Third-party access in manufacturing: Managing vendors and associated risk
Manufacturers rely on vendors to keep operations running, but every connection introduces risk. Here’s how to manage third-party access with greater visibility, control, and confidence.
Walk through any modern manufacturing operation, and you’ll quickly see how much of it depends on external partners. Vendors maintain equipment, update software, monitor systems remotely, and keep supply chains moving. In many cases, they are as essential to production as internal teams.
But every connection that keeps operations running also introduces risk.
For IT and security leaders, vendor management has become a balancing act. Organizations need to enable fast, reliable access for third parties while maintaining control over systems, data, and compliance obligations. That balance is getting harder to maintain as environments grow more complex.
The expanding role of vendors—and the risks that follow
Manufacturers are relying on more vendors than ever before. Industry 4.0 initiatives, increased connectivity, and the convergence of IT and operational technology have created environments where external access is routine.
What used to be occasional, tightly controlled access is now continuous and distributed. Vendors log in remotely to troubleshoot systems, apply updates, or manage specialized applications. Some require privileged access. Others move in and out of environments frequently, depending on project needs or shift schedules.
This scale introduces a fundamental challenge: visibility.
Many organizations cannot confidently answer basic questions about third-party access. Who has access right now? What systems can they reach? When was that access last reviewed? These gaps make vendor risk difficult to quantify, let alone reduce.
The issue is not just the number of vendors. It’s the way access is managed…often across disconnected systems, manual processes, and outdated assumptions about trust.
The scale of this challenge is becoming clearer across the industry:
- Digital literacy is a top skill gap among frontline workers, making ease of use in identity authentication essential for adoption
- Top objectives for IT/OT security investment include improving operational reliability (37%), increasing employee productivity (30%), mitigating risk (25%), and ensuring compliance (17%)
- 80% of manufacturers report increased demand for identity and access management solutions
- 32% struggle with managing contractors and third-party access
Why traditional vendor management breaks down
In theory, vendor onboarding and access control follow a clear path. A request is submitted, access is granted, and permissions are reviewed periodically. In practice, manufacturing environments rarely operate that cleanly.
Legacy systems coexist with modern applications. Shared workstations are common on the plant floor. Contractors rotate in and out of roles. Compliance requirements continue to evolve, particularly for organizations working within regulated supply chains such as those tied to CMMC 2.0.
Under these conditions, manual approaches begin to fail. Spreadsheets fall out of date. Access reviews become inconsistent. Offboarding is delayed or overlooked. Over time, permissions accumulate, creating unnecessary exposure.
Even organizations with strong security intentions find themselves reacting to risk rather than proactively managing it.
Moving toward continuous vendor risk assessment
A more effective approach starts with treating third-party access as dynamic, not static.
Rather than relying on periodic reviews, organizations are shifting toward continuous vendor risk assessment. Access decisions are informed not just by role, but by context—what the vendor is doing, when they are doing it, and whether that behavior aligns with expectations.
This shift aligns closely with zero-trust principles. No user, internal or external, is implicitly trusted. Access is verified, limited, and monitored at every step.
However, zero-trust alone does not solve the operational challenge. It requires systems that can provide real-time visibility and adapt quickly as conditions change.
This is where capabilities like a centralized risk module become valuable. By analyzing access patterns and flagging anomalies, organizations can identify potential issues earlier and respond with precision rather than broad restrictions.
The importance of automation and centralization
As vendor ecosystems grow, scale becomes the defining factor. Processes that work for ten vendors break down with fifty or one hundred.
Automation plays a critical role in maintaining control without adding administrative burden. When vendor onboarding, access provisioning, and deprovisioning are automated, organizations reduce the likelihood of human error and improve consistency across workflows.
At the same time, a centralized approach to vendor data becomes essential. A reliable central vendor database provides a single source of truth for who has access, what they can access, and why. This supports stronger compliance management and simplifies audit preparation.
Without centralization, even well-designed policies are difficult to enforce.
Security that supports, rather than slows, operations
Manufacturing environments operate under constant pressure to maintain uptime. Delays have real consequences, from missed production targets to financial loss.
Security controls that introduce friction often lead to workarounds. Credentials get shared. Sessions remain open longer than they should. Over time, these behaviors increase risk in ways that are difficult to detect.
The goal is not simply to restrict access, but to shape it in a way that aligns with how work actually happens.
That means enabling fast, appropriate access for vendors while maintaining clear boundaries and accountability. It also means ensuring that access can be adjusted or revoked immediately when conditions change.
In increasingly connected OT environments, where vulnerabilities can have cascading effects, this balance is critical.
Rethinking vendor management for modern manufacturing
Vendor access is no longer a peripheral concern. It sits at the intersection of cybersecurity, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance.
Organizations that approach vendor management as a continuous, identity-driven process are better positioned to manage this complexity. They gain clearer visibility into access, stronger control over permissions, and greater confidence in their ability to respond to risk.
Just as importantly, they create an environment where security supports the business rather than competing with it.
In manufacturing, where systems are interconnected and downtime is costly, that distinction matters.
To see how manufacturers are addressing third-party access and vendor risk with a more unified, identity-centric approach, explore our manufacturing solutions.