Why Circular Manufacturing Needs an Incident Response Playbook?

Circular manufacturing is a sustainable production model that emphasizes the continuous reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling of materials to minimize waste and environmental impact. It is part of the broader concept of the circular economy, which aims to create a closed-loop system where products and materials are kept in use for as long as possible. 

Circular manufacturing is no longer just a sustainability talking point. It’s changing how factories, supply chains, and product life cycles are managed. Instead of the old mass manufacturing model, the focus is on reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, and recycling. 

You don’t have to look far to see it in practice.  

Breweries turn nearly 85% of their solid by-product, which is leftover grain, into animal feed, compost, or protein bars. Plastic manufacturers collect used PET bottles and reuse them in new packaging. In North America, about 29% of PET bottles are recycled, and many brands are increasing the recycled content in their products. 

The payoff is clear: lower costs, less dependence on raw materials, and better resilience when supply chains are strained. A 2024 survey of 420 global manufacturing leaders found that more than 70% of manufacturing executives believe circular models to boost revenue by 2027, while nearly two-thirds believe they will improve operational resilience. 

But there’s a catch. The very systems that enable circularity, such as remote diagnostics, cloud analytics, and global aftermarket parts pipelines, also create more points of failure. A single weak link can quickly impact the entire chain. That’s why manufacturers need more than preventive controls. In the context of IT strategy, they need a cybersecurity incident response playbook to act quickly when things go wrong. 

What’s an Incident Response Playbook? 

An incident response plan is similar to a fire drill for your factory. It outlines the steps to follow when a disruption occurs. It answers three areas every team needs to address in a crisis: 

• Who acts? 

• When do they act? 

• How do they act? 

Other industries already lean on incident response playbooks to keep their systems running.

In healthcare, playbooks kick in when cyberattacks threaten electronic health records or diagnostic systems. The goal is simple: contain the problem, switch to backups, and make sure patient care continues without interruption.

Manufacturing is heading in the same direction. In circular operations, a cyber incident can bring production, logistics, or supplier systems to a halt, disrupting supply chain and cutting into margins.

What a Good Incident Response Playbook Looks Like 

The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Incident Response Lifecycle outlines four key phases every organization should follow: Preparation, Detection & Analysis, Containment/Eradication/Recovery, and Post-Incident Activity. A strong playbook for manufacturers should align with these steps:

• Preparation. This is where everything starts. Define risks, train teams, and create clear playbooks during assessments. Planning ensures people, processes, and technology are ready before disruption hits.

• Detection and Analysis. Tune alerts so teams can spot real threats without drowning in noise. The right signals must reach the right people quickly, with context to act. 

• Containment, Eradication, and Recovery. Spell out roles and responsibilities so you can prevent incidents promptly. Documented steps, whether for ransomware, phishing, or supply chain outages, help teams restore systems and operations without delay. (See 5 Ways to Protect Your Cloud Code from Cyber Attacks).

• Post-Incident Activity. A playbook isn’t static. Each event is a chance to learn. After action reviews, tabletop exercises, and updates keep the plan relevant and build muscle memory across IT, operations, and logistics.

By aligning your incident response playbooks with NIST’s guidelines and reinforcing them through X-Centric’s Incident Response Readiness Assessment, manufacturers turn theory into practice, ensuring readiness before, during, and after an incident.

Fig 1- NIST Cybersecurity Incident Response Lifecycle Model

Source: NIST

Where Manufacturers Fall Short 

In our assessments, the gaps are familiar: 

• Playbooks that exist only on paper or haven’t been updated in years. 

• Detection systems like SIEM or EDR drown teams in noise, burying the real threats. 

• Escalation processes that stop at IT without looping in operations or procurement. 

• Little to no testing, leaving teams unprepared for real-world scenarios. 

In one instance, a manufacturer disregarded an early ransomware warning. Teams were so used to false positives that they missed the real threat. By the time they caught on, the malware had spread across systems. 

Benefits of a Cybersecurity Incident Response Playbook in Manufacturing 

When manufacturers put a playbook into practice, the value shows up fast: 

• Small problems stay small. A ransomware alert doesn’t turn into a full-blown outage. 

• Costs are predictable. Teams avoid the surprise of last-minute sourcing or fines for missed delivery deadlines. 

• Customers stay confident. Repairs and deliveries are done timely, even during disruption. 

• Sustainability stays on track. Refurbish, recycle, and reuse programs don’t stop because one supplier goes down. 

But the bigger story is confidence. A cybersecurity incident response playbook gives leaders peace of mind that when—not if—disruptions hit, their teams won’t waste time debating what to do. They’ll act. 

X-Centric’s Incident Response Readiness Assessment is built to deliver exactly that: practical, tested plans with tuned alerts and clear accountability across IT, operations, and logistics. 

How to Build and Maintain an Incident Response Playbook 

Planning and building the response playbook is step one. Keeping it current and effective is the real test. 

• Benchmark maturity. Assess frameworks like CIS, NIST, ISO, or CMMC to identify gaps. These are well-recognized cybersecurity and risk management frameworks that organizations use to measure and improve their security maturity. 

• Bring all teams in. IT can’t do this alone. Operations, logistics, and procurement must be part of the process. 

• Update it regularly. As systems and threats evolve, so should the playbook. A document written three years ago won’t cut it today. 

• Practice it. Run tabletop exercises and drills until responses become second nature. 

At X-Centric, our approach blends all four. The Incident Response Readiness Assessment benchmarks your current state, maps gaps across people, process, and technology, and creates a practical roadmap. Then we don’t just hand over a report, we walk through scenarios, test assumptions, and help leadership teams see exactly how an incident would play out. 

The result: fewer surprises, quicker containment, and a culture where playbooks are living tools, not dusty binders. 

Final Word 

Circular manufacturing creates opportunities for growth, cost savings, and sustainability. However, the same complexity that drives those gains also introduces new risks. Aviation and healthcare have shown the value of incident response playbooks. Manufacturers should follow their lead. 

Don’t let the first real test of your readiness come during an actual outage or attack. A clear, well-practiced incident response playbook ensures that your operations continue to run smoothly, your customers remain confident, and your sustainability goals remain intact. 

For small and medium manufacturers looking to start small, here’s a list of questions you should ask your IT service provider.

Protect uptime and margin, schedule your Incident Response Readiness Assessment with X-Centric today.