Alienstech IT support for Manufacturing
Plants where production equipment, office systems and old control machines all share a building and should not share a network.
Manufacturing has a problem most offices do not: machines that cannot be patched. Control systems and production equipment often run operating systems that are long out of support, because the vendor certified that version and replacing the machine costs a great deal more than replacing a computer.
The workable answer is separation. Production equipment goes on its own network with tightly controlled routes in and out, so an unpatchable machine is not also an exposed one. Vendor remote access is arranged deliberately, per session, rather than left permanently open.
The plant floor itself is a difficult environment for wireless and cabling, with metal, interference, dust and temperature all working against equipment that was designed for an office.
What usually brings people in
- Production machines run software that cannot be updated
- Equipment vendors want permanent remote access
- Office and plant traffic share one flat network
- Wireless coverage on the floor is unreliable
- Downtime on the line is measured in real money per hour
- Network equipment fails early in a dusty or hot environment