I think it depends on the area you want to work in. Are you wanting to work in your area of specialism i.e. production scheduling ? If so, then you you may be able to walk into a IT specialist job in that area, although I don't know what the market demand is for that.
If you are just looking to work in the IT industry generally then it will come down to the skill set / experience you have to offer and the sort of company you want to work for.
I started out in the technology dept of a bank on a graduate scheme, with a PhD, and had to work my way up just the same as everyone else - and rightly so! My area of specialism was not directly relevant to working on Banking software so I had to learn the ropes and it takes a while to come up to speed. Plus every company does things differently and inevitably experience is worth more than qualifications alone. The most valuable things I still carry around from my PhD days are the analysis & problem-solving skills that I picked up along the way. But if you can find a job that uses some/any of the technical stuff you've learned then you should be able to hit the ground running.