CMPC is not a company that experiments with technology lightly. The Chilean pulp and paper giant — ranked on the Forbes Global 2000 — manages millions of cubic meters of roundwood across harvesting, thinning, and final harvest operations spread over vast forest districts in Chile. When measurement errors compound at that scale, the financial and operational consequences are not marginal. When CMPC’s pilots with Timbeter began in 2017, the company wasn’t looking for a gadget. They were looking for a way to bring measurement into the same level of discipline as the rest of their mechanized operations.
The pilot started in specific harvesting areas. From the first months, two things were clear: measurement speed increased dramatically — 15 times faster than the manual method — and the data coming out of the system was both more consistent and more auditable. Those results triggered something the company had not initially planned for: a full national rollout.
Manual Measurement Was the Weak Link in an Otherwise Modern Operation
CMPC’s harvesting and logistics infrastructure had been mechanizing continuously since the 1990s. Equipment was sophisticated. Planning systems were detailed. But measurement — the foundation of every volume calculation, every logistics decision, every commercial transaction — was still being done by workers with spray cans and calipers, standing close to active machinery, in outdoor conditions. Highly productive machines were generating data that was then recorded in the least reliable way possible.
The risks weren’t only financial. Workers conducting manual diameter measurements operate within reach of heavy equipment. Proximity to machinery during scaling is a documented safety exposure — one that is difficult to engineer out of the process without changing the measurement method itself.
What the Pilot Produced — in Numbers
The pilot results gave CMPC a clear picture of what was actually at stake. The operation recorded an 11.5 times return on investment in the areas where Timbeter was deployed. As the methodology was refined and projected across the full national operation, the estimated savings reached 1.2 million USD. The projected ROI climbed to over 15 times.
Paint consumption dropped by 45 tonnes per year. Marking diameters on logs with spray paint is standard practice in many operations, and the cost accumulates quickly across high-volume production. Eliminating physical marking by shifting to digital diameter capture removed that cost entirely, along with the labor involved.
Zero accidents were reported during the pilot period. Workers measuring log piles no longer needed to stand adjacent to machinery to complete their task. The distance the app created between the scaler and the log became a safety margin that the company had not been able to achieve through other means.
The Operational Logic Behind a Nationwide Rollout
By early 2021, CMPC made the decision to extend Timbeter across all operations in Chile. This was not a mandate imposed from the top — it was a response to what field teams were reporting. Workers who had used the system declared they would not go back to manual measurement. The adoption became self-reinforcing.
The logistics impact was a key driver. CMPC had previously planned truck routes based on storage volumes — aggregate estimates that were good enough for rough scheduling but insufficient for precise daily optimization. With Timbeter, routes were planned based on pile-level data: exact volumes at specific locations, updated in real time. Transport scheduling became tighter, deadhead kilometers decreased, and the gap between planned and actual deliveries narrowed.
The supply chain also became more transparent. When every measurement is tied to an image, a timestamp, and a geolocation, disputes over volume disappear. The data replaces the conversation. An objective, traceable record of measurements made in the field means no one has to argue about numbers — a structural change that field teams described as transforming the day-to-day working environment.
Timbeter’s cloud-based Dashboard played a specific role here. Supervisors and logistics coordinators could monitor production in real time from the Timbeter portal — reviewing measurements, guiding field teams remotely, and tracking daily output without requiring physical presence at every pile.
What This Means Beyond One Company
The CMPC rollout attracted attention at the highest levels. During Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid’s official state visit to Chile in January 2020, CMPC’s representatives presented the Timbeter collaboration as an example of the digital transformation underway in the sector. Nicolas Gordon, CMPC’s Director of Sustainability, connected the initiative directly to the company’s commitments under the UN Global Compact. The framing was explicit: digital measurement tools are not peripheral to sustainability — they are part of it.
For large forestry operations anywhere, the CMPC case illustrates a structural point. Digitizing measurement is not about replacing skilled workers with an app. It is about removing the measurement process as a source of error, delay, and risk — and feeding that data back into logistics, planning, and reporting systems that were already capable of using it well.
The gains at CMPC are documented: speed, safety, resource savings, traceability. What the numbers don’t fully capture is the organizational shift — from a process where measurement accuracy depended on individual diligence, to one where it is built into the workflow itself.
Operations serious about scaling sustainably should look at where measurement sits in their own chain. For many, it remains the gap between a modern operation and a fully traceable one.
Your operation has the machines — now give it measurement data to match.
CMPC replaced manual scaling with Timbeter across hundreds of harvesting sites in Chile — gaining full traceability, safer workflows, and a 15x return on investment. See how the same approach applies to your operation.
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