IT for Manufacturing in Auburn
Tech Support for ISO 9001
How are you automating? Updating an assembly line by adding laptops to PLCs is a new system, one that changes business processes but will require maintenance, security, and impact your quality processes. Buying computers is the easy step, the important sub-component is having the right technology plan so automation is successful long-term and if worker safety is important in your workplace, properly segmented from the network.
Sounding Board
Our founder managed IT operations for discrete manufacturers in the semiconductor and EV industries with CMMC and ISO9001 requirements. If you want someone to bounce questions or process ideas off of, send a message to Joe using the contact form to the left.
Staff Want To Be Equipped
Staff and especially new hires often want processes that use modern tools where they can see realtime results and stay in the loop about production cycle progress with continuous learning. Optimizing for this means having technology that can help supplement and streamline production. As the industry trend has been to eliminate unnecessary labor, technology is no longer about replacing workers and instead is about maintaining a competitive business edge.
The Role of Tech
The industry has condensed as capital investments in manufacturing grow. Simultaneously, onshoring has increased from the rise of international shipping costs. As prices and supply costs change, taking control of what you have control over is vital for helping your business to profit from every situation. Building production lines that give you information increases your resiliency to supply shocks as it informs your business of WIP in real time and gives you the ability to respond in real time to real time news.
ERPs: Evolving but Consolidating
Competition is fierce in manufacturing, decisions need to be made faster, information needs to drive those decisions. These decisions have driven consolidation in the ERP industry, you'll see most manufacturing software now have similar features. Your processes which are typically deeply tied to one vendor, may look different since you last purchased an ERP. With industry demands for more data analysis and the popularity of AI, ERPs are evolving. This means if you are buying the latest version for implementation, it may be similar to changing vendors. For discrete manufacturers it may be worth taking a look at Acumatica, or cloud licenses like Infor Cloudsuite Industrial, Epicor Kinetic, Dynamics 365 Business Central, or if you're smaller something like Odoo.
Remote Access to SCADA
How you are accessing SCADA at remote sites is vital you will want to confirm you are using a secure method to prevent unexpected bills and outsiders from accessing your equipment.
ISO 9001:2026
If quality management impacts your business, the latest ISO9001 version provides new requirements that catch up to the tech world in digitalization, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and risk. Identifying where these processes intersect with quality and where using them may benefit your customers in overall business quality is key. This means regular reviews of outputs, tracking errors and overall performance and adjusting permissions or workflows accordingly. Prior versions such as 9001:2015's 7.5.3 established IT as controlling document information. This meant protecting data from unauthorized alterations, illegibility, indexing, and loss. This required the business to consider & document with evidence it's redundancy, retention and technology adaption practices. A common issue we see here is inconsistent chemical labeling software planning, which is also a safety issue. Clause 7.1.3 emphasized having infrastructure for a working environment regardless of where staff were, this meant setting up work-from-home employees with VPN access for using on-site documents or cloud storage for processes. Clause 6.3 focused instead on the process for infrastructure security related to security and retrieval. Each of these requires ensuring any infrastructure, whether computer or paper, used in the quality process is protected from accidents and threats to create a resilient environment for the ultimate goal: for quality to be standardized.
