Sector
IT support for manufacturers, planned around production rather than office hours
Manufacturing inverts the usual small-business IT picture. The office is five people; the floor is everybody else. The most important computers in the building are not on desks, they are bolted to walls running things that must not be interrupted, and the standard advice to patch everything promptly is, in that context, actively dangerous.
Two estates, two sets of rules
The office estate is conventional and should be kept current: patched, protected, backed up, with email and user accounts administered properly. The operational estate is not. Machine controllers, label systems, measurement equipment and the PCs driving them frequently run software that will not install on anything modern, tied to licences from vendors who may no longer exist.
The correct approach is to segment: keep the operational machines on their own network segment, protect them by isolation rather than by patching, image them so a failure is a restore rather than a reconstruction, and be explicit in writing about the residual risk that leaves. What is not correct is either patching them into failure or pretending they are not there.
We will also tell you plainly which machines are one power supply away from stopping your line, because that is the conversation worth having before it happens rather than during.
The segmentation and protection side falls under proportionate cyber security.
ERP, CAD and the systems that run the business
Above the floor sits whatever runs the business: an ERP or MRP system such as Sage 200, Access, Unleashed or a sector-specific package, CAD workstations running SolidWorks, AutoCAD or Fusion, and the stock, dispatch and quoting systems that connect them. CAD workstations in particular are high-value hardware where repair beats replacement comfortably and where a carefully built installation is worth more than the machine.
The recurring pain point is data moving between the floor and the office: production counts, scrap, time on job, materials used, which in a lot of firms is still a printed sheet typed up by somebody at the end of the shift. That is exactly the kind of job worth putting hours against in a process review.
Getting that data flowing without transcription starts with the free process review.
Network coverage and maintenance windows
Wi-Fi in a steel-framed building is a survey job, not a guess, and coverage has to reach the places scanners and tablets are actually used, including yards, mezzanines and the far end of a bay. Getting that wrong produces intermittent failures that are blamed on the devices for months.
Maintenance is scheduled around production, full stop. If your line runs to six and the shift changes at two, that is what the patching window has to work around. A provider applying a standard Tuesday-afternoon schedule to a manufacturing site will eventually stop your line, and it will be entirely avoidable.
What we would look at first
The first month on a manufacturing site is mostly documentation, because the estate is invariably larger and older than anyone has written down.
We walk the floor and list every machine with a screen on it, including the ones nobody thinks of as computers. For each, we record what it runs, who supports the software, whether the licence is recoverable, and what happens to production if it stops. That document is frequently the most useful thing a manufacturer gets from us.
Then we image anything on that list which is irreplaceable, because it costs an hour and it converts a potential shutdown into an afternoon. It is the single highest-return piece of work available on most industrial sites and it is almost never done.
After that it is the ordinary work: segmenting the operational estate from the office one, getting the office machines properly patched and backed up, surveying the Wi-Fi where scanners are actually used, and agreeing maintenance windows around your shifts rather than ours.
Get in touch
Tell us how your manufacturing business runs
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Questions we get from manufacturing
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
We have machines running software that cannot be updated. What do you do?
Segment and protect rather than patch. They go on their own network segment, get imaged so a failure is a restore rather than a reconstruction, and we put the residual risk in writing. What we will not do is patch them into failure or pretend they are not there.
Can you work around our production schedule?
That is a hard requirement, not a preference. Patching and maintenance windows are planned around your shifts, because a provider applying a standard Tuesday-afternoon schedule to a manufacturing site will eventually stop your line.
Our Wi-Fi is unreliable on the shop floor. Is that fixable?
Almost always. Steel-framed buildings, mezzanines and yards need access points positioned by survey rather than guesswork, and intermittent coverage problems are routinely misdiagnosed as faulty scanners for months.
Do you support ERP and CAD systems?
We support the servers, workstations and network they run on and deal with the vendor when the fault is in the application. CAD workstations in particular are worth repairing rather than replacing, and the installation on them is often worth more than the hardware.
How do we get production data into the office without retyping it?
That is a process review question rather than an IT one, and it is usually one of the biggest single savings available in a manufacturing business. We put hours against it first so you can see what fixing it is worth before anyone quotes.
What is the biggest risk you find on manufacturing sites?
A critical machine with no image and no documented build, sat in a dusty corner with a power supply that is visibly on borrowed time. Taking an image costs an hour and turns a potential shutdown into an afternoon.