She doesn't look at the machines. Her name is Ms. Chen. She arrives at 9am with a rolling carry-on bag, Many times before. The plant manager gives her a tour. Ms. Chen walks the line for two hours. Then she turns to the plant manager and says: "I'd like to see the production records. All of them. Going back eighteen months." The plant manager smiles. Here is what Ms. Chen finds: The production floor: acceptable. The equipment: calibrated, documented, within spec. The documentation: Batch records exist in three formats across four departments. Find the batch number in Manufacturing's daily log (Excel, by shift, by month, one file per month, stored on the shift supervisor's PC) Cross-reference with QA's inspection log (different Excel format, different batch number convention, stored on the QA lead's laptop) Find the process parameters in Engineering's test folder (password protected; the VP is in a meeting) Locate the material lot number in the incoming inspection binder (physical binder, shelf B3, organized by receipt date, not by lot number) Ms. Chen does not do all of this. Traceability: not demonstrated. She meets with the CEO at 2pm. She is direct. She is not unkind. "Your production capability is real," she says. She opens her iPad and reads from the checklist: Single source of truth for production data: Not met. Traceability from raw material to finished goods: Not met. Audit trail for process parameter changes: Not met. Data stored in auditable, non-editable system: Not met. "You have ninety days," she says. She doesn't finish the sentence. The emergency meeting is Monday, 8am. The CEO does not raise his voice. He says: "Everything goes into a database. Oran is the project manager." Then he looks at Oran. Oran has been in this company for two years. He has never been a project manager. He has also never wanted to be one. But he has been taking notes since this meeting started, So before he says yes, He writes three things on the whiteboard. 1. The timeline is IT's decision. "The audit deadline is ninety days from today. The VP of Engineering shifts in his seat. 2. Resourcing is non-negotiable. "I need two additional developers. The VP of Manufacturing starts to say something. 3. Passive cooperation is not cooperation. "Every department will have data submission deadlines. He looks at the room. "I want this in writing. The room is quiet for a moment. Then the VP of QA says: "I think that's reasonable." "Of course. We'll cooperate fully." Oran writes that down too. The CEO looks at Oran for a long moment. "Ninety days," he says. "Make it work." After the meeting, Oran walks back to his desk. Day 1. Below it: Things that are true: — The system doesn't exist yet. — The data is in twelve drawers. — Three departments will say they're cooperating. — Two of them mean it. — The one who doesn't will be the most enthusiastic in every meeting. He draws a line. Below the line: Things I can control: — What I agree to. — What I document. — What I build. He looks at that list for a while. Then he opens his laptop and starts writing the schema. The battle for the data hadn't started yet. Next: Ep4 — The Voluntary Table No department wanted to think about the whole picture. ← Ep1: The Excel Republic ← Ep2: The Big Customer Coding Cat Oran is a serialized fiction about building real production systems inside real companies. The audits are real. The ninety days are real. The cat is fictional. The VP of Manufacturing is, unfortunately, also real. By SysLayer · dev.to/syslayer