IT/OT Convergence: Bridging Office Systems and Factory Equipment
The first time I saw the real cost of skipping IT OT convergence, I was walking a plant floor as an integration lead and the production manager handed me a clipboard. On it was a handwritten tally of how many parts the line had made that shift. Upstairs,…
Industrial Network Design: Building Reliable Connectivity for the Plant Floor
The first time I watched a production line stop because of an industrial network problem, nobody in the room thought it was a network problem. The operators blamed the PLC. Maintenance, meanwhile, pointed at the drive. Our controls integrator suspected a…
Cloud Manufacturing: Moving Production Data Off-Premise Safely
A plant manager once told me, half joking, that his historian server was the most valuable thing in the building and also the one nobody wanted to touch. It sat in a closet near the maintenance office, running an operating system two versions past its…
Managed IT Services for Manufacturing: What to Outsource and What to Keep
Every manufacturing IT services decision I make today traces back to one phone call. It came at 2:40 on a Tuesday morning. A line lead on second shift could not pull work orders, and the label printers on packaging had also stopped talking to the server.…
OT Cybersecurity: Protecting Industrial Control Systems From Modern Threats
The first time I watched a ransomware note pop up on an HMI, the operators did not panic about the files. Instead, they panicked about the kiln. Nobody could see the temperature trend anymore, so the line had to come down by hand while we figured out how…
CMMS Software: Choosing a Maintenance System Your Team Will Use
A few years back, during my first week at a packaging plant, I walked into the maintenance office and saw a big monitor on the wall showing the dashboard from the plant’s CMMS software. There were green tiles everywhere. In addition, PM compliance…
ERP for Manufacturing: Features That Actually Matter on the Floor
When a plant manager asks me to help choose an ERP for manufacturing, my first move is to put on safety glasses and walk the floor. Forget the demo and the feature matrix for a moment. What I want is to stand next to the second shift lead at the saw cell…
MES Software: What It Does and When Your Plant Needs One
The first MES project I ever worked on started with a clipboard. On my first walk of the floor, the plant manager at a midsize plastics molder handed it to me and said, “This is our system.” It held a stack of job travelers, a few of them…