This is what a diagnosis looks like.

From milk to cheese in eight steps. Six depend on paper or memory.

1. 01

   Milk arrives. The driver leaves a paper delivery note.

   PAPER
2. 02

   Vat. 28 °C (82 °F) for 2 hours, with a thermometer and a clock.

   BY HAND
3. 03

   Batch. Milk date and cheese type, written down.

   PAPER
4. 04

   Curdling. Rennet and temperature depend on the cheese.

5. 05

   Molding and pressing. Pressure and time per variety.

6. 06

   Drying room. 15–20 days. Which batch is on which shelf, on a whiteboard.

   WHITEBOARD
7. 07

   Aging. 60, 90 or 120 days. When to move it is decided from memory.

   MEMORY
8. 08

   Sales. Stock is counted by eye, twice a day.

   BY EYE

Five problems nobody had written down.

1. 01

   Batches live on paper and a whiteboard.

   Lose a sheet or wipe the board, and that cheese can no longer be traced.

2. 02

   Stock is counted by eye, twice a day.

   Morning and evening, someone walks into the cold rooms to count cheeses.

3. 03

   Nobody knows which trade fair pays off.

   Fuel, meals, wages and booth fees are logged by hand and never matched against sales.

4. 04

   Christmas and Easter are planned from memory.

   With no sales history, production for peak season is a gut call.

5. 05

   Everything depends on one person.

   Rennet, timings and transfers live in the head cheesemaker's head.

First, what needs no new equipment.