Field notes on configuration in control
Practical writing for QA, validation, IT/OT and operations leaders working in regulated and industrial manufacturing.
Why your SAT takes just as long as your FAT — and what to do about it
Why most SAT campaigns repeat the entire FAT — and how a signed baseline contracts the scope to the delta.
More from the blog
The hidden cost of 're-test everything': how pharmaceutical lines lose weeks at SAT
The financial case for replacing re-test-everything with baseline-driven scope reduction at SAT.
IQ, OQ, PQ — and what happens when configuration changes between them
Treat each qualification phase boundary as a configuration checkpoint — and stay in a continuously qualified state.
Configuration drift on the production line: the change nobody approved
Continuous monitoring closes the window between snapshot-based backups and the next deviation investigation.
What 'we'll check it manually' really costs during batch start
Why ten minutes of automated verification beats an hour of manual screen-walking every time.
Every vendor brings their own tool — and none of them talk to each other
A single, normalised baseline across every vendor in scope — not a stitched-together selection.
Scaling from two lines to twenty: why configuration management breaks at fleet level
Qualify the configuration management system once at programme level — then deploy to every line.
GMP audit prep shouldn't be a scramble: building an always-ready configuration audit trail
Four components that turn the next 48-hour audit notice from a scramble into a query.
OT network qualification: how to screen hundreds of devices without a specialist tool for each one
A single access point for firmware, credentials, certificates and unauthorised-device screening — across any vendor mix.
Bring your configuration under one signed, auditable record.
A short working session with our team — we'll walk through your current posture and show VEM running against a controller from your stack.
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