What is data quality?

Data quality is whether data is fit for the use it is put to. Wikipedia summarises the common definition: data is high quality if it is "fit for [its] intended uses in operations, decision making and planning". The usual dimensions include accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness and uniqueness. Semarchy, which sells data management software, puts it the same way: quality "determines whether data is fit for its intended use".

Quality depends on the use

The same record can be good for one job and poor for another. A scale ticket with an accurate weight and a rough species code is fine for paying a hauler. It isn't fine for measuring recovery by species. So each important use deserves its own short list of checks.

Wrong data, or an unusual event?

Two tools often get mixed up. A quality check asks whether a record is right: is the contract filled in, is the unit valid, does the weight fall in a possible range? An alert asks whether something unusual happened. A real drop in volume is correct data, and a quality rule shouldn't treat it as an error.

From Quarri's own work with a forestry operation: spring thaw cut harvest volumes by 80%+ from the winter peak. A rule that flags any week where volume halves would fire on that pattern every year. People learn to ignore alerts that are always wrong, and then miss the one that isn't. Where seasons are known, alerts should compare against the same weeks in earlier years.

How to measure it

Take a sample of recent records, say the last 100 loads, and check each field that matters for a given use against its source. In our view, the share of records with no errors is a clearer measure than a count of rule failures. Repeated monthly, it shows whether things are improving.

What it isn't

Data quality isn't perfection, and it isn't a one-off clean-up, since new records arrive every day.

Quarri for operations teams is built for the people running the crews, the lines and the yard.

Quarri is an AI-native data platform for the timber supply chain. It connects buying, production, sales and inventory for forest management, sawmill, wood products and pulp, paper and packaging operators.