Times have been tough in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) segment. No one is a stranger to the last decade’s seismic shifts in product and shopping preferences, battered global supply chains, pandemic policies limiting crowd sizes, and the shortage of qualified workers. Now add the skyrocketing frequency of cyberattacks.
Challenge:
Following a malware attack that disrupted computing systems and production lines, a global snack foods company needed to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and modernize its network infrastructure across 80 sites worldwide. It had earlier attempted to deploy an Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) platform to help measure and mitigate security risks and improve performance of existing applications. But the initiative sputtered due to incompatibilities among the OEE software and the company’s enterprise control layer and network requirements.
The business asked Rockwell Automation to create a global inventory of its digital assets and modernize its incident response and overarching cybersecurity capabilities. The solution needed to be deployed across all of the companies 80 global sites and had to enable fast response to threats.
Solution:
Rockwell Automation collaborated with the company’s global director of engineering to assess its networks and deliver the data needed to measure OEE in a way that was compatible with enterprise networks and applications.
Rockwell Automation then conducted comprehensive network assessments across the company’s global facilities. Network assessments gave insights to what data and equipment were live on the network and needed to be protected. Because the company is a global multi-site enterprise, Industrial Data Centers (IDCs) were the ideal solution for remote monitoring and management of digital assets. IDCs can greatly ease the transition to a virtualized environment and combined with included remote support services, allows access to technical support that keeps infrastructure running efficiently.
After an in-depth assessment, our team developed a plan to mitigate network conflicts with the OEE application and implement 24/7/365 remote monitoring and administration by the Rockwell Automation support team.
Results:
With the new network infrastructure in place, this snack foods manufacturer quickly saw improvements in data accuracy and standardized global reporting. A unified infrastructure, paired with Rockwell Automation managed services, helped the business decrease downtime, increase data accuracy, and more quickly respond to cybersecurity incidents.
Even a slight improvement in OEE can mean a great deal of cost savings on a large production line and can support the business case for shoring up a company’s OT cybersecurity defenses. By addressing both business and cybersecurity needs, the solutions employed helped the food and beverage company boost its overall OEE score by 5%.
