Alpine and Building Engineering and Design Co. (BEDC) have entered into a strategic partnership to provide high-quality, cost-effective, and scalable design services to the component manufacturing industry. BEDC employs degreed civil engineers who must pass a rigorous training course in component design as well as Alpine software before working with customers’ projects. The training course, developed in collaboration with Alpine’s training department, ensures BEDC designers learn the wood construction industry and each customer’s specifications. This enables the designers to deliver production-ready component designs efficiently and accurately.
On a recent visit to BEDC’s campus in Manila, the Philippines, Alpine’s Director of Solutions Delivery, John Croll, shared best-practices with the BEDC training staff. “Their training regimen is an organized, 10-week course intended to pass only the most qualified potential designers. Each week builds on the last to orient the BEDC designer to U.S. construction practices, how to read plans, how to frame roofs, floors, and walls, and, more importantly, how to optimize trusses to save material costs. The BEDC team has developed an impressive level of detail in their approach, including home-grown tests to ensure comprehension. They are investing heavily in this area which allows their designers to quickly adapt to specific customer needs once they are assigned to an account.”
Leveraging Technology
During the visit, Alpine also witnessed BEDC’s cutting-edge AI technology. Developed in their New Zealand innovation hub, it rapidly accelerates their design process. After the plan and relevant job information are uploaded into Rome, BEDC’s online portal, their patented, AI solution gets to work.
Alpine’s Director of Software Engineering, Rick Tilelli, explains, “BEDC’s AI model, with human-in-the-loop (HITL) support, puts their designers at a distinct advantage. The system interprets the 2D plans and customer-entered job details and instructions to fast track the building envelope process. If the AI is uncertain of any elements of the job, it presents questions for an experienced designer to answer via an HITL interface. This process is short and eliminates many errors associated with other AI models, which are forced to guess details of the job.”
Once the AI is finished, designers are able to start with an accurate building envelope to return component designs in less time. BEDC’s CEO, Ben Powles, adds some context. “We have a team of highly specialized AI developers who are working to streamline the plan intake process. The model learns from each job that goes through, taking input from the human designer to make better judgments on this next plan. The focus here is to make the design process more efficient using technology so we can provide a better service to our customers.”
Supporting Customer Growth
BEDC has scaled rapidly to help support Alpine customers’ growth. They have a fast growing team of over 130 trained designers and demonstrated an impressive recruiting operation to unlock future expansion. To complement their capability, BEDC also has a team of experienced U.S.-based designers who serve as the first point of contact for customers.
Michael Schwitter, Director of Sales at Alpine, explains the significance. “It was really impressive to see well over a hundred Alpine designers in one room. BEDC has taken on these resources to offer flexibility to our customers. It’s now easier, faster, and more reliable to add design capacity through BEDC. We want our customers to feel confident taking on more work, and BEDC helps to make that a reality.”
Please contact your Alpine® Sales Representative for more information about how this partnership with BEDC can benefit your business.