Kingsland Drinks: Allied Telesis Boosts Site Productivity

Kingsland Drinks has increased its productivity due to a partnership with Allied Telesis, which provided a new wireless network that ensures connectivity over its 18-acre site.

Allied Telesis, a leading networking solutions provider, has implemented a Single Channel WLAN solution across the Kingsland site to ensure a dynamic, fast and uninterrupted user experience for its employees. 

The change has increased the company’s manufacturing productivity and has enabled it to meet its efficiency targets.

Kingsland Drinks is a leading UK supplier of bulk alcoholic beverages and has turned to Allied Telesis to design and supply a technological solution to boost its manufacturing productivity. 

Due to its 24/7 bottling production operations, the company faced a challenging wireless network problem which included lots of fluid, cardboard and temperature fluctuation between different areas of the site. As a result, it relies heavily on its IT infrastructure.

Following a site survey to map the environment’s physical characteristics, Allied Telesis then turned to its channel partner, Holker IT, to work towards the solution. 

The ability to remotely monitor, manage and troubleshoot its network, despite black-spots in coverage, is also vital and something Allied Telesis’ Channel Blanket single-channel wireless architecture was able to solve. 

Chris Dyke the Sales Director UK & Ireland at Allied Telesis explains “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,” Chris concludes. 

Deployed within two months, the new Allied Telesis network provides Kingsland Drinks with improved coverage across the site, which now has no black spots, whilst monitoring software shows good coverage in all required areas. 

The onsite IT team are now able to use Allied Telesis’ Vista Manager EX and AWC to monitor the performance of the WLAN through a visual representation of the network. 

This means they can see in-depth traffic management and the devices which were connected at any given time.

Brian Polkinghorne, Kingsland Drinks’ IT Manager says “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 Wi-Fi 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,” Brian continues. 

“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,” Brian concludes.

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