Case Study 03 · Manufacturing & Logistics IT · McKinney

Internal vs. outsourced IT for a McKinney manufacturer & distributor

8 min read·Updated June 2026·37 Forge · McKinney TX

A contract manufacturer and distributor in McKinney runs a plant in Garland and a distribution warehouse in Mesquite, with about 120 employees across the shop floor and front office. Technology was handled by a maintenance-savvy plant engineer who picked up IT along the way, backed by a break-fix shop. The ERP and MES, the shop-floor PCs, the barcode scanners, and the warehouse-management system all ran, so IT stayed in the background.

That ended on an ordinary Tuesday. A ransomware email opened on a shared shop-floor workstation encrypted a file server, and the line ran on paper for a day while a partial backup was restored. The post-incident review found the real problem underneath: a flat network with no segmentation between the office and the shop-floor and OT systems, so one click could reach everything. The plant engineer, capable as he was, had never had time to design around that.

In manufacturing, downtime is not an inconvenience, it is the cost. Every hour the line is stopped means missed just-in-time orders and customer-SLA penalties, and manufacturing is now the most-targeted sector for ransomware precisely because that pressure makes companies more likely to pay. Leadership asked the question many growing McKinney manufacturers reach: is one in-house generalist still enough, or does the plant need an outsourced IT partner built around uptime and security?

Distribution warehouse for a McKinney manufacturer Truck fleet at a Collin County distribution yard Production floor at a McKinney manufacturer
Photos: Unsplash
The short answer

For a single small shop, a hands-on plant engineer can cover the basics. Once a McKinney manufacturer runs multiple shifts, a warehouse, and connected shop-floor systems, an outsourced IT partner delivers security, network segmentation, and around-the-clock coverage that protects uptime, usually at a lower total cost than a dedicated in-house hire.

Internal IT vs. outsourced IT, side by side

Internal IT1 Generalist
Strengths
Knows the shop floor, the machines, and how the line runs
On-site for quick fixes between maintenance rounds
Full control in-house, with no outside vendor involved
Where it strains
When that person is out, there is no coverage for either site
Security and network segmentation get handled between maintenance tasks
No after-hours monitoring, so intrusions surface only when the line stops
One generalist can't specialize in OT networks, ERP, cloud, and security at once
External / Outsourced ITManaged Provider
What changes
Round-the-clock monitoring that catches most issues before the line stops
Separate specialists for security, networking, OT/shop floor, and cloud
Someone responds to after-hours security alerts the same night
Segmented networks, tested backups, and a documented recovery plan
Coverage does not depend on any single person being available
Trade-offs
Support comes through a help desk rather than one person on the floor
An onboarding period to learn the plant's systems and workflows

The verdict, dimension by dimension

Dimension
Internal IT
External IT
Total cost of ownership
Salary + benefits + tools
25–45% less
Security & resilience
Side-duty
Segmentation + tested recovery
Scalability
Hire to grow
Add a line or site, no hire
After-hours coverage
Business hours
24 / 7 / 365
Day-one familiarity
Knows the floor
Short ramp
Net verdictExternal IT comes out ahead

Why the stakes are higher in manufacturing IT

#1
Most-targeted sector for ransomware, 2024
$125K/hr
Up to, in industrial unplanned downtime
65%
Of manufacturers hit by ransomware in 2024
11.6 days
Average ransomware downtime for manufacturers
The 37 Forge difference

How 37 Forge wins

An outside team only helps if it shows up like part of yours. 37 Forge gives a Collin County plant the depth of a specialist team while keeping the things people value about having someone in-house.

We actually pick up
A local Collin County team answers the phone and responds the same day, including after hours.
Built for the shop floor
Experience with OT and shop-floor networks, ERP and warehouse systems, network segmentation, and keeping the line running.
Engineers who learn your plant
You work with the same people over time, so you keep the familiarity of in-house without the single-person risk.
Not sure how exposed your plant is? Get a free, no-obligation IT and downtime-risk assessment.
Request your assessment
Figures are drawn from published industry benchmarks and applied to a representative scenario. They illustrate the stakes and are not a guarantee of results.
[1] Comparitech, ransomware in manufacturing ($1.9M/day, 11.6 days): comparitech.com/blog/information-security/ransomware-manufacturing-companies  ·  [2] IBM Cost of a Data Breach, industrial sector ($125K/hr): ibm.com/think/insights/cost-of-a-data-breach-industrial-sector  ·  [3] Group-IB / Sophos, manufacturing ransomware 2024: stationx.net/articles/ransomware-statistics