BJS Home Delivery
Warehouse Wi-Fi Project

 UK Logistics Company Rides Wave of Success with the Help of
Zyxel Nebula

Founded in 2009, BJS Distribution Storage & Couriers Limited started as a family-run, two-man home delivery and assembly service. The company now specializes in the warehousing and delivery of
bulky products, such as furniture and electricals, partnering with popular brands such as The Cotswold Company, Made.com and Wayfair.

Early on, the business set itself apart from the competition by being one of the first in the region
to introduce next day and choice-of-delivery-day services for customers. By accurately gauging and meeting consumer demand, the business has continued to grow from strength to strength. This ability to respond effectively to client needs, coupled with top-notch customer service, has enabled the company to increase its
fleet of vans from 10 to 115 in just five years.

It now operates over 100 routes – rising to 140 at peak times – across the UK. To keep up with demand and to accommodate the holding and delivery of stock, storage space has also grown to six warehouses in just a few years.

Challenges

As BJS ascended rapidly through the industry ranks, its leadership started to appreciate the importance of technology as a means of achieving growth and refining business practices. It became clear that the manual, paper-based process by which it managed product flow just wouldn’t cut it. When goods arrived at the facility, they were ticked off the lorry on a paper manifest. If not seen, a call was made to the originating company to notify them that they hadn’t arrived. The goods were then ticked into the warehouse, so the company had a log of what was in the facility.

To help speed up this process, BJS took the decision to use barcode scanners and mobile applications, requiring the installation of five wireless access points across the two warehouses.

After a year of use, it became evident that the wireless infrastructure still wasn’t suitable for a company growing as quickly as BJS. Investment in Chromecast devices to improve the process of scanning trucks and reconciling deliveries pushed the access points to their limit. The devices stopped working properly, increasing the likelihood of security vulnerabilities that could put the network
and company data at risk. Simply upgrading the existing access points, however, would be costly and unlikely to provide sufficient support for current and future business growth.

Value

 To help it take the right approach, BJS turned to its IT support provider, Vibrant Networks, which recommended that cloud-managed access points from Zyxel could be the answer to increasing WiFi performance, security and coverage – all whilst controlling costs. Zyxel Nebula NAP203 access points have given the company the ability to future-proof its network at a reasonable price point. The product was easy and quick to set up, and zero-touch deployment meant that each access point auto-configured itself after installation and automatically joined the network.

To help cope with the rigours of a harsh and vast warehouse environment, the access point’s dual-optimised antenna provides optimal, long-range performance. Additionally, special hard-wearing casing physically protects it from potentially damaging airborne particles. As a result of being able to centrally manage the network via the cloud-based Nebula system, the team now have real-time visibility of each access point. This allows for any technical issues to be quickly identified and resolved. The Nebula’s comprehensive security features also deliver enterprise class protection without the associated price tag.

Now, when stock arrives at the warehouse, it is scanned off a lorry to say it’s arrived, scanned to say where it’s going and then scanned onto the next lorry. Furthermore, office staff know exactly which goods have and haven’t been received, the location of goods within the facility and whenever goods are moved.
Before its automation, this process took between four and five hours; office staff were having to manually check that everything had arrived, was in the right location or on its way to its destination. The use of handheld devices, which enable the reconciliation process to happen almost instantly, has shaved at least an hour off the previous time.

The network roll-out, which started with five access points across two warehouses in 2017, quickly increased to 10 units across four warehouses; roll-out to the other two facilities is in the pipeline. BJS Distribution Storage & Couriers Limited hopes to have 30 access points in total to help it continue to meet customer demand for fast, efficient service.

To download the Zyxel Vendor case study please click on the link here or to discuss any similar projects you may have please call us on (01922) 612387 or email us at sales@vibrant-networks.co.uk 

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