A precision parts manufacturer in Union County, New Jersey — 65 employees across two production shifts, a quality control team, and an office staff supporting procurement, logistics, and customer service.
Network uptime on the production floor — up from an unmonitored, unreliable baseline
Reduction in unplanned downtime incidents within 90 days of full deployment
Endpoints enrolled in managed IT across production floor and office environments
Average resolution time for production-impacting IT issues
THE CHALLENGE
For most of the company’s history, IT had been an afterthought — a server in a closet, a network set up years ago by someone who no longer worked there, and a general expectation that technology would mostly work until it didn’t. When it failed, the consequences were immediate: production lines idled while floor supervisors waited for someone to figure out what broke. Wireless coverage across the production floor was a patchwork of consumer-grade access points that dropped connections unpredictably, causing problems with the inventory management system that tracked parts movement and shipping schedules.
The office network ran on the same flat infrastructure as the floor — no segmentation, no monitoring, no visibility into what was happening until a problem surfaced. When a ransomware attack on a similarly sized regional manufacturer made the news, the company’s CFO asked a simple question: “What would we actually do if that happened to us?” The answer exposed a complete absence of tested backup, incident response documentation, or any consistent view of the company’s technology environment.
WHAT SOLVED IT DID
Network Redesign & Structured Cabling
We conducted a full site survey across the production floor, quality lab, and office — mapping every device, connection point, and dependency. The network was redesigned from the ground up: production equipment, office systems, and guest/vendor access were separated into distinct VLANs. Structured Cat 6 cabling was installed throughout the production facility, replacing the mix of old runs and wireless workarounds that had created the instability.
Enterprise Wireless
Enterprise-grade access points replaced the consumer hardware, with coverage designed specifically for the RF challenges of a metal-heavy manufacturing environment. The inventory management system now maintains a stable connection across all production zones during both shifts.
Managed IT & Endpoint Protection
All 65 endpoints were enrolled in managed IT and Microsoft Defender for Business — establishing the first unified view of the company’s technology posture the ownership team had ever had. A central helpdesk handles all support requests with documented SLAs.
Backup, Recovery & Incident Response
Backup was restructured with a 3-2-1 configuration and documented restoration testing. An incident response plan was built around production environment priorities, where every hour of downtime has a direct dollar cost — not just an IT inconvenience.
The Results
- Production floor and office networks fully segmented — separate VLANs for each environment
- Structured Cat 6 cabling installed throughout facility — wireless instability eliminated
- 65 endpoints enrolled in managed IT with 24/7 monitoring and alerting
- 3-2-1 backup architecture deployed with documented and tested restoration procedures
- Incident response plan built around production environment priorities and shift schedules
- 85% reduction in unplanned downtime incidents within 90 days of full deployment
