Background
Willems Transport represents a typical logistics customer for KaPé Automatisering. The customer takes care of the transport and storage of a manufacturer of dairy and pharmaceutical products. Milk powder and medical products are stored in the newly built large hall of no less than 28,000 square meters. A fresh IT solution for the communication system needed to be installed in this distribution center, so that all forklift truck employees could do their work unhindered, no matter where they were in the hall. The warehouse was designed for a large Dutch dairy cooperative that wanted to further centralize its storage.
The IT supplier KaPé Automatisering. was responsible for the system installation. The Venray-based company offers IT solutions for their customers in the healthcare, construction and logistics sectors in the Netherlands and Germany. Bastian Bergner, Project Manager at KaPé Automatisering. indicated, "Communication is very important in such a large distribution center. Each pallet must be registered with the location, so that the registration system always knows where each pallet and product is located. Because of the interaction, the forklift truck driver knows where it should be and what it should pick up. In addition, you can't just walk back and forth to ask for something from a colleague, the hall is too big for that. Therefore, we needed a good communication system."
Challenges
In order to guarantee optimal network connectivity, they laid fiber optics up to the door. However, there was a challenge inside the hall, as it has a surface area of 28,000 square meters and a great height of 13 meters. In addition, there was a 3-storey office building inside it. Bergner explains, "The height of the hall was not an easy factor to deal with. In order to keep track of what goes in and out of products in the distribution center, forklift trucks need to be able to scan product codes or pallets with a wireless scanning device. This requires a WiFi network that reaches every corner of the hall. In addition, the network in the hall had to be available 24/7, because the logistics sector runs nearly all day and night. The network must, therefore, function in the hall all the time and everywhere with no downtime. Because of the height, the access points also had to be placed very high on the ceiling. KaPé discussed with Zyxel Networks how we could best bridge the 13 meters to the ground without losing coverage."
