Plant IT problems get fixed before the next shift

The challenge

What was going wrong

1. 1

   Take stock of the network

   We walked each plant, listed every switch, access point and workstation, and drew a simple map. This showed weak spots and devices nobody knew about.

2. 2

   Set up monitoring

   We added watching tools that track device health and link quality. Alerts were tuned so the team hears about real problems, not constant noise.

3. 3

   Open the helpdesk

   We started a helpdesk that staff can reach at any hour by phone, chat or email. Every request is logged, ranked by urgency and followed to closure.

4. 4

   Reduce repeat problems

   Each month we review the logged faults, find the repeat offenders and fix the cause. Patching and equipment refreshes follow an agreed plan.

• Always-on helpdesk

  One place for shift workers to report faults at any hour and get a reply.

• Network health monitoring

  Plant switches and links are watched, with alerts sent to the on-call engineer.

• Asset and ticket records

  A single list of devices and a history of every fault and fix.

• Monthly review reports

  Plain summaries of repeat faults and what was done to stop them.

• Night shift gets real support

  Supervisors reach a person at any hour instead of waiting for the morning team.

• Faults spotted early

  Many network problems are now seen and fixed before they stop a production line.

• Fewer repeat issues

  Logged history lets the team fix root causes rather than patch the same fault again.

• Grafana Dashboards and alerts for live system metrics.
• Prometheus Collects metrics to watch systems and model health.
• PagerDuty Alerts the right on-call person when something breaks.
• Zendesk Customer support platform for tickets and help centres.
• Ubiquiti Managed Wi-Fi and switching for offices.