM and CAD models are extremely detailed and complex, which can cause performance issues for visualization in the configurator. Unreal Engine offers the high-quality, real-time visualization required to give customers confidence that their digital mockups will accurately resemble the final physical products.
Images courtesy of Productivity Software Group Permission
“By using Nanite, customers no longer have to compromise on detail or realism,” says Van Oosten. “It allows us to maintain a high level of visual quality and create a close match to the real-world product—something that was previously out of reach. By combining Nanite with Lumen and Substrate, the configurator brings us closer than ever to a true one-to-one representation of the actual product.”
Because the visualizations closely match the final product, stakeholders are more confident in what they are configuring and selling. Combined with the ease of use of game technology, this creates an ideal balance between usability and complexity.
“Technical requirements and visual details are easier to understand than with traditional visualizations, thanks to the interactive experience and the reduced cognitive load,” says Wiebenga. “We believe that highly realistic, real-world visualizations will significantly boost customer productivity and sales, and that the industry will increasingly shift from traditional BIM modelling toward product configuration through gamified experiences.”
Unreal Engine’s compatibility with popular CAD and BIM tools makes it possible for customers to import models of products directly into the configurator, giving them complete control and flexibility in terms of content and managing their products.
Because the visualizations closely match the final product, stakeholders are more confident in what they are configuring and selling. Combined with the ease of use of game technology, this creates an ideal balance between usability and complexity.
“Technical requirements and visual details are easier to understand than with traditional visualizations, thanks to the interactive experience and the reduced cognitive load,” says Wiebenga. “We believe that highly realistic, real-world visualizations will significantly boost customer productivity and sales, and that the industry will increasingly shift from traditional BIM modelling toward product configuration through gamified experiences.”
Unreal Engine’s compatibility with popular CAD and BIM tools makes it possible for customers to import models of products directly into the configurator, giving them complete control and flexibility in terms of content and managing their products.
Images courtesy of Productivity Software Group
Changes to BIM models are only included after they are approved by the user, and then released in the next version of the relevant product library within the configurator. These library updates are synchronized with updates to the customer’s production models, ensuring both remain fully aligned.
“As a result, the product shown in the configurator is a live mirror of the real-world product,” says Wiebenga. “This is a critical part of our solution, as there is no margin for error in essential processes such as sales and production.”
Customers can configure products in accordance with the design and sales options they have available within their catalogue—whether it be housing types, roof options, interior layouts, or otherwise.
Crucially, the configurator doesn’t just show what looks good. It validates what can actually be built—and that’s particularly useful when it comes to housing.
“As a result, the product shown in the configurator is a live mirror of the real-world product,” says Wiebenga. “This is a critical part of our solution, as there is no margin for error in essential processes such as sales and production.”
Customers can configure products in accordance with the design and sales options they have available within their catalogue—whether it be housing types, roof options, interior layouts, or otherwise.
Crucially, the configurator doesn’t just show what looks good. It validates what can actually be built—and that’s particularly useful when it comes to housing.
Images courtesy of Productivity Software Group
By combining product data with GIS data, real-world location information, and insights into existing infrastructure, laws, and regulations, users can configure designs that are grounded in reality. This ensures that what’s approved visually is also feasible in the physical world. “The next step will be to use this single data source in combination with AI, so as to further speed-up the configuration process in the Productivity Configurator,” says Wiebenga.
Beyond products and housing, a standout feature of the solution is its construction site configurator.
“You can select a location—as if on Google Maps—and configure the construction site on its location digitally,” explains Van Oosten. “This is done on a one-to-one scale, taking into account factors such as the available space and collisions between installed units or local objects like trees or existing buildings.”
Beyond products and housing, a standout feature of the solution is its construction site configurator.
“You can select a location—as if on Google Maps—and configure the construction site on its location digitally,” explains Van Oosten. “This is done on a one-to-one scale, taking into account factors such as the available space and collisions between installed units or local objects like trees or existing buildings.”
Images courtesy of Productivity Software Group
Users can configure modular units and additional components, such as containers, safety fences, or construction cranes.
They can visualize the surrounding buildings, infrastructure, and multiple map layers, and use these as guidelines to achieve an optimal and efficient construction site layout.
Products can then be ordered and installed immediately, enabling the construction site to be set up as digitally composed.
The result is better planning, fewer surprises on site, and faster execution.
They can visualize the surrounding buildings, infrastructure, and multiple map layers, and use these as guidelines to achieve an optimal and efficient construction site layout.
Products can then be ordered and installed immediately, enabling the construction site to be set up as digitally composed.
The result is better planning, fewer surprises on site, and faster execution.
Digitization empowers firms to push forward
The European construction industry has been hit with a double whammy of a talent shortage and retiring workforce in recent years.
Wiebenga explains that the Productivity Configurator helps to alleviate this by lowering the barrier to entry for new, less experienced workers.
“The user-friendliness of our configurator allows you to move from drawing, modeling and engineering to configuring products,” he says.
It is now possible to develop and manufacture a product more cost-effectively—and in less time—thanks to the Productivity Configurator.
“When putting together a product in our configurator, you can speed up the process tremendously, requiring minimal human input,” says Wiebenga.
PSG’s customers include construction and manufacturing companies looking to simplify and accelerate sales, production, and delivery processes. The results speak for themselves: increased product sales driven by realistic visualization, higher efficiency across workflows, improved planning, and the ability to meet deadlines with fewer people and materials.
Images courtesy of Productivity Software Group
With the pressures facing the construction and manufacturing industry intensifying, digitalization is no longer optional.
The message PSG wants the industry to take away is clear: digitization enables construction and manufacturing to do more with fewer resources and materials. By combining a product-oriented mindset with the real-time power of Unreal Engine, PSG is helping partners build faster, smarter, and with greater confidence.
As we look toward 2026 and beyond, solutions like the Productivity Configurator offer a route to solving the challenges facing construction and manufacturing firms—and point to a future where Unreal Engine plays a central role in shaping the built and manufacturing world.
The message PSG wants the industry to take away is clear: digitization enables construction and manufacturing to do more with fewer resources and materials. By combining a product-oriented mindset with the real-time power of Unreal Engine, PSG is helping partners build faster, smarter, and with greater confidence.
As we look toward 2026 and beyond, solutions like the Productivity Configurator offer a route to solving the challenges facing construction and manufacturing firms—and point to a future where Unreal Engine plays a central role in shaping the built and manufacturing world.