That 1 % drop in yield can cost you a million – Why product quality data is the key

Many factories do. And even if you trust your current process, reality might be surprising.

"As an example, if you got 70% of the raw material peeled into veneer last year, and only 69% this year, that one percent can mean a million euros of lost income," says Tapani Tilus, CTO from Raute. 

Production managers face the heavy responsibility to justify every dip in performance to their superiors. Are the raw materials poor in quality? Or is it a machine issue? Without precise data, all you can do is dig the best possible answer out of a hat. 

The problem seems to be solved. But if the diagnosis was wrong, inefficiency scales over time. 

This article provides insights for higher quality veneer, plywood and LVL production. In practice, it means getting more value out of every log. That is the way to reclaim the lost million. 

Summary: Use data to gain better yield in veneer, LVL and plywood production

• Seemingly small drops in yield can mean millions in lost revenue, yet many mills lack the data to explain why it happens. 
• Production volumes alone aren’t enough. They reveal symptoms, not the root causes.
• Grading data from analyzers (grading reasons, moisture, strength, visual defects) creates the difference in tight markets. 
• To save expenses, it’s wise to process and combine data locally. Only relevant events will be sent to cloud storage. 

Combine data for conclusions and turn raw numbers into profit 

Data tends to sleep in silos. Production volumes in one report, machine settings documented elsewhere, analyzer logs in another file.  

Disconnected data is not enough to solve profitability issues. You end up treating symptoms instead of the root cause. Tilus points out that quality issues discovered at the end of the line often have much earlier origins: 

"If you measure moisture levels or cracks after the dryer, you start looking for the reason why. A symptom seen later in production usually means quality issues somewhere earlier, such as a mistake occurring during peeling.” 

Until these days, these inefficiencies were often invisible or simply ignored. The Production Manager might have had silent knowledge accumulated over the years, but that’s it. C-level and finance departments got the numbers but were left unnoticed by “why”s and “how”s. 

The data layer that integrates with your equipment: Learn more about Raute MillSIGHTS 

Small process variations and inefficiencies will quietly accumulate into measurable loss. Raute MillSIGHTS helps mills achieve up to 5% better yield by revealing bottlenecks and guiding smarter decisions. 

Short-term wins, long-term viability 

The transition to a data-driven mill offers a dual advantage: immediate relief for management and a strategic foundation for the future.  

In the short term, the primary beneficiaries are the profitability owners. They are factory managers, production managers, and process engineers who are held accountable for every decimal point of yield. Having exact answers for tricky questions, they can do their job better than before. Measurable results will directly affect the company finances. 

Beyond immediate troubleshooting, better data usage appeals to the future workforce.  
"For digital native generations, data makes this industry more accessible and interesting. And perhaps even more importantly, it drastically shortens the time it takes for a newcomer to become an expert,” Tilus notes. 

Widening your mill’s data capabilities is about competitiveness and viability. It’s sustainable to optimize material use for high quality end products. Furthermore, it is the fundamental recipe to future-proof your veneer, plywood, or LVL production. 

Quantitative production data is the minimum baseline to measure efficiency 

For many veneer mills today, data collection begins and ends with production data. This represents the essential numbers – volumes and totals – required to keep the operations running.  

"It’s typical to measure cubic meters, the number of logs coming in, the number of veneer sheets, or the number of panels. They are either marked down manually, or the information flows to some database automatically,” Tilus explains. 

When data is handled this way, it usually ends up in static production reports or buried in management files. It serves a basic purpose: tracking whether the factory produced what it was intended to produce.  

But it offers no insight into why a shift was inefficient. In other words, how to prevent million-level losses in yield. 

Why would you count logs that entered the mill without ever checking how much of that wood turned into desired products? Similarly, one could ask why so many mills still miss the opportunities to learn from production data along the way. 

Quality data creates the competitive edge when the market is challenging 

While production volumes are the baseline, the real competitive edge comes from product quality data. Knowing the veneer, plywood, and LVL production landscape, Tilus has noted this is still underutilized: 
 
"Many factories still do not gather and analyze this data. However, when markets are challenging, and mills might even have excess product capacity, the focus shifts from maximizing the production to optimizing recovery.” 

Raute MillSIGHTS connects data from peeling to grading into one view of production using local processing. Only the essential data is combined into one, clear, digital dashboard.

Find the reasons behind grading decisions 

To move beyond basic volume tracking, a mill must begin to analyze its process logic.  

"We must look at how the line works, which settings and parameters create the highest quality, and what quality indicator data is collected.”   

Modern analyzers do more than just sort veneer. They make hundreds of micro-decisions every minute. True data utilization involves capturing the reasoning behind these decisions.  

"Okay, a certain piece of veneer was categorized into a specific grade. Why did the analyzer make this choice? Was it because of the density, knots, color defects, or moisture levels?" 

Without this information, the grading process remains in a "black box." By opening it, you gain a clear picture of your raw material quality and your machine's performance. 

This level of detail allows production managers to move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive quality management. Factories can spot problems before the cost becomes visible.  

While you analyze reasons, you might notice that the number of causes in a certain category has grown. There, the defect becomes critical. 

Takeaways from here? Stop accepting poor results as "just the way the raw material is" and start validating exactly why the same material yields different results on different days. 
 
Download MillSIGHTS value sheets for quality and maintenance & mill management

Analyze smart: avoid stuffing the cloud storage with unprocessed data 

A common mistake in digitalization is sending every bit of raw data directly to the cloud. It is both expensive and inefficient, especially considering the continuously growing amount of raw data.  

Tilus emphasizes a more tactical approach using local processing: "Use local edge computing to form events and combine data first. Only send essential, reliable data to the cloud. It will save on storage costs but also ensure that the information reaching the dashboard is actionable and insightful.” 

It’s tempting to continue as things have always been. But even without massive investments, using your existing machinery, you can dig deeper to find the path toward improved efficiency, production quality, and sustainability. 
 
Learn more about Raute MillSIGHTS