expert picks AI-native network for automated warehouse

expert Warenvertrieb GmbH is the second largest electronics reseller in Germany, with 500 specialty stores and a robust e-commerce channel. The company chose the Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform to provide reliable, measurable, and secure wireless LAN connectivity for its state-of-the-art fulfillment center. With AIOps and a microservices cloud, expert can keep its store shelves stocked and ensure that fast-moving, popular products get into customers’ hands without delay.

Overview


Company expert Warenvertrieb GmbH
Industry Retail
Products used Wireless Access PointsWireless (Wi-Fi) AssuranceMarvis VNAEdge
Region EMEA
expert Warenvertrieb GmbH Image
Customer Success At-a-glance

0

Wi-Fi problems in the first year of fulfillment center operations

13,000

Square-meter, highly automated fulfillment center covered with Wi-Fi

AIOps

Accelerate network troubleshooting and problem resolution

35,000

Orders per day handled in the fulfillment center

Challenge

Wi-Fi for a highly automated warehouse

Warehouse Wi-Fi is notoriously difficult to manage, with dense populations of devices creating potential interference amid busy operations. expert needed unmatched networking assurance and performance to support uninterrupted operations for its new, highly automated fulfilment center in Langenhagen, near Hannover, to meet growing customer demand for consumer electronics, computers, entertainment, and electrical household appliances.

expert’s state-of-the-art fulfilment center has an automated shuttle system that stores and retrieves goods across the 13,000-square-meter facility. Shuttle robots zip through the aisles between towering 17-meter shelves filled with televisions, laptops, gaming consoles, vacuums, washing machines, and other products, picking the orders. Larger products are transported using Wi-Fi-enabled forklifts. Items in reusable containers zoom over the smart conveyor system to be packed and delivered to retail stores or directly to customers.

“We had used three different Wi-Fi products in our offices and other warehouses, and we weren’t satisfied with any of them,” says Jan Persch, system administrator at expert. “Forklift drivers complained again and again about Wi-Fi coverage issues, and it was very difficult to monitor or measure the coverage to troubleshoot the problems.”

expert Challenge
Solution

AI-native networking stacks up

expert engaged Wayv, a specialist in wireless network engineering for industry and logistics, who introduced expert’s IT team to the Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform.

“We experienced the charm of Juniper,” says Persch. “We didn’t believe it at first, but when we tried it for ourselves, Juniper was easier and just worked.”

The Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform is purpose-built to enable AIOps and assure optimum end-to-end operator and end-user experiences. Trained on nine years of insights and data science development, the closed-loop platform assures that every connection is reliable, measurable, and secure for every device, user, application, and asset.

Marvis, Juniper’s Virtual Network Assistant, provides automation and insight across the wireless network. Marvis has helped the IT team quickly pinpoint and resolve problems, such as an overlooked VLAN configuration on a new switch, DHCP errors, and network access control (NAC) authentication failures.

Juniper partner, Wayv, worked with expert to design the wireless network, perform the site survey, and implement the network.

expert Solution
Outcome

Visibility ends the Wi-Fi blame game

“We haven’t had any Wi-Fi problems in the first year of operations for the new warehouse, including the busy high season,” says Persch.

The Juniper wireless network supports both expert’s fulfillment center operations and its onsite offices. Robots, forklifts, industrial volume scales, and other specialized devices stay connected as orders are picked and packed. With plenty of capacity and strong security, office workers can connect their corporate and personal mobile devices to the Wi-Fi.

“It’s traditionally been that Wi-Fi that gets the blame” when there are wireless connectivity or performance glitches, Persch says. “But with Juniper and Mist AI, we can quickly find the root cause and often prove that the problem is not the network infrastructure.”

Mist AI and AIOps have changed the IT team’s perceptions about managing the wireless network. “Wireless was considered to be a pain,” says Persch. Now, he says, other IT staff have cross-trained on the Juniper network, which increases collaboration and advances their technical skills. “It also gives the network experts peace of mind that the wireless network will just work.”

expert Outcome
“With a Juniper AI-Native network, I don’t grow grey hairs managing the network. It just works.”
Jan Persch System Administrator, expert Warenvertrieb GmbH

Published March 2024