Scanning for Goods or Ramen for Warehouses and Processing Plants

Wonderful Citrus leverages Ramen’s Wireless Networking Service to extend their scanner-based workflows outdoors

Wonderful Citrus is the leading vertically integrated grower, shipper, and packer of fresh citrus in North America, and leads the industry in deploying technology to improve product quality and operational efficiencies. They invested in using a modern warehouse management system to reduce waste and improve operational efficiencies at their Citrus processing facility in Delano. Extending this to cover a large outdoor yard often used as a storage area was a challenge.

Executive Summary

Wonderful Citrus recognized the advantages of scan-based workflows for managing inventory. Extending these workflows to cover their dry goods stock, which was often stored outdoors, was difficult as it required getting reliable wireless coverage over this ~million square ft yard adjacent to their processing plant. Achieving wireless coverage with WiFi required trenching under the yard’s pavement to bring Ethernet to additional WiFi access points mounted on light poles in the yard. Instead, by partnering with Ramen, who deployed a private cellular service, they achieved high quality coverage across the entire yard using LTE access points (APs) mounted on the sides of the buildings. The Ramen solution reduced costs by 70% and shortened the deployment time to 3 months.

Highlights

The Ramen infrastructure utilized the higher link budgets of LTE technology (compared to WiFi) to provide full yard coverage with just 12 radios mounted on the sides of the customer’s buildings. This deployment replaced approximately 30 WiFi access points, which had failed to deliver complete coverage.

By offering the network as a service, Ramen eliminated the need for the customer to hire additional staff or develop in-house expertise to deploy private LTE. Additionally, the customer avoided the complexities and costs of acquiring an LTE core license or establishing relationships with a SIM provider.

Challenge

The customer initially attempted to cover the yard using WiFi APs mounted on the sides of their buildings. However, this approach failed to provide adequate coverage. When exploring alternative solutions, they received multiple quotes, all of which proposed installing additional WiFi APs on light poles distributed throughout the yard.

To backhaul these WiFi APs, Ethernet connectivity would be required, necessitating the installation of conduit under asphalt and through operational areas—potentially causing significant disruptions. The proposed project was estimated to take 9–12 months to complete and would cost over a million dollars.

Solution

In this deployment, Ramen implemented an LTE network operating in the CBRS band, with the LTE core running on two redundant Ramen Edge boxes. To ensure precise synchronization, two GPS-locked timing sources were deployed, delivering timing to each access point (AP) using the IEEE 1588 protocol.

A cloud connection to the Ramen Cloud Management system facilitates remote network monitoring and enables seamless software upgrades. The network design leverages the customer’s existing Ethernet infrastructure to interconnect all components, minimizing additional setup requirements.

Ramen’s team went beyond simply providing wireless coverage. They ensured the customer’s existing applications operated seamlessly on the Ramen network without requiring any modifications.

In this case, private LTE was selected as the most cost-effective solution for the customer’s needs. However, Ramen’s comprehensive solution also supports managed WiFi and mm Wave technologies, all integrated into a unified network management system.

Impact

By partnering with Ramen, the customer completed the project in just three months—significantly faster than the 9–12 months it would have taken with WiFi. This accelerated timeline allowed recurring operational savings to begin sooner, while reducing costs by 70%.