Blog | Marco A. Parra F.

The spreadsheet that became a system

By Marco A. Parra on Aug. 21, 2026 · 6 min read

Between 2017 and 2019 an Excel workbook with macros became the specification of a dimensional-control system for small sawmills: Bluetooth caliper, mobile app and statistical analysis in the cloud. This article covers the method — four control points, nominal versus target, deviation charts — and the design decision that determines whether such a tool ever reaches a small company. No code, no plant data.

data-acquisition operations spc wood-industry

What 68 sawmills told us about their data

By Marco A. Parra on Aug. 21, 2026 · 7 min read

In 2019 I was first author of INFOR Technical Report No. 223: a survey of 68 small and mid-sized Chilean sawmills about their machinery and, above all, how they capture and use their data. This article walks through what we found — 79 % tracked lumber dimensions on paper forms — and why that diagnosis ended up as a software specification.

data-acquisition industry-4-0 operations wood-industry

Articles tagged “operations”

The spreadsheet that became a system

What 68 sawmills told us about their data