Why Manufacturing is Important to Blue Team Tom Consulting.

I wanted to share a little about me and why the manufacturing space is so important to me and my business, Blue Team Tom Consulting. I want this blog post to be more about the importance to me, instead of trying to sell services. If you want to learn more about the Manufacturing attacks, read https://www.blueteamtom.com/post/why-manufacturers-are-big-targets-in-2026

Starting at age 10, I helped my father for the better half of 25 years who owned a machine shop business until his passing in 2022. My fathers main focus was designing machines for manufacturing companies. My fathers company was called Manufacturing Technologies, Inc. or MTech for short.

My father designed some truly remarkable machines, and I am grateful to have played a part in building them. We built machines that glued mattresses together. Built machines that put items in plastic containers, and built hand-railings for bathtubs & showers (you know, in case you slipped). We built a machine that glued cereal boxes together, and another machine for the US Army. I'll put some pictures below on what I can share.

I learned so much from working in this industry from how to be safe around machinery, welding, to working with my hands, being a team player, and thinking critically. More than that, this line of work taught me that no matter what you want to do with your life and no matter your goal you can achieve it. You can make it happen with making effort. I am truly proud of some of the things that my father designed.

Sadly, most of the people I worked with back at this company are no longer on this earth but each and every person helped me grow and taught me something of value. Skills that I hope to pass onto my children one day.

This was my first job. This is a job I continued part-time through college and while I worked full-time in the cybersecurity space. This job was more than a job to me because I got to spend time with my dad doing something that made him happy. My father enjoyed trying to figure out how things could work better and had a real knack for it. I credit him for my ability to be so good at breaking (and fixing) software when I did QA (quality assurance) earlier in my career and for allowing me to think, not just why but how things work.

So Why is Manufacturing Important to Me?

The biggest reason is, this is where I got my start. I learned to weld at this company. I learned to drive forklifts in the parking lot (even had a forklift race or two). I learned to drive a manual transmission car at this company. I know the machines and people running these machines. I know what it is like to work, sweat, curse, bleed at this type of job. This job made me successful because the lessons I learned carried on with me everywhere else. This is why I want to give back to the space that made me who I am today.

Helping manufacturing companies out with their cybersecurity needs makes me feel like I am helping my father again, and that is a good feeling.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2b48ec_2b51a5e8e91e47d8b0c605e1c22f0307/480p/mp4/file.mp4

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2b48ec_b1637feb1bae455ab639c56a302f9d55/480p/mp4/file.mp4