Managing Complexity in Modern Manufacturing Systems Without Slowing Innovation

Manufacturing systems are becoming more complex every year. As industrial environments evolve to include more data, deeper integration, and additional technology layers, the expectations placed on operational technology teams continue to grow. The challenge many manufacturers face today is not a lack of technology, but a lack of time and capacity to manage it effectively while still moving forward.

If you look at how IT systems evolved over time, a similar pattern emerges. As they became more complex, most organizations didn’t try to make one person an expert in everything. Instead, they outsourced portions of IT support so internal teams could focus on higher-value work. That same model increasingly applies to OT today.

When Complexity Outpaces Capacity

Modern manufacturing environments rely on interconnected systems spanning data infrastructure, historians, MES platforms, and analytics layers. Each system requires specialized knowledge, regular maintenance, security oversight, and vendor-specific expertise. At the same time, teams are often expected to support a growing number of technologies, software vendors, and system versions.

The reality is that no single person can be an expert across all of these disparate systems. And yet, many organizations still try to manage everything internally.

As a result, engineers spend a disproportionate amount of time keeping systems running rather than improving them. Maintenance becomes the priority, and innovation is pushed aside due to limited bandwidth.

Offloading the Right Work, Not the Mission

The goal is not to replace internal teams. It is to offload the work that consumes time without delivering strategic value.

Activities like operating system patching, validating vendor-approved updates, monitoring systems overnight, or responding to a 2 a.m. alert are necessary, but they’re not the best use of an engineer’s expertise. When these responsibilities dominate the day-to-day workload, teams lose the ability to focus on performance improvements and long-term initiatives.

InSource’s approach is to draw clear boundaries around what it supports. The focus remains on the AVEVA technology stack, including data systems, historians, and MES environments, where deep expertise already exists. Lower-value but critical tasks such as patching, monitoring, and first-line response can be handled externally, allowing internal teams to stay focused on plant performance and continuous improvement.

Reducing Risk Through Proactive Support

Another area where manufacturers often struggle is risk management. Cybersecurity threats, system failures, and natural disasters are no longer edge cases. They are realities that require proactive preparation.

Disaster recovery is a clear example. Most organizations have some form of recovery strategy, but few have the redundancy and support needed when systems fail completely.

In one recent case, a customer’s systems were taken down by ransomware twice. They had to start from scratch. In moments like that, having a second line of defense and experienced support ready to step in can make a critical difference.

By maintaining offsite backups and providing recovery support without adding administrative friction, manufacturers gain resilience when they need it most.

Creating Time to Move Forward

Perhaps the most important outcome of offloading routine operational tasks is what teams can do with the time they gain back.

With reduced operational burden, teams can invest in training, explore new technologies, improve system performance, and pursue initiatives they otherwise would not have the bandwidth to tackle. Access to ongoing education and subject-matter expertise helps organizations not only maintain what they have but continuously improve it.

A Practical Path to Progress

As manufacturing systems continue to evolve, the organizations that succeed will be those that recognize where external support can create leverage. By treating OT support more like modern IT support, manufacturers can reduce risk, improve stability, and create space for innovation without overextending their teams.

OT environments now span historians, MES, analytics, and multiple vendors.
At what point does complexity start slowing progress instead of enabling it?

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