Keep The
Line
Running.
Senior cybersecurity, infrastructure, and AI consulting for discrete and process manufacturers. We segment OT networks without halting production. We pass CMMC assessments without sinking a year of engineering capacity. We modernize MES and ERP without surprising the plant manager.
Why Manufacturing Is Different
IT Stops You.
OT Stops
The Plant.
When ransomware encrypts a corporate file server, you lose data. When it lands on a plant network, you stop making money. Every hour. Manufacturing IT lives in two worlds: the corporate side with ERP, email, and finance; and the OT/ICS side with PLCs, SCADA, MES, historians, and engineering workstations that haven't been patched since 2018 because the validation cost is too high.
The Purdue model is a starting point. The real work is risk-tiering each cell and zone, building conduits that pass production telemetry without exposing PLCs to commodity malware, and writing change control that engineering accepts. We've done this on active plant floors without giving up a single shift of production.
Compliance We Map To
Customers.
Government.
Insurance.
CMMC 2.0
Level 1 / 2 / 3 for defense contractors. CUI handling, SPRS scores, third-party C3PAO assessment readiness.
NIST 800-171
The 110 controls that underpin CMMC Level 2. POA&M cleanup, SSP that matches reality, evidence the assessor will accept.
IEC 62443
The OT security standard. Zone and conduit modeling, security level assignment, IACS lifecycle integration.
NIST 800-82
The ICS-specific overlay. Risk assessment for SCADA, DCS, PLC environments. Patching that respects availability.
TISAX
For automotive Tier 1 / Tier 2 suppliers. Information security assessment required by OEMs across Europe.
ITAR + EAR
Export-controlled technical data segregation. Foreign-person access controls, supply-chain visibility (NIST 800-161).
What We Ship For Manufacturers
Secure The
Plant.
Don't Stop It.
OT Network Segmentation
Purdue-aligned zones and conduits. Plant-floor firewalls, unidirectional gateways where they make sense. Built on active lines.
See more → CybersecurityPlant-Floor IR
Ransomware hits the MES. We've handled it. Containment that doesn't kill ongoing batches, recovery prioritized by revenue impact.
See more → InfrastructureMES / ERP Implementations
Plex, IQMS, Epicor, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle. Brownfield migrations that don't strand work orders or break costing.
See more → InfrastructureAcquisition IT Diligence
Buying a competitor's plant. Day-1 IT readiness, OT integration plan, ERP consolidation, cyber-debt remediation roadmap.
See more → ConsultingAI for Predictive Ops
Predictive maintenance, quality vision systems, demand forecasting. ML governance that survives the plant manager's veto.
See more → CybersecurityCMMC Readiness
110 controls, real evidence, a SPRS score that holds up under C3PAO scrutiny. Plus the remediation work, not just the gap analysis.
See more →FAQs for
Plant & IT
Leadership
Don't see your question? Just ask.
Can you segment an active plant floor without halting production?
Yes. We start with passive asset discovery (Claroty, Nozomi, Dragos, or our own tooling. Whatever fits), map the actual traffic between every PLC, HMI, MES, and historian, and design the zones around real communication patterns. Cutover happens in stages aligned to changeover windows, with rollback at every step. We've never caused a line stop doing this.
We failed a customer security audit. How fast can you turn this around?
Depends on what failed. A documentation gap is usually fixable in a few weeks. Missing technical controls (MFA, EDR, segmentation, logging) typically take 60 to 120 days for a real implementation. We work the assessor's findings directly, prioritize by what's blocking the contract, and stand up evidence collection as we go so re-audit is a fixed cost, not a gamble.
Do you do CMMC Level 2 prep, including the C3PAO assessment itself?
We are not a C3PAO (intentionally. Tech Critic is the implementation partner, not the assessor). We get you ready: gap analysis against the 110 controls, real remediation, SSP and POA&M that match what we actually built, evidence packaging, and a mock assessment before you bring in the C3PAO. We have working relationships with several reputable C3PAOs and can recommend.
Our MES vendor wants direct internet access for cloud telemetry. Is that safe?
Usually no, and there's almost always a better pattern. Outbound-only data diodes, brokered telemetry through a DMZ, or a vendor-managed VPN with named endpoints. We've seen vendor "cloud connect" appliances that drop a fully routable tunnel back to the corporate VPC. That's a no. We'll review the architecture and give you specific language to push back to the vendor.
Modernize.
Comply.
Keep Shipping.
Senior consultants who've actually worked plant floors. Talk through your situation. Usually 30 minutes is enough to know whether we're the right fit.
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