The need for a dependable and effective IT consultant has increased dramatically as manufacturing organizations depend more and more on technology to streamline their operations. A variety of IT solutions tailored to the unique requirements of the manufacturing sector are offered by managed IT services for businesses in the manufacturing sector. However, not every provider of IT services is made equal.
Working with an IT service provider that satisfies the six essential criteria for IT services for manufacturing companies is essential if you want to guarantee the success of your manufacturing enterprise.
1. Understanding Industrial Controllers and Equipment
The primary goal of manufacturing companies is to deliver goods to customers. They are motivated more than any other business to keep the machinery running and the workers producing. We have discovered after many years that your factory contains important pieces of machinery. Their innocuousness may even have escaped your notice. Millions of dollars worth of merchandise are being processed through your store by these outdated PCs.
Although it sounds incredible, we had to visit the Salvation Army to locate the necessary hardware to fix that computer. Finding and documenting this kind of hardware through an audit is a sign of good IT solutions for manufacturing. It implies that an emergency plan is developed in collaboration with the provider. Verify whether the controller’s hardware has been updated.
2. Understanding CAD Software
While not all manufacturing companies use CAD software packages such as Solid Works, AutoCAD Inventor, Solid Edge, and others, most do. Some only use them to look at drawings. Some manufacture the goods they ship using them. Providers of well-managed IT services for manufacturing are knowledgeable about all the big brands. To support manufacturing, an IT company needs to be aware of these things.
Additionally, manufacturing IT services ought to be pros at enhancing and optimizing these systems’ functionality. Software that is essential to manufacturing equipment is run on these computers.
3. Consider Your Shop Floor
Understanding the characteristics of the facility and equipment is a necessary component of offering Managed IT Services to manufacturing companies in our local community. Setting up technology in an office setting is not the same as installing it on a manufacturing floor. The manufacturing IT service provider ought to be able to set up WiFi in your shop. They ought to feel at ease running cabling through factory roof rafters that reach up to twenty feet. An IT company focused on manufacturing must excel at this. Employees with certification for working at heights and the ability to reserve and operate a scissor lift should be on hand.
Manufacturing frequently requires wireless barcode readers for inventory control and management, so these skills are essential.
Due to the nature of the production floor, it is frequently difficult to make this work. It is difficult to enumerate the number of times we witness improperly installed or misconfigured WiFi in industrial environments. To guarantee the efficiency of your shop floor data collection and warehouse management system, the IT Consultant needs to have experience in this field.
4. Confident in ERP
Seldom do manage IT services for manufacturing organizations offer some degree of ERP functional support. The daily use of the ERP for tasks like managing the MRP, purchasing, planning, order entry, shipping, etc. is referred to as functional support. Since the majority of managed IT service providers are IT consultant, they may not be familiar with how users carry out their daily tasks.
However, having confidence while using ERP systems is crucial. Installing, troubleshooting, and managing your ERP should not be a source of fear for a manufacturing company’s managed IT services provider. They ought to be aware of the proper procedures for backing up and maintaining Oracle or SQL Server databases.
For the simple reason that they don’t do it every day, an ERP company can charge a tonne for IT solutions. Typically, their technical consultants write custom reports and do programming. The cost of installing the ERP software on a computer is extremely high.
5. Excellent Network Hardening Capabilities
I don’t mean to disparage the many incredible workers in the manufacturing industry, but knowledge workers are getting older in the supply chain as a whole. Because of this, cybercriminals specifically target industrial businesses. The older user base combined with the growing amount of technology built directly into production equipment makes manufacturers an especially attractive target for cybercriminals.
Your IT solutions for manufacturing must exercise extra caution. Network segmentation is one method to help control and manage this, along with excellent patching and ongoing user testing to identify weak points and address them with improved training.
Conclusion
Given that they lack the in-depth expertise and proficiency in technologies, the majority of managed IT service providers do not offer technology consultations. For a manufacturing company, finding a Managed IT Services provider connected to those technologies is critical.