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06/06/2026 11:22 am
TL;DR: Manufacturing organisations are under pressure to secure shared devices without slowing production, with 80% reporting increased demand for IAM solutions and 32% struggling to manage contractor and third-party access, according to Imprivata’s analysis of IDC data. The core issue is not missing controls but controls that do not fit factory-floor workflows, where friction invites credential sharing and bypasses accountability.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Imprivata: shared devices, access management, and manufacturing workflow risk
By the numbers:
- 80% of manufacturers report increased demand for identity and access management solutions.
- 32% struggle with managing contractors and third-party access.
- Leading manufacturers are 58% more likely than peers to use user and device authentication solutions.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams govern access on shared devices in manufacturing environments?
A: Security teams should treat shared-device access as a workflow problem, not just an authentication problem.
Q: Why do shared workstations create more access risk than individual endpoints?
A: Shared workstations blur the link between identity, device, and activity.
Q: What breaks when contractor access is not tightly governed on the factory floor?
A: Contractor access breaks accountability when the identity lifecycle is not explicit.
Practitioner guidance
- Map every shared workstation to a defined identity handoff flow Document how a worker signs in, switches users, ends a session, and hands the device to the next operator.
- Shorten reauthentication paths without removing accountability Use authentication flows that fit production tempo, but keep a verifiable link between each action and the active user.
- Apply strict lifecycle controls to contractor access Set explicit start and end dates, limit scope to the task at hand, and revoke access when the work window closes.
What's in the full article
Imprivata's full analysis covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- IDC-backed breakdown of why leading manufacturers are investing in user and device authentication
- Practical framing for managing shared workstations across shift changes and mixed user populations
- Discussion of how digital literacy gaps affect authentication adoption on the factory floor
- Source context on balancing operational reliability, productivity, risk, and compliance in manufacturing access design
👉 Read Imprivata's analysis of shared-device access management in manufacturing →
Shared device access on the factory floor: what IAM teams miss?
Explore further
06/06/2026 12:08 pm
Shared-device access is a workflow governance problem before it is an authentication problem. The article shows that manufacturing teams are not struggling because controls are absent, but because the control model assumes stable device ownership and a single user per endpoint. That assumption fails on a factory floor where stations are reused, workers rotate, and production pressure rewards shortcuts. Practitioners should treat shared-device identity as a design constraint, not an exception.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Lack of credential rotation is cited as the top cause of NHI-related attacks by 45% of organisations, followed by inadequate monitoring and logging (37%) and over-privileged accounts (37%), according to The State of Non-Human Identity Security.
- Only 1.5 out of 10 organisations are highly confident in their ability to secure NHIs, compared with nearly 1 in 4 for securing human identities.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who is accountable when a shared-device access process fails compliance or audit review?
A: Accountability sits with the organisation that owns the device, the access policy, and the lifecycle process. In practice, that usually means IAM, OT security, and operations must share responsibility for the control design. If any one of them treats shared-device access as someone else’s problem, gaps will remain.
👉 Read our full editorial: Shared device identity management is reshaping factory-floor access
