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A computer production line at one of the factories of a multinational electronics supplier suddenly stopped several hours after a configuration change and upgrade of the control system. The operation, which was running fully automatically based on orders from the e-shop and the SAP ERP system, stopped when the data transfer between the information systems crashed.
In the end, I had to cancel everything and order elsewhere
The key part of the IT infrastructure did not fail immediately, but after a gradual, imperceptible slowdown in the production, which was caused by the overload of the production line's application interfaces with incorrect data messages that the IT specialists did not pay attention to, so the IT specialists only found out about it after several hours. The company subsequently faced massive financial losses. Hundreds of orders were left unprocessed.
“They confirmed my order. I paid for it. But the computer never arrived,” said an angry customer who had purchased a high-performance gaming setup. “The worst part is that no one could tell me when I would receive my computer. In the end, I had to cancel everything and order elsewhere.”
Another customer expressed similar frustration on social media:
“I waited for several days, but I got tired of it. I canceled my order,” he wrote in his post. “If the company’s technology is this unreliable, how can I trust that something like this won’t happen again?”
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack
Immediately after the failure, company employees tried to determine what could have caused the complete breakdown of the digital supply chain. A combination of the configuration change, the upgrade of the production line’s control system, and the subsequent failure of one of the data links between the ERP system and the production line’s control computer brought the entire production to a standstill. An IT specialist involved in the all-day troubleshooting effort described the tense situation:
“We sat by the servers searching for the error for eight long hours. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said. “In the end, it turned out that the failure occurred in the module responsible for transmitting production orders from the ERP system to the production line’s control computer. The fix was quite complex—we had to restore a partially corrupted database and reestablish communication.”
Everything is falling apart, and once we lose customer trust, it will be extremely difficult to win them back
The company was assessing its losses, which extended beyond the financial impact of undelivered or delayed goods. Customer criticism on social media had long-term consequences. The company’s sales representative, responsible for handling orders and complaints, expressed serious concerns:
“We are currently behind schedule with all our orders. We are losing not only revenue but, more importantly, our reputation. I receive multiple calls from angry customers every day demanding immediate delivery or requesting order cancellations and refunds,” the sales representative stated. “Everything is falling apart, and once we lose customer trust, it will be extremely difficult to win them back.”
Pressure also mounted from company management. The production manager, reacting to the situation, did not rule out an internal investigation:
“We need to determine whether this was a case of human error, poor system maintenance, or an external failure that harmed us. In any case, this is a major issue for the company,” he said. “We already know of several major customers who are re-evaluating their partnership because of this incident.”
We lost hundreds of thousands of dollars for every hour of downtime
The company owner was equally critical, expressing his frustration and not ruling out legal action:
“We lost hundreds of thousands of dollars for every hour of downtime, and that amount could increase several times over. We are looking for the culprit. It is unacceptable to me that a single communication error between systems could shut down the entire operation,” he said firmly. “We are considering further investments in monitoring and predictive tools that could prevent such failures in the future.”
Experts point out that the production line could have been protected by a predictive monitoring system that would have detected deviations in data transmission in time and prevented the outage.
One such solution is Qeedio – Process Guard, which can detect anomalies and alert personnel before a failure actually occurs. Are you worried about a similar incident? Contact us!
