Industry
Manufacturing, Logistics and Distribution
In operations-led businesses, IT failure has a unit cost. Lines stop, trucks wait, orders do not ship — and the loss is measurable by the hour.
At a glance
- OT and IT segmented, not flat
- ERP, WMS and scanning reliability
- Coverage aligned to shift patterns
- Recovery objectives set against downtime cost
Separating operational technology
Machine controllers, PLCs, HMIs, scales and building systems frequently run unsupported operating systems that cannot be patched and must not be exposed. Segmenting them from the corporate network — with documented rules for the traffic that genuinely needs to cross — contains the damage when a corporate endpoint is compromised.
Where vendors require remote access to equipment, it is provided through controlled, logged, time-limited paths rather than a permanent connection nobody monitors.
- OT network segmentation with documented rules
- Controlled, logged vendor remote access
- Compensating controls for unpatchable systems
- Monitoring at the boundary between OT and IT
Systems the floor depends on
ERP, WMS, barcode scanning, label printing and EDI connections are the systems whose failure stops work immediately. They need resilient network paths, monitored integrations, tested backups and warehouse wireless designed for coverage across racking rather than office-style deployment.
Handheld scanners and rugged devices are managed like any other endpoint — enrolled, configured, encrypted and replaceable from stock, because a failed scanner should be swapped in minutes.
- Warehouse Wi-Fi surveyed for racking and metal
- Monitored EDI and integration interfaces
- Managed rugged devices with spares
- Label and print infrastructure support
Continuity in cost terms
Recovery objectives are set against the hourly cost of stoppage, which makes the investment conversation concrete. Where an hour of downtime is expensive, redundancy is justified; where it is not, the money belongs elsewhere. Manual fallback procedures for shipping and receiving are documented so work continues while systems recover.
Keep exploring
Related Oakville services
Most engagements combine several of these. Follow the thread that matches the problem you are trying to solve.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- Do you support shift operations?
- Yes. Coverage windows and escalation are aligned to your shift pattern, including nights and weekends where operations run then.
- Our machine software is unsupported. Options?
- Segmentation, strict access control and monitoring as compensating controls, with replacement planned on a realistic capital timeline rather than pretended away.
- Can you improve warehouse Wi-Fi?
- Yes, starting with a site survey. Racking, stock levels and metal surfaces change propagation constantly, and office-grade deployments consistently underperform in these spaces.
Reduce the cost of a stoppage
Segmentation, resilience and recovery objectives sized against what downtime actually costs you.