Manual inventory traps organizations in spreadsheet management where engineers waste time with clipboards instead of focusing on production and safety. Automated discovery creates tension - active querying risks tripping production units, while passive discovery delivers incomplete results. Most organizations freeze at centralized inventory, missing opportunities for life cycle management and vulnerability response.

Success requires safe active querying using native device protocols, tested in demo environments before production. Centralized inventory becomes actionable when integrated with systems that manage obsolescence, changes and total cost of ownership, enabling clear patch decisions based on production impact.

In this session, Mike Satzger of ServiceNow will share insights on:

• Safe active querying using native protocols that discover assets without causing production downtime;
• Phased approach from manual spreadsheets to actionable life cycle asset management;
• Production line mapping that shows equipment dependencies and ownership across plants.