Manufacturing is the backbone of national economies and key to global stability. From defense and energy to healthcare and logistics, the products and processes of this sector underpin nearly every other critical industry.
The last few years have disrupted supply chains and changed the face of the manufacturing workforce. Today, retaining skilled talent is harder than ever, and as Thales research, B2B IAM – The Hidden Value of Third-Party Identities explains, many firms now rely heavily on gig workers, contractors, and third-party vendors to keep operations moving.
Here’s the challenge: managing the ever-increasing volume of external identities isn’t as simple as handing out a badge and a login. Without the right systems, it’s easy to lose control over who has access to what and for how long.
B2B Identity and Access Management (IAM) enables manufacturers to securely onboard and offboard third parties at scale—without sacrificing agility. It introduces smarter, scalable access mechanisms that protect dynamic environments where external workforces are constantly changing.
What Is B2B IAM?
B2B IAM controls how external entities—suppliers, contractors, distributors, service providers, and industrial partners—gain and manage access to a manufacturer’s systems and data. This is important, considering that a recent survey found that the top challenge when onboarding external identities for 79% of respondents was security consistency across workforce/non-workforce IDs.
B2B IAM solves this challenge, delivering the tools needed to:
- Authenticate external identities securely
- Assign access rights based on contextual relationships
- Orchestrate lifecycle management for partners and users
- Monitor, audit, and adapt access based on real-time risk
In manufacturing, B2B IAM is not a technical function but a strategic control layer for managing trust across sprawling operational and digital ecosystems.
Manufacturing Needs B2B IAM—Now More Than Ever
The modernization of manufacturing has created fertile ground for bad actors. Cloud adoption, remote work, and connected supply chains smash the boundaries between internal and external access. Meanwhile, the convergence of IT and OT has exposed legacy control systems to risks they were never designed to withstand.
Malicious actors understand the opportunity. Gaining footholds through stolen credentials, often from a compromised contractor account, allows lateral movement in the network. They can then elevate privilege and move from business to operational systems, which can be used to spread ransomware, steal IP, or even disrupt physical processes.
The Colonial Pipeline attack perfectly exemplifies this: malefactors leveraged weaknesses in access management, not zero-days.
The Core Capabilities of Modern B2B IAM
To meet the unique demands of manufacturing, B2B IAM has to be more than a login portal. It must be built for scale, complexity, and operational nuance. Key capabilities should include:
Delegation and Lifecycle Management
Manufacturers often work with partners who manage their own teams. Delegated administration allows those partners to control access for their users within defined boundaries. Using self-service tools, they can onboard new users, update roles, and remove access without routing every change through internal IT.
This model improves efficiency and ensures access reflects real-time responsibilities. Lifecycle policies, such as automatic expiration or role-based deprovisioning, help keep access clean and aligned with project timelines.
Flexible Third-Party Onboarding and Access
Manufacturers work with a wide range of partners, from large suppliers with enterprise identity systems to smaller vendors and contractors without formal identity infrastructure. A modern B2B IAM platform must support all of these scenarios.
Federated identity allows partners to authenticate using their own organization's credentials. For those without an identity provider, secure onboarding is handled through policy-based access controls and automated lifecycle management. In every case, single sign-on (SSO) provides consistent, streamlined access across systems such as PLM platforms, supplier portals, and quality control tools. External users get the right access without multiple logins, and security teams retain full visibility and control.
Fine-Grained Authorization
RBAC grants access based on roles like engineer or contractor, but it falls short in complex, changing environments. ABAC adds context by using attributes like location or time, while ReBAC accounts for business relationships.
Together, these models enable precise, flexible access control. A supplier can access only the files tied to their parts, while a contractor sees data for a specific site. This layered approach keeps collaboration secure and efficient.
Adaptive Authentication and Risk-Based Access
Not all access attempts are equal. A login from a trusted supplier at their usual location shouldn’t face the same scrutiny as a late-night access request from a new device in a high-risk country. Adaptive authentication uses real-time signals to challenge anomalous behavior while keeping low-risk interactions smooth and efficient. This keeps authentication balanced, improving security without adding unnecessary friction.
The Strategic Benefits of B2B IAM in Manufacturing
B2B IAM helps manufacturers solve their access challenges and brings many benefits. These include:
Operational Resilience
In a sector where downtime has a roll-on effect, B2B IAM boosts resilience by ensuring that only the right people have the proper access at the right time. It limits the risk of insider threats and external breaches that could halt production lines and revenue.
Protection of Intellectual Property
Designs, schematics, formulas, and manufacturing processes are chock-full of high-value IP. With B2B IAM, granular access controls—whether based on roles, attributes, or both— prevent unauthorized access or sensitive data leakage, even when working with third parties.
Regulatory Compliance
From CMMC in the defense sector to ISO 27001 and NIS2, compliance frameworks stress identity and access controls. B2B IAM brings the auditability, policy enforcement, and governance manufacturers need to meet and maintain compliance.
Ecosystem Enablement
Manufacturers depend on a network of partners to co-develop products, manage logistics, and provide support. B2B IAM allows this ecosystem to function securely, streamlining access for trusted collaborators while keeping strict boundaries.
B2B IAM as a Foundation for Trusted Growth
The manufacturing sector is where innovation meets exposure. While operations are going digital, supply chains are going global, and cyber-attacks are becoming more powerful, B2B IAM moves from nice-to-have to must-have. Forward-thinking manufacturers are integrating IAM into their digital transformation strategies, not as an afterthought but as a strategic enabler.
By creating trust among people, systems, and devices with no horizon in sight, B2B IAM allows manufacturers to act with agility, confidence, and mastery.
Author:
Jose Caso, B2B IAM at Thales, is a seasoned product professional with over 15 years of experience in software development, product management, and product marketing. He specializes in aligning technical and business goals to deliver solutions that meet evolving client needs. With a background spanning physical security, cybersecurity, and enterprise solutions, Jose focuses on driving innovation that keeps businesses competitive in a dynamic market.
