Manufacturing

Old systems still run work. The risk is the day one fails.

The machine that runs your line may depend on a controller or PC nobody makes anymore, from a vendor that closed years ago. Most of the time it works fine. I help you find out what happens when it doesn't, and plan the way forward before you have to.

Start with a conversation

An old control cabinet with a beige PC and CRT monitor wired into factory machinery

What I see most often

Hardware nobody makes anymore

A controller, PC, or interface card from a vendor that's gone. When it fails, nobody knows what replaces it or how long the line will be down.

Software tied to that hardware

The programs that run the equipment were written for it and can't simply move to new machines. Replacing them takes a plan, not a weekend.

Systems that don't talk

Quoting, scheduling, the shop floor, and accounting each have their own copy of the truth, and people re-key the difference.

A shop office desk with paperwork and a whiteboard schedule, looking out onto the shop floor

Hands holding a clipboard of work orders next to a rugged tablet

The catalog

What I look at in a business like yours

Equipment and control systems, and what each one depends on
Which vendors are still in business, and what support you actually have
Spare parts on hand and realistic replacement paths
Where data gets typed in by hand between systems
What a failure would cost, in hours of downtime

A finding like this

Finding 01Example, not a client

One aging PC can stop the line

What's happening: The machine, its control PC, and how old both are
Risk: Hours of downtime if that PC fails
What to do: A spare, a backup image, or a replacement path
Hours to fix: Hours of work, estimated task by task
Timeline: Weeks from start to done

After: A failure means a known swap and a known number of hours down, not a crisis.

Replacing a system the business can't afford to stop takes a plan, a fallback, and patience. The same discipline applies to a line you can't shut down.