A 150-employee precision machining company in southeastern Wisconsin was facing increasing OT/IT convergence risks. Flat networks, unpatched HMIs, and zero segmentation between CNC controllers and corporate systems put production and compliance at risk.
The company operated 40+ networked devices on the production floor — CNC machines, PLCs, HMIs, SCADA monitoring stations, and environmental sensors — all sharing a single flat network with corporate workstations, email, and ERP systems.
A ransomware incident at a peer manufacturer in the region was the wake-up call. Leadership realized that a single compromised email attachment could propagate laterally into production systems, potentially bricking CNC controllers and halting output for days or weeks.
Adding urgency: the company was pursuing defense contracts requiring CMMC Level 2 certification. Their existing network architecture would not pass an audit.
Within 10 weeks of engagement, the manufacturer achieved full OT/IT network segmentation following the Purdue Model. Production systems were isolated from corporate infrastructure, and micro-segmentation prevented lateral movement between CNC controller groups.
Since project completion, the company has experienced zero unplanned downtime from IT-related incidents. Their CMMC Level 2 documentation package was accepted by the assessment organization, and they successfully won two new defense contracts within six months.
"Collett Systems didn't just put in a firewall and call it done. They understood our production environment — they walked the floor, identified every connected device, and built a network architecture that protects our CNC controllers without slowing down production. We passed our CMMC audit on the first attempt."
— VP of Operations, Precision Manufacturer, Southeastern Wisconsin
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