Posted on July 16, 2015

History:

For the last 28 years, Autolog has been offering expertise, know-how and solutions to the wood transformation industry for large corporations and/or entrepreneurs around the world.

Autolog was created in 1987 out of three areas of expertise united by a common dream. Daniel Éthier and Sylvain Magnan were trained system programmers while André Nadeau had sales experience connected to the sawmill industry.  

Our first commercial offerings were supplying industrial controls such as lumber and log sorters.  The goal of these original products was to reduce head count and streamline operations.  Over the years we continuously added products to our existing line-up and rapidly became recognized worldwide as pioneers offering solutions in optimization, automation and vision.

In 2004 we built our own building located in Blainville, Québec, Canada, with more than 32,000 square feet of real estate, including offices and production space.  

In 2011, Mr. Magnan took over the reins of the company.

In 2013, under his leadership, he felt the need to align the culture of the company with his personality and value system. He positioned the company around three strategic axes that define the company today, are a part of everything we do and paramount to the success of our customers.  

Who we are today:

Our team of 90+ professionals is made up of highly dedicated specialists representing the best in their field of expertise. We are proud to define ourselves and live by three strategic principles: Quality, Technology and Customer Experience. 

Each of these key elements precisely define who we are and how we conduct business.

Quality:

Quality transpires in everything we do, from the way we wire our cabinets, to the components chosen for our systems, all the way to our methods of management, production and service. Indeed, quality is found in our products, processes and people.

We offer a wide range of products and solutions, from the sawmill to the planer mill, for both softwood and hardwood, as well as customized control systems.  From the moment we make contact with our customer, to the final stages of installation, we follow a rigorous process to ensure the highest level of quality is found in our products and services.  Our processes exemplify Autolog’s commitment to continuously improving ourselves and our products.  

All this would not be possible without our growing multi-disciplinary team of professionals.  We are a knowledge and intelligence company that takes great pride in our people.  We provide a fun and challenging environment to a wide spectrum of specialists, from our field-hardened forest engineers and process experts, to our PhDs and project managers.

Customer feedback proves that our approach is a cut above the rest as we demonstrate not only the quality of our products through our technology but through the very competent and knowledgeable field technicians who are backed up by the office personnel and hands on top management.   

Since 2013, all of our surveyed customers have provided us with very positive feedback, whether they trusted us for a service visit, a modification to their existing system or to invest in a major project. Our partnership approach and active listening allows us to adapt our standard and tested solutions to the specific requirements of our clients.

We recently installed a Carriage Optimizer at a sawmill in Western Canada who expressed 100% satisfaction for not only delivering a quality product, but for exemplifying an outstanding quality of service along with personnel who listened to exactly what they wanted and responded to all of their needs, first and foremost.  This was so greatly appreciated by our customer that they highly recommended us to two other sawmills which we recently signed an agreement for each of their Carriage Optimizer project.    

Click here for client testimonials 

Technology:

We live and breathe technology, this is what we do since we do not sell machinery/mechanical components. This is also our core differentiator; we are extremely flexible and capable of adapting our solutions to a variety of suppliers and layouts. We deal in the expertise of optimization, artificial vision, artificial intelligence and optical & wave physics.

Here are just a few examples of how we apply our state-of-the-art technology to design a product with the customer in mind:

• Our board tracking system stores up to 125M pieces, to help our customers track their individual boards from the production line all the way to their distribution centers, helping them to resolve even their customers’ claims.

 

 

• Because our customers must go faster, so must we; in the near future, expect Autolog to introduce a 4,000 fpm linear scanner (at the planer) for your critical applications.

 

• In the Hardwood sector, every board is unique; loss of data is to be avoided at all costs. One of our clients expressed a particular interest regarding critical data redundancy and storage over long periods of time.  We created a solution that precisely answered their concern about data reliability and redundancy using available industrial-grade technology, including RAID technology. We are now in a position to offer a reliable tailored solution to address this business concern for all the players in the industry.

 

 

• Our trimmer optimizer is supplied with Hermary high speed/high resolution geometric sensors which scan the length of the boards every ¼" at 3000 scans/sec allowing the system to detect split & shake defects. This feature is offered as an option to the base system and has shown great payback especially for lumber hit by the pine beetle. This detection option provides our customers with these vision benefits but without the cost.  The ability to trim these affected boards at the sawmill represent important savings on the overall operation.  

What makes us different?

Most medium sized enterprises are confronted with the “make” or “buy” choice.  Autolog chose to “make” all of its specialized software (Optimizers, User Interface, Data Bank, Board Tracking System, Grade Stamp Printer, and Linear Tracking System) for accountability and control reasons.  We can customize a new idea very quickly and better support our solutions as we do not rely on any third party timeline.  

Customer Experience: what does this mean for our customers? 

Their needs come first, from the initial contact to our unparalleled after-sale service and support, we approach every project with a desire to understand our customer’s needs first and foremost, and deliver accordingly. 

All of our quality and technology elements are focused on providing the customer with the most value for their Autolog investment.  Our strategy is to optimize Total Cost of Ownership and Return on Investment. We establish and develop long-lasting partnerships with our customers, through customized products, services and training.

We value our customers experiences and their feedback speaks for itself, here are just a few examples:

“I want to thank each of you for the time you spent with us reviewing this project. I cannot express how excited I am to begin this relationship! Your company and culture reflect a level of excellence beyond all of your competitors. My only regret is that we did not begin our relationship years ago when we first met. Once again thank you all for your time and I look forward to our future with Autolog!” Ben Stuart – Gutchess Lumber Company

“It was very well appreciated how Autolog listened to all of our needs and did exactly what we wanted 100%. They are a well-established and reliable company that we can depend on. We highly recommend Autolog.” Allan Bose – Stag Timber of The Teal-Jones Group 

“The Autolog install team did a bang-on job on a flawless execution and education.” Joey Massingill – East Alabama Lumber Company

“I found it easy to work with the programmer and the project manager.  He seemed knowledgeable and willing to stay until the project was completed even with unexpected issues and long hours.  I appreciated the amount of communication and information passed back and forth with the project manager.  I look forward to our next project with Autolog.” Eric Harding – HHP Incorporated

“The service with Autolog has been great. You have a very helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable staff. I really enjoy working with them.  Please continue to keep up the good work.” Eric Crosby – Georgia-Pacific, Bay Springs

So who are we? 

• We are a technology company. 
• What we “make” is what differentiates us.
• We customize standard solutions according to our customers’ specific needs.
• Our identity is about: quality, technology and customer experience. 

 

This is the Autolog experience.  Contact us today to “start-up” your experience!