Manufacturing IT
IT support for manufacturing, where downtime costs by the hour
On a manufacturing site the office is five people and the floor is everybody else, which inverts the usual small business IT picture entirely. Most of the estate is not desks. It is scanners, label printers, machine controllers and terminals bolted to a wall running software that must not be touched.
- On-site visits included
- Maintenance around production
- Legacy machines protected
A production site is not a large office
The single most common failing we see in manufacturing IT is a provider treating the site as an office with a warehouse attached. It is the other way round, and every priority follows from that.
Wi-Fi has to cover a building made of steel, across a yard, reliably enough that a scanner does not drop mid-pick. Patching has to work around production rather than assuming a quiet Wednesday afternoon. A great deal of the value we add is knowing which machines to leave alone, because the software on a controller is frequently worth far more than the hardware under it and will not install on anything modern.
And the cost of downtime is measured differently. A line stopped for a shift has an hourly number attached to it that everybody on site already knows, which makes the argument for included on-site visits and a cold spare much easier than it is elsewhere.
The plans and coverage behind this are set out under business IT support.
What we do on a production site
- Wi-Fi surveyed and access points positioned for steel-framed buildings and outdoor yards, rather than estimated from a plan
- Scanners, label printers and warehouse terminals treated as production equipment, since a scanner dropping off is an emergency rather than an inconvenience
- Shop-floor machines running unsupported software isolated on the network and protected, instead of forced to update
- Full images taken of irreplaceable machines, so a failure is an afternoon rather than a shutdown
- Patching and maintenance windows planned around production, agreed with whoever runs the schedule
- A cold spare built and imaged where the arithmetic justifies it, which on a site with an hourly downtime cost it usually does
- The office estate kept current and conventional, because it should be even when the floor cannot be
- On-site visits included in the monthly plan, since none of the above can be fixed over a remote session
The machine that cannot be replaced
Nearly every site has one: a PC running a controller or a legacy line-of-business package, where swapping it for a current machine means discovering the software will not install, the licence has been lost, or the vendor stopped existing years ago.
The right answer is often one nobody would choose in an office. Keep it alive with replacement fans, a new power supply and a cloned drive, isolate it, image it, and be honest that it is a holding action rather than a fix, with a written note of what the eventual replacement plan needs to be.
- Isolated and protected rather than patched into failure
- Imaged, so recovery is a procedure not a crisis
- A written replacement plan rather than a surprise
Cyber Essentials and the supply chain
Manufacturing businesses increasingly meet security requirements through their customers rather than through regulation. A larger customer or a public sector contract asks whether you hold Cyber Essentials, and the answer decides whether you are on the tender list.
It is achievable for a small manufacturer, the certification itself is a few hundred pounds, and the real work is the remediation beforehand. We do a gap analysis first so the cost is known rather than discovered, and prepare the evidence as part of the ordinary support work.
The five controls it covers are worth having anyway, which makes it a useful forcing function rather than a paper exercise.
There is a full write-up in the small business guide to Cyber Essentials.
Start with a coverage survey and an equipment list
Two things tell us almost everything about a manufacturing site: where the Wi-Fi actually fails, and which machines nobody is allowed to touch.
The free review covers both, on site, and you keep the written findings whether you work with us or not.
Get in touch
Talk to us about it support for manufacturing
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.
Frequently asked questions
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
Can you improve Wi-Fi across an industrial unit and yard?
Yes, and it needs surveying on site rather than estimating. Steel frames, racking and outdoor areas need access points positioned by measurement, and it is exactly the kind of job that has to be done in the building. It falls under the included visits on a monthly plan.
We have a machine running old software that cannot be updated. Is that a problem?
It is common and it is manageable. The answer is normally to isolate it on the network, protect it and take a full image, rather than force an update that breaks a production line. You get a written note of the residual risk instead of an insistence that everything must be patched.
Can maintenance happen outside production hours?
It has to, and it gets agreed with whoever runs the schedule rather than assumed. A patching window dropped into a shift is not a window, and that is the mistake most general IT providers make on a production site.
What is a cold spare and do we need one?
A prepared, imaged machine sat in a cupboard matching your most common shop-floor configuration. When something fails, swapping it in takes twenty minutes instead of a day of ordering and building. On a site where downtime has an hourly cost, the arithmetic is rarely close.
Do you help with Cyber Essentials for supply chain requirements?
Yes. We do a gap analysis against the five controls first so the cost is known up front, then the remediation and the evidence gathering, which makes the assessment straightforward rather than a scramble.
How quickly can you get to a site?
Within about fifteen miles of Mansfield, same day for anything stopping production, and on-site is included in the monthly plan. Mansfield and the A38 corridor is where a large share of our manufacturing work already is.
