Meridien Hardwoods of Pennsylvania uses TallyExpress, the app that tallies bundles with a smartphone. Brandon Ferman, General Manager for Meridien, explains why they made the change and the effect on Meridien’s business.
What kind of solution were you looking for?
Brandon: We wanted a photo tally system that worked on a smartphone, but I didn’t think we’d find anything. I was really surprised when we found TallyExpress.
What’s so important about smartphones?
Brandon: It gives us flexibility. We can tally the pack of lumber anywhere on the yard. Plus, most people already know how to use a smartphone. That makes this a pretty simple system to learn.
Have your counts changed?
Brandon: No, our footage is still what we expect month to month, but we were always confident in our accuracy. The bigger value is being able to back up our tallies with a picture. It just eliminates uncertainty. Our customers really like being able to see them.
Any surprise benefits?
Brandon: Yes. It’s freed up lumber tallier, Tim. Before, he might be tallying all day. Now, it takes a few seconds per pack. He’s spending quite a bit more time driving a lift truck and helping load or unload kilns. It’s certainly helped us use his time more efficiently.
Does your team like the app?
Brandon: [laughs] Not at first. At first, Tim was like, Brandon, this won’t work. I have to spend ten minutes on every pack and edit every bundle. But part of TallyExpress is it learns. It actually figures out what you want it to do. The more we used it, the more accurate it became. Now, we hardly ever need to edit any boards. And my yard managers love using it. They’d recommend it to anyone.
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About Meridien Hardwoods:
Meridien Hardwoods of Pennsylvania is a concentration yard located in northwestern PA handling approximately 15,000,000 BF of hardwoods yearly. It currently has a kiln capacity of 250,000-ft., Walnut steaming capacity of 60,000-ft., and 1,000,000-ft. of dry storage. Meridien also offers surfacing and straight line ripping facilities.
Meridien Hardwoods strives to be a worldwide supplier of Northern and Appalachian US Hardwoods while currently serving customers in North America, Europe and Asia.
Find out more about how TallyExpress can work for you at tallyexpress.com
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Introduction to TallyExpress
1. Order the reference frame
In order for TallyExpress to work accurately, the system must have the frame of reference attached to the front of the lumber bundle prior to measurement. It is simply hung in the bundle between the boards using the retaining screw on the top corner. The reference frame is available in two sizes:
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| 50 cm reference frame: 178 € | 20 cm reference frame: 82 € |
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| 50 cm & 20 cm Reference frame: 240 € | |
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2. Download the TallyExpress app and try it for FREE
The TallyExpress app can also be downloaded for 30 days free of charge. During this time, each user can take up to 30 measurements.
Technical requirements: A current Android smartphone or tablet, at least Android 5; the camera must have at least 8 megapixels and the RAM (RAM) at least 3.5 gigabytes. Fordaq recommends the following devices: Samsung Galaxy S8 / S8 Plus / S9 / S9 Plus / Note9, Huawei P20, Huawei Mate 10/10 Pro. If you want to take the measurement offline, using a tablet computer is more convenient because of the larger screen size. In this case, Fordaq recommends the Samsung Note 8.
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Download TallyExpress from Google Play
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3. Attach the reference frame correctly
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– The reference frame has a color mark on each corner. – The reference frame must be completely inside the face of the bundle – The reference frame must hang in the shape of a rhombus. |
4. How to take a good photo?
For proper measurement, the device must be directed vertically onto the bundle with the reference frame, so that the front of the bundle is completely visible on the display. The subframe in the display is moved so that it frames the bundle. The app guides the user through the entire process.
Any unrecognized elements can be manually corrected after taking pictures. The more the app is used, the more accurate it becomes, as TallyExpress is equipped with artificial intelligence. For example, cracks in the boards are increasingly automatically recognized and corrected in the image.
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Introducing TallyExpress-The revolutionary Lumber Tally App which will change the sawmill industry
Measuring lumber bundles volume accurately and efficiently has always been a challenge for the industry, as it is a costly process in terms of time and money. Until now it has been that the more accurate you want to be the more expensive it is to achieve. Specialized machine tally systems are bulky, expensive, hard to use and time-consuming. On the other hand, manual measurements rely on human decision, which is error prone.
TallyExpress – the revolutionary lumber tally app – promises to offer an affordable and accurate solution from your smartphone. Using artificial intelligence and sophisticated computer vision algorithms, TallyExpress allows you to measure bundles in a fast and reliable way, directly on your Android device. With just a photo, TallyExpress recognizes and counts each board individually, calculates their respective widths and computes the total volume in a matter of seconds.
How it works
After you download the app from Play Store, place the reference on the bundle and take the picture (see video below). TallyExpress will automatically detect and count the boards, also computing the volume. Next, the app generates a tally report with a picture. The whole process takes no longer than one minute.
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1. Take a picture of the bundle |
2. The app detects the boards |
3. A tally report with picture is generated |
TallyExpress sets high standards, achieving a 98% level of accuracy on volume. Any faulty detections can be quickly adjusted. The software gets smarter the more you use it to measure your bundles. The more you use the app, the smarter it gets and the more accurate it becomes.
Your measurements are synced to the TallyExpress web application in the cloud, where you can review the results, make any final adjustments, share by email or export them to your inventory system. The entire process can be done by a single employee, with no other assistance needed.
Our partners
DMSi, a pioneer of ERP software for the industry, sees TallyExpress as a natural complement to its line of software solutions.
“We’ve spent decades developing software to help our customers become more efficient through our software as they grow.,” said Henry German, DMSi “When we saw what TallyExpress can do, we knew immediately it was a technology breakthrough for the industry. We’re bringing this product to market because it is the right solution for our customers’ futures.”
TallyExpress is already used by key players in the lumber industry, such as: Northwest Hardwoods -USA; Meridien – USA; Oak Ridge Hardwoods – USA; Granite Hardwoods – USA; Sechoir St. Roch – Canada; Brownlee Lumber – USA; Virix Prod SRL – Romania; Kepley-Frank – USA; East Ohio – USA; Johnson Brothers – USA; Headland Wood Products – USA; Peach State Lumber – USA; C&K Lumber and Exports – USA; Bruggeman Lumber – USA; Millwork 360 – USA; Kane Hardwood – USA; Moulures Warnet – Canada.
The Lumber Industry now has the most advanced technological solution to its end tallying needs and anyone can use it with no specialized training. If you can use a smartphone you can use TallyExpress. TallyExpress will help you save time, increase accuracy and manage all of your data in a transparent way. All you have to do is take a picture of the bundle, fill in the lumber information and let the app do the end tally work!
Presentation video