Chapter 11. Manufacturing Case Study

The manufacturing industry has unique key components. The network acts not only as a transport, which people use to send data, but also as a business process enabler. Many functions of the WLAN are independent of general network access. Such examples include factories, the machinery that builds products, and inventory or material goods that reside in warehouses. This case study outlines some of these situations while still focusing on the typical office considerations. Key points discussed here fall into three categories: technology, process, and policy. This chapter also outlines the business considerations that help justify the use of WLAN and the future state as seen through the eyes of the manufacturer.

The manufacturer interviewed for this case study chose to remain anonymous; however, a brief profile will provide perspective for this chapter. The company is a member of the Fortune 500 and is the market leader in its specific industry. The company employee base is more than 50,000 people with a global presence in excess of 100 office locations in more than 20 different countries. Relative to other companies of their size, this company is taking on a new direction in the way it provides infrastructure services and can be considered an early adopter of wireless networks. Other companies in this space and of this size take a more cautious approach because the resulting cost to implement will sometimes severely impact both operational expenditures (OPEX) and capital expenditures (CAPEX). The revenues for this manufacturer exceed 20 billion U.S. dollars, which equates to more than 2 billion dollars in profit.