Manufacturing

The existing asset management setup covered only a third of the global technology estate. Missing purchasing and licence data turned budget, contract and audit processes into manual workload.

Coverage and data gaps were assessed, and inventory, contract and licence information was consolidated in an integrated IT asset management solution connected to the ITSM platform. A managed service model kept the data current. Savings above USD 400,000 in maintenance, operations, support and licence costs were reported in the first year. Global scope became manageable with two external providers instead of the six that had previously covered a single region. Visibility reduced both cost and management workload.

Analytical models delivered early benefits; when production conditions changed, recommendations degraded and operators stopped using them. Internal teams had limited capability to update the models. The technology investment was not turning into lasting performance.

Model performance, data conditions, user experience and team capability were assessed together. Models were retrained; operators and analytics teams began working together with hands-on training. Adoption of model recommendations rose from 60% to 85% within a few months. Annual savings of USD 4 million from a single production optimization model, and USD 20 to 30 million in value with a 2 to 3 point EBITDA improvement from the wider program, were reported.

Security operations ran at regional and business-unit level. Shared visibility, responsibilities and response processes were not integrated enough, making global coordination difficult.

Cybersecurity maturity, capacity and the operating model were assessed. Regional operations were combined into a shared security operations center; endpoint detection and response and security automation were integrated. Threat response time fell by about 85%. Automation reduced the staff time consumed by false alarms, letting teams focus on significant incidents. No monetary savings were disclosed; the financial value lies in reducing outage exposure and manual response workload.

Distributed cloud accounts, inconsistent tags and low FinOps maturity made costs hard to understand. Unused servers, orphaned storage, old backups and inefficient network configurations drove spend up.

Cost and usage data were combined; resource sizing, backup and retention needs were reassessed with application owners. Cleaning up unused resources and optimizations delivered verified recurring annual savings above USD 1.4 million, as reported. Around USD 30,000 per month in avoidable network costs was also uncovered.

Production sites used different backup and recovery solutions. The complex setup made it hard to see whether all critical systems were fully backed up and whether data could be restored quickly.

Based on the needs of production systems, a standard data protection architecture was designed that can be sized to each site. High availability, automated backup, compression and detailed access controls were applied together. Thanks to the local design, backups could continue even if the internet connection was lost. Reduced management complexity and improved performance and resilience were reported. No numerical financial result was disclosed; the cost contribution comes from standardization, storage efficiency and right-sized capacity.

A manufacturer growing through acquisitions had inherited different security practices and maintenance suppliers from different sites. The corporate IT security team tried to extend the tools it used on office networks to production networks, but these tools proved unsuitable for OT environments.

Suspicious activity in production systems could not be detected well enough, and remote maintenance access created additional risk.

After evaluating alternatives and a pilot test, a security approach suited to the industrial environment was rolled out to all production sites. OT asset inventory, continuous threat monitoring and secure remote access were combined under one management structure.

Shared visibility across sites was established; employee and maintenance supplier access was brought under control. Security monitoring was applied without affecting production processes and devices.

Choosing the right technology prevented existing tools from being pushed into environments they did not suit. Security resources were directed to the real needs of production, creating a stronger basis for managing the production loss and restart costs that outages can cause.

A chemical manufacturer had different network designs and inconsistent security practices across its sites. Some network connections did not match production logic; unmonitored connections and third-party remote access created risk.

These risks affected not only information security but also the availability, reliability and physical safety of production.

OT asset discovery, continuous security monitoring and controlled remote access were brought into a common structure. OT asset visibility was achieved across more than 60 production sites. Collaboration between central security operations and production security teams improved; supplier access began to be managed through permissions, policies and audit records.

Shared visibility made it easier to compare the security needs of sites and prioritize resources according to real risk. A management structure emerged that can reduce repeated site-by-site review and coordination effort.

Production continuity, secure maintenance access and more consistent risk management were addressed in one approach. Security investments thus supported operational reliability and the protection of existing production capacity.