The short answer (TL;DR)
IT support for manufacturing is specialist IT support built around a business that runs on two very different types of technology at once: the office IT that handles email, quotes, accounts and ERP, and the operational technology (OT) on the factory floor that keeps machines, PLCs and production lines running. It covers the same basics as any managed IT service, including a helpdesk, monitoring, patching, backups and security, but it adds the things a standard office IT provider tends to get wrong: protecting legacy machine controllers that cannot be patched, keeping production networks separate from office networks, supporting ERP and shop floor software, and defending a business that is now the single most attacked industry in the world.
That last point is not marketing. IBM's 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index named manufacturing the most attacked industry for the fifth year running, and an ESET survey in 2026 found that 78 percent of UK manufacturers had suffered a cyber incident in the previous year.
If you run a manufacturing or engineering business in Medway or Kent and your factory floor and your office are held together by the same flat network and a lot of hope, you can book a free call with ITMS or phone us on 01634 218362.
What is IT support for manufacturing?
In plain terms, it is managed IT support that understands a factory is not an office.
Most IT providers build their service around one simple picture: everyone sits at a desk, on one network, using Microsoft 365 and a few line of business apps. That describes your accounts team. It does not describe the shop floor, where a twelve year old machine runs a controller on an operating system the vendor stopped supporting years ago, where a five minute network glitch can scrap a batch, and where "just install the update" can mean stopping a production line that costs thousands of pounds an hour to restart.
Manufacturing IT support keeps the office side running exactly like any other managed service, and then extends security and reliability into the production environment without treating a CNC machine like a laptop. If you are new to the managed model in general, our guide on what managed IT support is explains the fundamentals in plain English. This article is about what changes when your business also makes things.
Why can't a manufacturer just use a normal IT provider?
You can, and many do, right up until the gaps show. They tend to appear in the same predictable places.
Office IT and factory OT get treated as the same thing. A generic provider knows how to patch a laptop. They are far less comfortable with a programmable logic controller (PLC), a SCADA screen or a machine that voids its warranty if you touch its software. Applying a routine office patch to the wrong device on the wrong network can stop a line rather than protect it.
The network is flat. In a lot of smaller factories the office PCs, the Wi-Fi, the guest network and the production machines all sit on one network with no separation. That is convenient, and it means a single phishing click in accounts can reach the machines that actually make your product.
Uptime is misunderstood. For an office, an hour offline is annoying. For a production line, an hour offline is scrapped material, idle staff and a late delivery. Standard support plans and response times are written for the former.
ERP and shop floor software are unfamiliar. Sage, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Epicor, MRP systems and the machine specific software that drives your kit all behave very differently to Word and Excel. A provider who has only ever supported offices will struggle the first time your production planning system falls over.
Legacy is everywhere. Manufacturers keep machines for fifteen or twenty years because they are expensive and they still work. The controllers attached to them often run outdated, unsupported software that cannot simply be upgraded. A good manufacturing IT partner plans around that reality instead of pretending it does not exist.
Why is manufacturing the number one target for cyber attacks?
Because criminals follow the money and the pressure, and manufacturing has both. A factory that stops making product is losing money by the hour, which makes owners far more likely to pay a ransom quickly to get the line moving again.
The figures are stark and current:
- IBM's 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index found manufacturing was the most attacked industry in 2025 for the fifth consecutive year, accounting for 27.7 percent of all incidents it responded to.
- Globally, ransomware attacks on manufacturing rose 56 percent in 2025, and average ransom demands against manufacturers more than doubled to around 1.16 million dollars, according to analysis reported by Industrial Cyber.
- An ESET survey in 2026 found 78 percent of UK manufacturers had experienced a cyber incident in the past year. Among those affected, 95 percent reported a direct business impact, 53 percent suffered financial loss and 44 percent faced supply chain disruption.
- The UK government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026 found 43 percent of all UK businesses identified a breach or attack in the previous twelve months, with phishing the most common threat at 38 percent.
The reasons manufacturing is singled out are specific. Legacy OT and machine controllers often cannot be patched, so known weaknesses stay open for years. Flat networks let an attacker move from a compromised office PC straight onto the production floor. Long supply chains mean one weak supplier can become everyone's problem, which is also why invoice fraud is rife across industrial sectors, a risk we cover in our guide to IT support for construction companies. And because attackers increasingly use AI to write cleaner, more convincing phishing emails, the human defences are getting harder to rely on, as we explain in our guide to AI phishing attacks on small businesses.
For a Kent manufacturer the takeaway is simple. You do not have to be a household name to be a target. Attackers scan for exposed systems and weak controls, and a mid sized engineering firm on an industrial estate in Medway looks exactly as attractive as any other manufacturer with unpatched machines and a flat network.
Standard office IT support vs manufacturing-ready IT support
Here is what changes when your IT partner actually understands a factory.
| Area | What a standard office provider gives you | What manufacturing-ready support gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Network design | One flat network for everyone | Office IT separated from production OT, so a breach in one cannot reach the other |
| Legacy machines | "Please upgrade or replace it" | Isolate, monitor and wrap unsupported controllers in extra controls so they can keep running safely |
| Uptime | Best-efforts office response times | Production-aware priorities, with the line treated as critical |
| Software | Microsoft 365 and general apps | ERP, MRP and shop floor software supported alongside the basics |
| Backups | Files and email | Files, email, ERP data and machine configurations, tested by restore |
| Security | Standard antivirus and spam filter | OT-aware security, network segmentation, monitoring and staff training |
| Compliance | Rarely considered | Cyber Essentials maintained year round for supply chain and tenders |
| Connectivity | Office broadband | Resilient connectivity with failover, because a dropout can halt production |
If your office network itself is the weak link rather than the factory, our guide to common network cabling problems in offices covers the faults we find most often.
What should IT support for a manufacturer include?
A genuinely manufacturing-ready service covers the office essentials and then adds the production layer on top. In practice that means a helpdesk and proactive monitoring for your staff and servers, patching and updates handled safely, and backups that are tested by actually restoring them rather than assumed to work.
On top of that, it should include network segmentation that puts a real boundary between your office systems and your production machines, so one compromised laptop cannot reach the factory floor. It should include a sensible plan for legacy and OT equipment, isolating and monitoring machines that cannot be patched instead of leaving them exposed. It should include proper support for your ERP and shop floor applications, strong email and payment security to stop invoice fraud, and ongoing cyber security that treats protection as a daily activity rather than a product you buy once. Cloud and Microsoft 365 support, covered by our cloud services, rounds out the office side.
You take what you need. A manufacturer with a capable internal IT person may only want the specialist security and OT parts, which is exactly what co-managed IT support is designed for.
How do you secure legacy machines without stopping production?
This is the question that stops most manufacturers from acting, and the honest answer is that you do not rip out a working machine to make it secure. You contain it.
The practical approach is to isolate legacy and OT equipment on its own protected network segment, so it can talk to the systems it needs and nothing else. You monitor that segment closely for anything unusual. You control which devices and which people can reach it, using least privilege so a controller is not sitting open to the whole office. And you keep tested backups of machine configurations, so if something does go wrong you can rebuild quickly rather than waiting on a vendor who may no longer support the hardware.
None of this requires shutting down the line. It is about building a safe boundary around the equipment you cannot change, which is a very different job to patching an office PC, and it is precisely the part a standard IT provider tends to skip.
Do manufacturers need Cyber Essentials to win contracts?
Increasingly, yes, and this is where cyber security stops being an overhead and becomes a commercial requirement.
Cyber Essentials is the UK government backed certification covering five basic technical controls. If you supply the public sector, the defence supply chain, the automotive supply chain or a larger manufacturer who does, you will very likely be asked to hold it before you can bid or stay on an approved supplier list. Tier one manufacturers push their security requirements down the chain, so plenty of smaller subcontractors discover the need for certification at the worst possible moment, days before a tender deadline.
Certification is not a one-off. It runs for twelve months and the controls have to hold in between, which is exactly what a managed provider maintains for you rather than you rediscovering it each year. The scheme's technical requirements were also updated this year, and our guide to the Cyber Essentials 2026 changes explains what moved and what it means for a business with older equipment.
How much does IT support for a manufacturer cost?
Managed IT support in the UK is normally priced per user per month, which works reasonably well for manufacturing office headcount, with production and security specifics added on top.
Our published pricing gives a real benchmark rather than a vague range. A sole trader package runs at 45.52 pounds per month for one user including managed IT support, Microsoft 365 and email signature. A ten user small business package runs at 424.65 pounds per month including managed support, Microsoft 365, email signatures and VoIP, which works out at roughly 42 pounds per user per month. Larger packages bring the per user figure down and fold Cyber Essentials and mobile SIMs into the bundle.
Manufacturing specific extras sit on top of the office figure. Network segmentation and OT protection, resilient connectivity with failover, and support for ERP and shop floor systems all depend on the size and age of your setup, which is why a short conversation about your actual machines and network gives a far more accurate number than any online calculator.
Set that against the alternative. With average ransom demands against manufacturers now above one million dollars, and a single day of stopped production running into thousands of pounds, the cost of doing IT properly is a rounding error next to the cost of not doing it.
Why choose a local Medway provider like ITMS?
Manufacturing IT is hands-on work. When a production issue needs someone at the machine, or a new network segment needs cabling on site, a national remote-only helpdesk cannot help you this afternoon. A Medway based provider can. ITMS is based in Chatham and supports manufacturers, engineering firms and industrial businesses across Medway and Kent, including Gillingham, Rochester, Strood, Rainham, Sittingbourne and Aylesford. We are Cyber Essentials certified, we build security and backups into everyday cover rather than selling them after an incident, and we treat your production line as the critical system it is.
If you are comparing options, the simplest next step is a short, no obligation conversation about what your office and your factory floor actually need. Explore our cyber security services and managed IT support, or book a free call today. You can also reach the team on 01634 218362 or at contact@it-ms.co.uk.
Frequently asked questions
What is IT support for manufacturing companies?
It is managed IT support designed around a business that runs both office IT and factory operational technology. It covers the usual helpdesk, monitoring, patching, backups and security, and adds network segmentation between office and production, protection for legacy machines that cannot be patched, support for ERP and shop floor software, and the strong security a heavily targeted sector needs.
Why is manufacturing the most targeted industry for cyber attacks?
Because a stopped production line loses money by the hour, which makes manufacturers more likely to pay a ransom quickly. Legacy machines that cannot be patched, flat networks and long supply chains add easy ways in. IBM's 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index found manufacturing was the most attacked industry for the fifth year running, at 27.7 percent of all incidents.
How do you protect old factory machines that cannot be updated?
You contain them rather than replace them. The machine is isolated on its own protected network segment, monitored for unusual activity, restricted to only the connections and users it needs, and backed up at the configuration level so it can be rebuilt quickly. This secures the equipment without stopping production.
Do manufacturers need Cyber Essentials?
If you supply the public sector, defence, automotive or a larger manufacturer, you will very likely be asked for Cyber Essentials before you can bid or stay on an approved supplier list. It certifies five basic security controls, runs for twelve months, and is best maintained continuously by a managed provider rather than scrambled together at tender time.
Should office computers and production machines be on the same network?
No. Keeping them on one flat network means a single phishing click in the office can reach the machines that make your product. Separating office IT from production OT, known as network segmentation, is one of the most important and most overlooked protections for a manufacturer.
Do you support manufacturers across Medway and Kent?
Yes. ITMS is based in Chatham and supports manufacturing and engineering businesses across Medway and Kent, including Gillingham, Rochester, Strood, Rainham, Sittingbourne and Aylesford. You can book a free call at https://it-ms.co.uk/book-a-call/ or phone 01634 218362.
Keeping the line running
Manufacturing runs on tight margins and tighter schedules, and technology should be the thing that keeps the line moving, not the reason it stops. With manufacturing now the most attacked industry in the world and most UK manufacturers already hit, the businesses that treat IT and security as everyday essentials are the ones that keep producing, keep winning contracts and keep their data intact.
If you run a manufacturing or engineering business in Medway, Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham or anywhere across Kent, and any of the above sounds uncomfortably familiar, we should talk. ITMS is Cyber Essentials certified, based in Chatham, and works with industrial businesses across the county. Take a look at our cyber security services, or book a free, no-obligation call. No hard sell, just a straight conversation about what your office and your factory floor actually need.