Who This Is For
Manufacturers with roughly 20 to 300 employees across Northern Indiana: RV and component suppliers in Elkhart and Goshen, metal fabricators and machine shops around Plymouth, Bremen and Warsaw, food processors and packagers, automotive and trailer suppliers, and the contract manufacturers that feed all of them. Companies where the office has 15 computers and the plant has 40 machines nobody wants to touch; where the ERP is the business; where a customer's compliance questionnaire has started showing up with the purchase order; and where the owner knows the technology has fallen behind but can't stop production to fix it.
We're not a generalist IT company that happens to take manufacturing clients. We understand the demands of industrial environments: ERP systems that have to stay online, OT/IT networks that need careful segmentation, legacy controllers that can't be patched, and production schedules with zero tolerance for unplanned outages.
The Problem: The Plant Floor Was Never Part of the Plan
Most manufacturing networks around here grew the same way. The office got a server and some PCs. Then a CNC with an Ethernet port needed to pull programs. Then the shipping station needed the ERP. Then a vendor installed a machine with its own router, a scanner gun needed WiFi, somebody added a camera, and a remote-access tool got installed so the equipment vendor could "just log in when something's wrong." Ten years later the office and the plant share one flat network, half the devices on it run software that can't be updated, and the vendor's remote-access tool still has the password from 2016.
That network is one phishing email away from a stopped line. It also can't pass the cybersecurity questionnaire your largest customer sent, and it can't be the foundation for the AI tools every vendor is now pitching you. The fix is not ripping out working equipment. It is designing the network you actually have — office, plant, vendors, remote access — so each part is protected from the others and all of it is watched.
What We Do for Manufacturers
Shop-floor networking and WiFi
Wired and wireless networks that reach reliably from the front office to the back dock — through steel-framed bays, around presses and welders — with the bandwidth and stability scanners, HMIs and tablets depend on. Surveyed and designed, not guessed.
OT/IT network segmentation
PLCs, SCADA, CNC controllers and industrial controls isolated from the corporate network and from the internet, with exactly the paths they need and nothing else. Legacy equipment keeps running; it just stops being the way in.
ERP and shop-system support
Whether you run a major ERP or a specialized job-shop system, we make sure the infrastructure under it has no single point of failure, that it's backed up in a way we've actually tested, and that your team can reach it from the office, the floor and the road.
Industrial cybersecurity
Layered protection built for a plant: email security, endpoint detection and response, MFA, secured vendor remote access, and monitoring that watches the OT segment as closely as the office.
Uptime monitoring and proactive maintenance
Around-the-clock remote monitoring catches failing drives, overheating switches and expiring certificates before they become a production stoppage. Patching scheduled around your shifts, not ours.
Compliance readiness
CMMC and NIST 800-171 for defense suppliers, customer security questionnaires, cyber-insurance requirements — translated into a gap list, a plan and a cost. See CMMC & NIST 800-171 readiness for Indiana manufacturers.
Backup and disaster recovery
Immutable backups of the ERP, file server and critical workstations, with a recovery plan that states how long the plant would be down and has been rehearsed. Details on our backup and disaster recovery page.
AI where it pays for itself
Quoting, tribal-knowledge capture, paperwork and maintenance patterns — the places AI is quietly paying off in shops like yours — starting with a free, no-pressure AI Opportunity Assessment.
What's Included in a Manufacturing Managed IT Agreement
- 24/7 monitoring of servers, network, internet, backups and the OT segment, with alerts to us, not just a dashboard
- Unlimited help desk for office and floor staff — remote in minutes, same-day on-site when hardware fails
- Patch and update management scheduled around production, with legacy systems handled by isolation rather than forced upgrades
- Documented network — every machine, VLAN, vendor connection and remote-access path written down and kept current
- Vendor management — we deal with the ERP vendor, the machine builder, the ISP and the copier company so your people don't
- Security stack — email protection, EDR, MFA, security-awareness training for staff, secured remote access
- Backup and recovery with scheduled restore tests and a written recovery-time target for the plant
- Quarterly review — what failed, what's aging, what the next 12 months need, and what compliance obligations are coming
How We Start
- Walk the plant. Not just the server room — the floor, the machines, the vendor boxes, the WiFi dead spots. We map what is actually connected to what.
- Assess. Where an outage would come from, how long you'd be down, what an attacker would reach first, what your customers' questionnaires require.
- Stabilize first. The handful of changes that remove the biggest risks without touching production: backups, MFA, exposed remote access, obvious single points of failure.
- Segment and harden. OT/IT separation, vendor access controls, monitoring on the floor — rolled out during planned windows, never mid-shift.
- Operate. Monitoring, help desk, maintenance and the quarterly review, with compliance work layered in as customers require it.
Pricing
Managed IT for manufacturers is a fixed monthly fee based on users and devices — the plant-floor equipment counted realistically, not every PLC as a "workstation." Projects such as a network rebuild, a segmentation design or CMMC remediation are quoted as a fixed price with the scope in writing before work starts. Hourly work follows our published rates. Most plants find the agreement costs less than one serious outage.
"We Feel Protected and Secured!"
Moving to LecsIT has brought us one significant advantage: a strong sense of security for our systems. LecsIT excels in providing fast and professional responses, thanks to their well-staffed and knowledgeable team. If you're on the fence about choosing LecsIT, ask yourself this: Can you afford the potential ransom?
Frequently Asked Questions
Serving Manufacturers Across Northern Indiana and the Michiana Region
We provide managed IT services and IT support to manufacturers in Elkhart, Goshen, Nappanee, Bremen, Plymouth, Warsaw, Rochester, Mishawaka, South Bend and the surrounding communities — automotive and RV suppliers, metal fabricators, food processors, plastics and packaging, and the contract shops that serve them. Related: CMMC & NIST 800-171 readiness · cybersecurity services · cabling, WiFi and network infrastructure · ERP and shop-system integration · managed IT in Elkhart · Goshen · Plymouth.
From the blog: The 4 Backup Assumptions Costing Michiana Manufacturers Time · What a Broken-Down Combine Can Teach Michiana Manufacturers About Emergencies · Manufacturing AI Without the Headaches
Let's Talk About Your Operation
Every plant is different. We start with a walk-through and a conversation — no pressure, no generic proposal. Tell us what you're dealing with and we'll tell you honestly what we can do.
Schedule a Free IT AssessmentOr call (888) 606-8805