The Worst Case Scenario: Manufacturing Company Data Loss

We don’t often like to think about the worst case scenario when it comes to our businesses, but the fact of the matter is that at any moment something terrible could happen with your business technology, resulting in data loss. You have to be prepared for every scenario and have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place. But what happens when you don’t have that plan in place? What happens when you waited too long and the worst case scenario of data loss is a reality? Maybe you can’t wrap your head around what that means – but that’s why we’re writing this: to remind you that not only is data loss a reality, but if you don’t take the appropriate measures, there are a few worst case scenario things that will inevitably happen in your manufacturing business. 

1. Design engineers can’t design.
   Being in the business of manufacturing, odds are good that your engineers are working constantly on creating new designs and innovating for your customer base. Their machines are often power-stations, which fast processors and graphics cards that can handle the CAD or design software that they’re working on. Consider not only the lack of productivity that will occur if your network goes down but all those valuable and proprietary designs that are on their machines and your fileserver that you may or may not be able to recover. If you can’t recover that data, you’ve lost much more than just a few files.
2. File server down.
   It’s not just about that property and those particular files, but all the ancillary files associated with your business processes. If your file server goes down – you have no ability to access your bids, orders, or service your customers at all. You lose that data and you’re back to square 1. You have to reach out and start those processes all over again. The amount of time it would take to manually get those orders back into play, not to mention the customers and orders you would inevitably lose in the meantime… it’s not a situation that you want to be in.
3. Primary manufacturing equipment down.
   What happens when you can’t manufacture your core products? You can’t ship them. You can’t sell more. You’re not making money. Every second that your line is down is money wasted. That’s a lot of money down the drain. If it’s down long enough, it could be enough to put your company out of business.

How critical is your data? How critical is avoiding business technology interruption? For most manufacturing companies, they can’t afford to lose their data, access to their servers, or their manufacturing equipment. For manufacturers more than anyone else, they need to be sure that uptime and data protection is a priority. These are the organization who could most benefit from the cloud or a business continuity strategy.

Don’t you think it’s time you did something to protect your livelihood?