The USTRONIANKA Natural Mineral Water Bottling Plant is one of the most dynamic companies in Poland producing water and beverages. In addition to ensuring the quality of its products, the company also focuses on streamlining and modernizing its production. Therefore, it turned to SKK – Systemy Kodów Kreskowych SA in Krakow to implement a wireless network in its warehouses.
The USTRONIANKA Natural Mineral Water Bottling Plant was established in 1980. At the beginning of its operations, it was a small facility employing a few workers. Today, it owns 3 production plants where “Ustronianka” and “Czantoria” natural mineral water and “Grappa” beverages are produced. In addition to the plant in Ustroń, in 1994 the company began producing water and fruit beverages at a second plant located in a picturesque part of Ustroń – Jelenica, within the buffer zone of the Silesian Beskids Landscape Park. A modern warehouse and production hall was built with state-of-the-art lines for bottling mineral water and fruit beverages. Another investment was the plant launched in the same year in Biała near Prudnik, at the foot of the Opawskie Mountains. In 2000, USTRONIANKA took over the CZANTORIA Manufacturing Plants in Ustroń, which had existed since 1963 and had a very rich tradition in the production of water and beverages.
SKK SA proposed a solution to USTRONIANKA based on devices from renowned and well-known companies on the market:
– Cisco radio network equipment,
– Intermec CK31 terminals and wireless printers.
The implementation of the wireless network carried out by SKK consisted of two stages: design and installation combined with network commissioning. The most important element of the first phase of the project was conducting a site survey combined with radio wave propagation measurements. At this stage of work, the number and placement of wireless network base stations were determined, appropriate antennas were selected, as well as the allocation of power and radio channels. The end result was a radio network design along with a proposed implementation schedule. In the second stage, the wireless network was installed and the Intermec devices were configured according to the specifications proposed in the design. After the completion of the radio network implementation, SKK conducted employee training and also provided technical support and service/warranty care for the installed solutions.
The solution proposed at USTRONIANKA is a distributed system, i.e., a combination of autonomous wireless networks operating in many remote locations, but managed from one place using Cisco WLSE (Wireless LAN Solution Engine) software. The wireless network covers all external storage yards as well as warehouse and production buildings. Furthermore, in some locations, it was necessary to connect remote warehouse buildings using wireless links. Such a solution allowed for a significant reduction in costs and enabled faster project implementation.
After the system was implemented by SKK, every product that comes off the production line is labeled with a code that later allows for its identification and obtaining necessary information, e.g., regarding the production date, which is extremely important in the case of food products. All operations now take place within the radio network. The greatest benefit that USTRONIANKA gained after installing the radio network was the streamlining of warehouse work: receipts from production, as well as the dispatch process.