Wireless Network Upgrade

Client

Howdens Joinery offers a range of kitchens, doors and joinery products and bathroom cabinetry specifically designed to meet the needs of modern living.

They are a trade only business and only sell kitchens to trade professionals because they are best placed to give the end user the convenience and experience of a local professional installation.

Howden offer over 40 inspirational kitchens and designs to choose from, available from our 450 depots nationwide. Howden range is the UK's largest stock from local depot making Howden the UK largest kitchen and bathroom manufacture.

Brief

Howden had recently chosen RedPrairie Warehouse Management System to meet the demand of a growing UK market and to replace their aging VAX VMS Legacy System. From raw materials to the finished goods this meant that Howdens warehouse would be completely Wireless with staff members using hand held terminals as well as truck mounted terminals.

The system needed to be durable, easy to use and configure and importantly secure. Cisco Aironet 1242 Access Point ticked all the boxes. Additionally a resilient Fibre Backbone across all eleven chambers needed to be installed with Cisco switches and Wall cabinets.

A site survey was carried to ensure the maximum coverage with the least amount Access Points, Cabinet positions, CAT6 route to Access Point and Fibre Back bone route to Communication room.

Installation

Once appointed as the preferred contractor Pacific had to provide a road map on installation time scale which was delivered over four weekends outside of normal hours, including engineers working at high level using boom lifts under some of the strictest installation conditions. The installation was delivered on time to the client’s exact specification and this was thanks to the use of the latest Wireless Technology from Cisco, underpinned by precise project management and system delivery.

Pacific Computers supplied, installed, commissioned and currently maintain the following equipment:

Cisco Backbone

• ·         14 x Cisco 24 port switch
• ·         76 x Cisco Access Point
• ·         28 x Fibre Mini GBIC
• ·         Cat6e Cabling including PoE
• ·         Fibre Cabling

Summary

Today, Pacific Computers Ltd has continued to roll out a Wireless install right across the Howden Production and Warehouse infrastructure. Each installs meeting the clients request no down time to production which is 24/7. All installation work carried out at weekend and seamless migration of old terminal to new hand held with no interruption to hand held connectivity.   

How can we help?

Pacific Computers were approached with the sole aim to improve their Wireless Communication at one of their UK warehouses. The total area was one million square feet broken into eleven internal chambers