IT/OT Assessment Creates a Clearer Path for Automation Obsolescence Planning
E Tech Group helped a large food manufacturer gain visibility into more than 5,000 automation assets, identifying obsolescence risks and creating a data-driven roadmap for modernization and capital planning across multiple facilities.
Overview
A large food manufacturer operating nine facilities needed a more complete understanding of the automation and controls equipment installed across its plants. The company knew obsolete components were present, but inconsistent documentation and a mix of automation platforms made it difficult to understand the full scope of the problem. Without a clear view of its installed assets and obsolescence exposure, the company lacked the information needed to prioritize upgrades and direct capital toward the areas of greatest operational risk.
With limited internal resources available for a discovery effort of this scale, the manufacturer engaged E Tech Group to conduct an IT/OT Assessment focused on plant-floor automation asset inventory and obsolescence risk at one of its largest and most complex facilities. The assessment was designed to document the automation and controls components installed throughout the plant, identify the most significant areas of obsolescence exposure, and provide a clear data-driven foundation for prioritizing upgrades and capital investments.
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The Challenge
Incomplete Asset Documentation
Equipment documentation was often outdated or incomplete, and OEM drawings sometimes referenced proprietary part numbers rather than the manufacturer information needed to identify components accurately. That made determining what was installed, where it was located, and how urgently it should be addressed a time-intensive process.
Scale of the Discovery Effort
At the pilot facility alone, more than 5,000 automation and controls assets needed to be identified, reviewed, and organized. Repeating that discovery process across the manufacturer’s facilities would require hundreds to thousands of labor hours, and the client estimated that completing the work internally could take years. The manufacturer was not reacting to an active downtime event; it was working proactively to understand where aging and obsolete automation assets could create future production risk before failures forced emergency replacement decisions. Establishing full visibility would allow the organization to move from reactive obsolescence management to deliberate, risk-based capital planning.
The Solution
Multi-Vendor IT/OT Assessment
E Tech Group performed a detailed IT/OT Assessment of the pilot facility’s automation and controls environment, creating an organized automation asset inventory of the components supporting production equipment throughout the plant. Because the facility included multiple automation platforms including Rockwell, Schneider, and Siemens, the client needed an assessment that extended beyond a single manufacturer’s product line. Previous asset inventory work performed by an automation OEM had raised concerns about how thoroughly the non-OEM components were documented. E Tech Group took a multi-vendor approach, capturing components across the entire installed base environment.
Risk-Based Reporting for Capital Planning
The resulting documentation paired component information with photographs, providing an additional reference when catalog numbers, model numbers, serial numbers, or nameplate details were unclear. E Tech Group also organized the findings into charts, graphs, and visual risk indicators that made higher-priority obsolescence risks easier to identify and communicate to non-technical leadership.
Results
The comprehensive, multi-vendor IT/OT Assessment gave the manufacturer a complete, organized view of more than 5,000 automation and controls line items at the pilot facility. E Tech Group transformed the asset-level findings into a risk-based report designed to support both technical evaluation and business decision-making. Charts, graphs and visual indicators gave plant teams a detailed view of obsolescence exposure while helping nontechnical leadership quickly understand where the most significant vulnerabilities existed. This visibility provided a practical basis for deciding which issues to address first and aligning future capital investments with the areas of greatest operational risk.
Establishing an accurate picture of the installed automation environment not only supported immediate obsolescence planning but also positioned the organization to make more informed decisions about future controls modernization and next-generation technology investments.
Following the successful pilot, the manufacturer moved forward with plans for E Tech Group to conduct IT/OT Assessments at seven additional facilities as part of its broader obsolescence initiative.
Conclusion
The assessment delivered more than an inventory of installed assets. It provided the manufacturer with the visibility and confidence needed to proactively manage obsolescence risk, align capital spending with business priorities, and reduce uncertainty around future modernization efforts. With a repeatable methodology and a clearer understanding of automation vulnerabilities across the enterprise, the organization is better positioned to protect production, improve long-term reliability, and plan future technology investments strategically rather than reactively.