In industrial environments, an IT issue rarely stays as “just an IT incident”. If the ERP slows down, if the production server stops responding, or if the network starts showing latency, the impact moves straight to the shop floor: work orders that don’t print, traceability breaks, lines stop, and deliveries slip.
That’s why IT maintenance in industry can’t rely only on tickets when “something is already wrong”. In this practical case study you’ll see how a 24/7 monitoring service detected early signs of degradation and enabled action before the factory entered a production stoppage.
Alongside the story, you’ll take away a repeatable approach: what to monitor, how to define actionable alerts, and how to connect monitoring to a real preventive maintenance plan.
Quick summary (to decide in 30 seconds):
- 24/7 monitoring detected storage performance degradation before the shift started.
- Containment and remote remediation were applied using defined procedures (runbooks) and escalation.
- The factory started production normally, avoiding an incident that would have impacted ERP, labelling and traceability.
Why an IT failure in a factory turns into a production stoppage
In industry, IT is tightly linked to operations. We’re not just talking about “computers”, but systems that support production, logistics, quality and compliance. When one goes down, it often pulls entire processes with it.
The issue is the domino effect: an ERP outage can stop picking and dispatch, a storage issue can block traceability, and a network bottleneck can make a line “unusable” even though, on paper, it’s still running.
The key is to get ahead of it. Instead of acting when users are already blocked, modern IT maintenance aims to detect degradation signals (performance, capacity, errors) and fix them before the business notices.
What we mean by 24/7 monitoring within IT maintenance
24/7 monitoring is the ability to continuously measure and analyse the health of critical systems (servers, network, storage, applications and services) to detect anomalies and respond in time. It’s not “looking at charts”: it’s turning technical signals into operational decisions.
In practice, well-designed monitoring for industrial environments combines availability and performance, with impact-oriented alerts and a clear escalation process. The goal is simple: reduce the risk of stoppages and drastically shorten response time.
If you want to see how we deliver this as a service, here’s our page on 24/7 monitoring for businesses.
Typically, it includes:
- Availability monitoring (is it up?) and performance monitoring (is it healthy?).
- Threshold-based and behaviour-based alerts (when something “drifts” from normal).
- Escalation management (who acts, when, and how).
- Reporting to support preventive maintenance (avoiding repeat incidents).
The case context: a factory with hybrid IT and shift-based operations
This case reflects a very common scenario: a plant running shifts, usage peaks at the start of production, and heavy reliance on management and traceability systems. We won’t go into brands or specific configurations, because what matters is the risk pattern and how to prevent it.
Simplified environment to understand the impact:
- ERP and database for work orders, inventory and dispatch.
- File server for quality documentation, drawings and records.
- Virtualised infrastructure with shared storage (SAN/NAS).
- Segmented network (office/production) and printing/labelling services.
- Nightly backups and scheduled maintenance tasks.
The company already had a 24/7 IT maintenance model, and monitoring acted as a “radar” to detect problems before they hit the shift.
The incident: how 24/7 monitoring detected the issue before the shift
The key in this case isn’t that “there was a fault”, but that the system started to degrade progressively. That degradation is invisible if you only check “up or down”, but it becomes clear when you monitor critical metrics and their trends.
1) The early signal: increasing storage latency
Hours before the shift started, monitoring detected a pattern: storage write latency rose during overnight tasks and didn’t return to its baseline. It wasn’t a one-off spike, but a sign of degradation.
In a factory, that usually shows up as very specific symptoms once production begins:
- Slow ERP or intermittent lock-ups.
- Labelling that takes longer to print or gets stuck in a queue.
- Users “restarting” applications, making things worse.
- Higher risk of corruption if there are interruptions or forced reboots.
2) The actionable alert: correlation with abnormal usage and scheduled tasks
The alert wasn’t a generic “high CPU” or “disk at 90%”. It was designed to correlate signals: latency + I/O queue + abnormal log growth + low free space on a critical partition. That allowed the root cause to be narrowed quickly.
The cause was twofold: a failed log rotation and growth of temporary files, which were driving heavy writes during the overnight window. The system still “responded”, but it was already setting up a shift-time failure.
3) The response: containment and remediation before production
With the alert in place, the on-call engineer followed a defined runbook: containment first (stabilise), then remediation (remove the cause). This prevents improvisation and reduces time to recover normal levels.
- Space was freed and the rotation policy was corrected to prevent recurring growth.
- The scheduled task triggering heavy writes at the worst time was adjusted.
- Latency was verified to be back to normal before the shift started.
Result: the shift started normally. Most importantly, what didn’t happen: no ERP outage, no labelling stoppage, and traceability remained intact.
What was being monitored exactly (and why it worked)
24/7 monitoring works when it’s designed around business-critical services, not just “machines”. In this case, what was monitored directly matched what, if it fails, stops production.
Monitoring areas that made the difference:
- Storage: latency, IOPS, queue depth, free space, disk errors, growth trends.
- Virtualisation and servers: host health, sustained RAM/CPU (not spikes), snapshots, service status.
- Databases and ERP: availability, response times, queues and events.
- Network: latency, packet loss, saturated ports, errors, VLAN status and critical links.
- Operational services: printing/labelling, queues, access to production shares.
This approach becomes especially powerful when combined with a support and escalation model. If your business is considering strengthening operational control, it can fit with IT outsourcing for businesses.
How to design 24/7 monitoring that genuinely prevents stoppages
Many companies “monitor”, but still don’t prevent incidents because the essentials are missing: poorly defined alerts, too much noise, no escalation, or no procedures. 24/7 monitoring must be operational, not cosmetic.
Define critical services and what “normal” looks like
Before tools, answer: which processes cannot stop? From there, define the baseline (what is normal) and what counts as degradation. Without a baseline, everything looks “fine” until it’s too late.
- Which service directly impacts production.
- Which metrics anticipate failure (not just confirm it).
- Which thresholds or patterns trigger a real action.
Turn alerts into actions (less noise, more judgement)
A good alert should answer two questions: “what’s the impact?” and “what do we do now?”. If an alert doesn’t lead to a clear action, it gets ignored over time. And when an incident hits, no one trusts the alerts.
- Alerts by impact (service) and by cause (resource).
- Maintenance windows to reduce false positives.
- Event correlation to avoid overwhelming the team.
Define escalation and runbooks before the problem
The difference between a scare and a stoppage is often minutes. You win those minutes with clear escalation and written procedures: who acts, when internal IT is contacted, and when a task is stopped or a window is changed.
Integrate monitoring with preventive maintenance
If every alert is closed by “firefighting”, the risk comes back. Real value arrives when history becomes preventive action: reviewing overnight jobs, clean-up policies, capacity planning and stability improvements.
For a complete view of the approach, link to our pillar article: IT maintenance to guarantee operational continuity.
How to estimate avoided cost and justify the investment
You don’t need perfect numbers to make a decision, but you do need a method. The most useful way for leadership is to estimate the cost per hour of stoppage and multiply it by the time monitoring helps you avoid (or reduce).
Practical method for industrial environments:
- Stoppage cost/hour: unfulfilled production + idle staff + urgent workarounds + penalties.
- Hours avoided: how long the incident would have lasted without early detection.
- Indirect costs: rework, loss of traceability, scrap, reputation.
In many cases, 24/7 monitoring pays for itself by preventing one or two meaningful incidents per year. Above all, it brings predictability: fewer surprises and more control over operational continuity.
Quick checklist: signs your factory needs 24/7 monitoring
If several points sound familiar, you may be closer to an outage than you think. This checklist helps prioritise what to tackle first within IT maintenance.
- The ERP is “slow” first thing or right after nightly backups.
- Label printers fail or queues get stuck.
- Storage capacity is tight and only expanded “when possible”.
- There are uncontrolled scheduled tasks (scripts, clean-ups, exports).
- There is no real on-call cover, or escalation is improvised.
- Incidents are discovered by users, not by alerts.
- There’s no history to see trends, only “gut feel”.
- Plant and office networks are managed as if they were the same.
How Inmove IT Solutions helps you prevent stoppages with IT maintenance
At IMHO Inmove IT Solutions, we deliver IT maintenance with operational continuity in mind: detect earlier, act faster, and prevent recurrence. 24/7 monitoring is a key part, always within a model that includes procedures, escalation and reporting.
Depending on your environment (on-prem, hybrid, multi-site), we can help with:
- 24/7 monitoring to detect anomalies before impact.
- 24/7 support and maintenance with escalation and runbooks.
- IT outsourcing to complement or strengthen your internal team.
Want to reduce stoppage risk and gain real visibility of your infrastructure? Tell us about your case and we’ll propose a monitoring and maintenance approach aligned to your operations.
Frequently asked questions about 24/7 monitoring in factories
These questions often come up when an industrial business wants to professionalise IT maintenance without complicating day-to-day operations. The answers help align expectations and define a realistic scope.
Does 24/7 monitoring replace my internal IT team?
Not necessarily. It can act as reinforcement (detection, on-call, escalation) while your team focuses on projects and improvements. It can also be a hybrid model: you decide what stays in-house and what’s outsourced.
What’s the difference between 24/7 monitoring and “having alerts”?
Standalone alerts often create noise and fatigue. A well-designed 24/7 monitoring service includes correlation, context-based thresholds, escalation and operating procedures so every alert becomes a response.
What should you monitor first in a factory?
Start with what stops production: ERP/database, storage, critical network, printing/labelling services and authentication. Then expand to performance, trends, capacity and events to support preventive action.
Does 24/7 monitoring also help with cybersecurity?
Yes. While the primary goal here is continuity, continuous visibility helps detect abnormal behaviour (consumption spikes, services stopping, repeated errors). As a formal reference, NIST covers the concept of “continuous monitoring” in its glossary: Information Security Continuous Monitoring (ISCM).
