TallyExpress, the app that captures hardwood end tallies in seconds by taking pictures with an Android smartphone, uses computer vision technology to measure each board in a bundle.
In October 2021, Tally Express reached 1 million measurements done with the app. This crowned a year of very strong usage growth for the product.
This milestone was reached by an employee of Northwest Hardwoods in the US which was appropriate given how involved the company was in the development of the product.
“It was a bit risky because when we reached out to Northwest Hardwoods to pitch them TallyExpress, the app was still in its adolescent phase. We really worked together to advance it,” said Henry German, Product Manager of TallyExpress at DMSi, the company that distributes Tally Express in the US. “They bought into the vision we had for it and went out of their way to help develop it and bring it the credibility of volume it needed to roll out to the industry at large.”
While a small handful of single-location companies were already using the app, Northwest Hardwoods needed to be able to scale TallyExpress into at least 12 separate facilities. To demonstrate proof of concept, Northwest Hardwoods first tested around 100 bundles and compared TallyExpress with their other machine tally methods. They followed up this initial test with a three-month pilot, tallying over 5,000 bundles and performing weekly spot checks. The app was 99.5% accurate to a tape measure on the spot checks, with some sites seeing 99.9% accuracy. At that point, the lumber company was confident the app would work.
“We are extremely proud of reaching this milestone. The level of precision and speed we are able to achieve with Tally Express would have been impossible only a few years ago and shows what can be achieved with Artificial Intelligence Software,” said Benoit Nieuwenhuys, CEO of Fordaq, the company that developed Tally Express.
About Northwest Hardwoods
Northwest Hardwoods is the largest manufacturer of hardwood lumber in the US, manufacturing 14 domestic species of hardwood lumber, supplying over 20 species of quality imported exotic hardwood lumber and supplying both structural and appearance plywood.
About DMSi Software
DMSi provides business software for the lumber and building materials industry. DMSi recently acquired eLIMBS timber, log, and lumber inventory software. The company is the official reseller of TallyExpress in the North American market.
About Fordaq
Fordaq manages the leading B2B marketplace for wood products worldwide (www.fordaq.com). The company is also a leading provider of software solutions to the global forestry and wood products industry.