GrayMatter Expands SmartSights Partnership to Deliver Greater Value to Industrial Customers
April 16, 2026GrayMatter Expands SmartSights Partnership to Deliver Greater Value to Industrial Customers
April 16, 2026GRAYMATTER'S FACTORY TRANSFORMATION POV
You're Not Closing the IT/OT Gap, You’re Moving It
By John Baier, VP, Factory Transformation Services
When people talk about “closing the gap” in manufacturing that stalls factory transformation projects, they usually jump straight to a discussion about technology.
“We need AI.”
“We need better analytics.”
“Let’s put in an MES.”
“We just need dashboards.”
“Let’s connect all the machines.”
“We should automate this.”
“Let’s digitize the workflow.”
I hear versions of that in almost every conversation, and while none of those things are wrong moves by themselves, they all start with technology solutions before anyone has clearly defined what outcome they’re trying to change or how the operation needs to run differently.
Technology First Thinking Problem
The true gap is usually in aligning people’s goals and processes across IT and OT.
In my experience, I have seen technology solutions deployed into manufacturing operations with the best of intentions, but they fail immediately or spiral quickly.
Why? It's often a product of over-engineering solutions onto unstable processes.
I have seen this with Level 3 solutions (MES/MOM layer) that fail due to a technical solution that was engineered on boardroom whiteboards that are removed from the factory floor.
I have also seen the "cast the data net wide and deep" approach to IIoT and data collection, without thinking about why and where the data is to be used to change outcomes.
Misaligned Systems and Reality
It’s not a new problem, but it is a chronic one that’s a result of how manufacturing investment has evolved. Operations grew up on a steady diet of keeping the plant running, while IT focused on bringing the latest and greatest systems and data to office workers. Those priorities created gaps across people, process, technology and data, and what we’re seeing these days is those gaps becoming visible as those two worlds are forced to come together to reconcile the gaps.
On the plant floor, it is common that you’re dealing with aging assets. You’re dealing with margin pressure. You’re dealing with decisions that are driven by cost, not always by long-term productivity or process stability.
I’ve walked into facilities where operators are still physically checking analog gauges because the investment to modernize hasn’t made financial sense in a low-margin environment. And honestly, that’s rational behavior when you’re making fractions of a cent per unit.
Now, as soon as you start talking about plant floor data, analytics, AI, anything that requires IT and OT to come together, you feel that gap immediately. It’s a difference in how people think, how decisions get made and what success looks like. And if you don’t recognize that going in, you end up trying to solve a structural problem with a technical fix, and that’s where things start to break down.
People Process Alignment Gap
Companies don’t typically do the work to align how people work, how processes flow and how decisions are made.
And when that happens, you don’t close the gap, you just move it.
It moves into operators making decisions that don’t align with a new system’s recommendations. Or it means different sites implement changes different and so you get a spectrum of outcomes. In the end, you’ve ended up with better technology, but the operation is still running the same way.
I always come back to outcome-based thinking. If you’re not defining the outcome you’re trying to achieve, and putting KPIs around it, you’re not actually solving anything. You’re just adding tools.
And those tools won’t stick.
I’ve seen a technically sound solutions fail because:
Operators weren’t brought through the change, processes didn’t adapt to the new capability or processes were designed on the ‘screen’ and not reflecting the reality of the production process the data wasn’t trusted
That’s the failure mode.
Outcome Driven Transformation Approach
Closing the gap means thinking holistically. You have to address all four pillars together, people, process, technology and data, or you’re going to end up with something that looks good on paper and doesn’t work in practice.
The other piece that gets often overlooked is scalability.
If you’re a multi-site organization, you can’t afford 31 flavors of solutions. You need something that can be supported, trained and scaled across the enterprise.
Otherwise, you’re just creating new gaps as fast as you’re closing old ones.
Closing the gap isn’t about chasing the next technology. It’s about aligning how the operation actually runs and making sure every change drives a measurable outcome.
If you don’t do that, the gap never really closes.
The true gap is usually in aligning people’s goals and processes across IT and OT.
1
Start with outcomes, not tools
If you’re not defining what needs to change and how success is measured, technology just adds noise.
- Define 1–2 clear business outcomes (throughput, downtime, quality, etc.)
- Establish KPIs before selecting any platform or tool
- Align stakeholders on what success actually looks like
- Avoid “solution-first” conversations in early stages
GRAYMATTER'S INSIDER TAKE
The fastest way to stall a project is to start with a platform decision instead of a KPI—teams end up optimizing the tool, not the outcome.
2
Align people and processes first
Most failures happen when new systems are layered onto workflows that were never designed to support them.
- Map current-state workflows across roles and shifts
- Identify where decisions are made and by whom
- Redesign processes to incorporate new capabilities
- Train teams on how their roles will change, not just the system
GRAYMATTER'S INSIDER TAKE
We consistently see strong technology underperform because operators and supervisors weren’t brought into how decisions would actually change day-to-day.
3
Design for the plant floor reality
Solutions built in isolation from operations rarely hold up under real production conditions.
- Account for variability (shift changes, manual workarounds, downtime)
- Build systems that support how work actually gets done
- Pilot in real conditions, not controlled environments
GRAYMATTER'S INSIDER TAKE
Whiteboard-perfect architectures tend to break at shift change. If it doesn’t match how the plant really runs, it won’t stick.
4
Think enterprise scale early
If it can’t be standardized, supported and repeated across sites, you’re just creating new gaps.
- Define standards for data, processes and systems upfront
- Ensure solutions can be supported by internal teams
- Build with repeatability across sites in mind
- Avoid one-off customizations that can’t scale
GRAYMATTER'S INSIDER TAKE
One-off wins at a single site often become long-term liabilities when there’s no clear path to scale, support, or train across the network.
Factory Transformation
GrayMatter’s Factory Transformation offering helps businesses enhance efficiency, visibility and security.
It starts with a strategic roadmap, deploying IIoT solutions for real-time monitoring and automation.
Teams gain intuitive tools and predictive analytics to optimize performance, while continuous support and cybersecurity ensure long-term resilience and compliance.