01 July 2024
Kingsland Drinks has significantly increased productivity and is meeting its efficiency targets thanks to a new wireless network providing comprehensive, always-on, connectivity over its 18-acre site.
Following a site survey, the solution was designed and supplied by Allied Telesis and its channel partner Holker IT.
Kingsland Drinks is an employee-owned business with approximately 480 staff. It has been based in Manchester since 1995 on a hybrid indoor/outdoor site that dates from 1895 and so has some buildings with 4ft thick walls. As a 24/7 bottling production and warehousing environment, the challenge for a wireless network includes lots of fluids, cardboard, and fluctuations in temperature between areas. The company has a high reliance on its IT infrastructure, and the ability to remotely monitor, manage and trouble-shoot the network is vital. Based on Allied Telesis’ Channel Blanket single-channel wireless architecture, the new network solved Kingland’s problem of black-spots and unreliable coverage in its existing WiFi network, which is often a challenge in manufacturing environments.
“We work in a very agile warehouse and production environment where we need to be able to monitor and manage the continuous movement of stock. Our forklift truck drivers move stock around the site and use a hand-terminal to scan it in from location to location, but our old WiFi did not work because it had patches (of low/no coverage). Every time the signal dropped, drivers had to dismount and walk to a PC to enter the information manually, which caused delays with booking in stock, movement of stock and the booking out of goods ready for distribution to customers around the UK. It was extremely frustrating and was costing our business a lot of time and money,” said Brian Polkinghorne, IT manager at Kingland Drinks. “We now have a highly resilient WLAN that covers us like a blanket with stable performance everywhere including the drivers’ handheld terminals. It is perfect for our complex site with its various warehouses, production halls, and outdoor loading/unloading areas, as well as our offices and meeting rooms where we need high speed connections for laptops, phones, and other devices. Holker supported me through the entire process and it’s a partnership that I know works.”
Deployed within two months, the new wireless network at Kingsland Drinks comprises AWC Channel Blanket licensing for hybrid wireless architecture; Allied Telesis TQ5403 Wireless Access Points for indoor areas and Allied Telesis TQ5403e Wireless Access Points for outdoor areas and areas requiring external, directional antennas. The new network provides Kingsland Drinks with significantly improved coverage across the site, with no black spots being reported by users and monitoring software showing good coverage in all required areas. The onsite IT team are now able to use Allied Telesis’ Vista Manager EX & AWC for monitoring via a visual representation of the network, allowing them to see in-depth traffic management, performance of the WLAN and the devices which were connected at any given time.
“Our Channel Blanket solution is ideal for designing and deploying wireless networks in dispersed manufacturing and warehousing locations. It solves the major problems of these environments by using only one wireless channel to create a single ‘blanket’ of wireless coverage, thereby eliminating interference. In this way, a manufacturing business can not only optimise network performance, but also reduce the consumption of mobile devices, ensuring uninterrupted productivity combined with an agile and fast experience,” said Chris Dyke, sales director UK & Ireland at Allied Telesis.
