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Nelson Forests’ data repository

Nigel Brabyn drills in on a key asset of Nelson Forests – its data repository, which is set to grow exponentially as digital tools are used in logging production. Source: CIO

When Mr Brabyn took on the newly created role of business performance analyst at Nelson Forests Limited (NFL), one of the first things he assessed was the ‘information supply chain’ across the group.

“I wanted to try and integrate those systems together, looking at what intelligence we can get out [of them], and get the systems to talk to each other,” said Mr Brabyn.

NFL has around 600 staff and contractors, and manages 78,000 hectares of high quality radiata pine plantations in the Nelson and Marlborough regions, and owns and operates the Kaituna Sawmill near Blenheim.

“I started mapping information flows,” said Mr Brabyn. “I went around, interviewed everybody, what information do you receive and give out? Some were in Excel, people were also printing things out and punching them into another system.”

He also checked for duplication of information, and created a diagram of the data flow.

From there he created a diagram by “taking those functions and reordering them”, which is now part of the company’s standard systems.

NFL also invested in a core system to get “one version of the truth”.

“It used to take us between three and six months from the time the tree was felled out in the forest to know whether we were making money,” said Mr Brabyn. “Now, I can tell you the trees that we cut down yesterday whether we will be making money on it.”