Manufacturing businesses operate at the intersection of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT). Your ERP tracks orders, inventory, and financials. Your production systems control machines, monitor quality, and manage throughput. Your supply chain depends on integrations with suppliers and customers. And increasingly, all of these systems are networked — which means the attack surface that was once limited to office computers now extends to the production floor.
Getting IT right in a manufacturing environment requires understanding both the office systems and the operational systems — and the security implications of connecting them.
The IT/OT Convergence Challenge
Traditional manufacturing IT and OT were separate. The office network handled email, ERP, and business systems. The production floor ran on isolated control systems that had nothing to do with the corporate network.
That separation has eroded significantly. Modern manufacturing increasingly involves:
- ERP systems that receive real-time data from production systems
- IoT sensors on equipment feeding performance data to dashboards
- Remote monitoring and maintenance of production equipment over network connections
- Cloud-based SCADA and production management platforms
This convergence creates efficiency gains — real-time visibility, better data, faster decision-making. It also creates security risks that didn’t exist when OT was isolated. The ransomware attack that once would have encrypted office files can now potentially reach production control systems.
Managing this environment requires IT expertise that understands manufacturing operations, not just standard business IT.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for Manufacturing
The ERP system is the operational backbone of a manufacturing business. It manages orders, inventory, production planning, purchasing, and financials in an integrated system that replaces the patchwork of spreadsheets most growing manufacturers start with.
Manufacturing ERP selection and implementation is a significant project that deserves careful consideration:
Purpose-built manufacturing ERP (Epicor, Infor, SYSPRO, JobBOSS) handles production scheduling, bills of materials, shop floor data collection, and quality management natively. These systems are designed for how manufacturers actually operate.
General business ERP with manufacturing modules (SAP Business One, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics) can work well for manufacturers with less complex production environments or those who prioritize integration with other business functions over production-specific depth.
The implementation challenge: ERP implementations are among the highest-risk technology projects businesses undertake. Cost overruns, delayed timelines, and user adoption failures are common. Key success factors: strong project management, business process documentation before implementation, adequate training investment, and realistic timelines.
Network Infrastructure for Manufacturing
Manufacturing facilities have specific network infrastructure requirements:
Production floor connectivity: Wireless coverage across production areas for handheld scanners, tablets, and connected equipment. Industrial-grade access points that withstand temperature variation, dust, and vibration.
Network segmentation: The production network should be separated from the office network. OT systems and industrial control equipment should be on separate segments with controlled access points. This limits the potential spread of a security incident from IT to OT systems.
Redundancy for production-critical systems: Unlike office networks where a brief outage is an inconvenience, a production network outage can stop the line. Critical production systems should have redundant network paths.
Remote access for equipment vendors: Machinery vendors often require remote access for monitoring and maintenance. This access should go through controlled, secure channels — not direct VPN access to the production network.
Cybersecurity for Manufacturing
Manufacturing is increasingly targeted by ransomware and industrial espionage. High-profile manufacturing ransomware incidents have caused production stoppages lasting days to weeks, with recovery costs in the millions.
Key security priorities for manufacturing:
OT/ICS security: Operational technology environments have unique security challenges. Industrial control systems often run outdated operating systems (Windows XP still runs many machines), can’t be patched without vendor involvement, and weren’t designed with cybersecurity in mind. Security for these environments focuses on network isolation, monitoring for anomalous traffic, and strict access controls rather than endpoint security.
Supply chain security: Manufacturing businesses receive files, data, and software updates from suppliers. Each of these represents a potential infection vector. Supplier communication security and file scanning before import are important controls.
Intellectual property protection: Manufacturing processes, formulations, designs, and customer data represent significant competitive value. Data loss prevention controls and access restrictions protect this intellectual property from theft — both by external attackers and departing employees.
Backup and recovery for production systems: The recovery time from a ransomware attack on a manufacturing environment depends almost entirely on backup quality. Backups should cover ERP data, production configurations, and critical operational technology configurations — with tested recovery procedures.
Data and Analytics Solutions for Manufacturing
Modern manufacturing generates enormous volumes of operational data that most businesses don’t fully utilize:
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): Tracking availability, performance, and quality metrics for production equipment identifies improvement opportunities and enables predictive maintenance.
Production analytics: Real-time and historical visibility into throughput, scrap rates, cycle times, and capacity utilization enables data-driven production management.
Inventory optimization: Data-driven inventory management reduces carrying costs while maintaining service levels — a meaningful financial improvement for inventory-intensive manufacturers.
Predictive maintenance: IoT sensors combined with machine learning models can predict equipment failures before they occur, enabling maintenance to be scheduled rather than reactive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest IT risk for manufacturing companies? Ransomware that reaches production systems is the highest-impact risk. A manufacturing business that can’t run production is losing money every hour. The combination of network segmentation between IT and OT, good backups with tested recovery procedures, and endpoint security on all office systems addresses this risk most effectively.
How do we securely allow equipment vendors to remotely access production systems? Use a controlled remote access solution specifically designed for OT environments (vendors include Claroty, Dragos, and others). Vendor access should require explicit approval for each session, should be time-limited, and should be logged. Giving vendors persistent VPN access to production networks is a significant security risk.
At what revenue level does ERP make sense for a manufacturer? Generally when manual coordination is causing measurable problems — inventory errors, scheduling conflicts, order management errors, financial reporting delays. For many manufacturers this threshold is around $2–5M in revenue, though it varies by complexity. The right question isn’t revenue — it’s whether the cost of operational problems from your current systems exceeds the cost of an ERP implementation.
Can we integrate our production data with Microsoft 365 or other office tools? Yes, with appropriate integration. Data from production systems can be surfaced in Power BI dashboards, shared via Teams, and integrated into business reporting. This integration requires deliberate architecture — not just connecting everything to everything — to maintain the security separation between production and office systems.
Ready to modernize your manufacturing IT environment? Contact Prairie Shields Technology for an assessment tailored to manufacturing operations.