Global Automobile Manufacturer Deploys 7SIGNAL to Improve Wi-Fi on the Factory Floor

7SIGNAL is helping a large auto manufacturer gain visibility into the user experience, improving connections and enabling faster, more effective support.

Key takeaways:

• 7SIGNAL’s wireless network monitoring platform allows one of the world’s largest auto manufacturers to get insights from the device perspective, improving their Wi-Fi support, reliability, and uptime.
• Manufacturers' common issues include WLAN congestion, coverage, lack of network and client visibility, and building material and equipment interference.
  

Knowing precisely how end-user devices experience connections is critical to addressing modern Wi-Fi challenges. These insights go beyond just assessing the network infrastructure—showing IT staff how a client interacts with the network and explicitly defining root causes and resulting solutions. That’s why one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers chose 7SIGNAL’s monitoring platform.

The customer designs, manufactures, markets, and services a vast array of cars, trucks, SUVs, and luxury vehicles and has nearly 200,000 employees around the globe. One of the organization’s wireless engineers turned to 7SIGNAL after the support team started struggling to manage all the Wi-Fi tickets coming in. The team constantly put out fires with few long-term resolutions and little client visibility. 

Contributing to issues was a recent switch from handheld scanners with Windows CE to Android operating systems. Support staff couldn’t assess whether the new OS and devices were causing issues or whether infrastructure problems were the primary culprit.

With 7SIGNAL’s Mobile Eye® running on the endpoints within manufacturing and distribution centers, network and IT teams can understand exactly how devices interact with the network. 

Common Wi-Fi problems for manufacturing companies

Large manufacturing businesses depend on many connected applications and a variety of equipment to keep production moving. The sheer number of devices in any given facility is one of the most common causes of Wi-Fi issues for manufacturers. From pickers and handheld scanners to smartphones and laptops, these clients all have different Wi-Fi experiences and requirements that must be met.

In addition, manufacturing structures like warehouses, factories, and distribution centers are very large spaces that feature steel construction and large machinery. These materials tend to obstruct or reflect radio frequency signals, meaning significant Wi-Fi slowdowns and service drops.

All these factors must be assessed not only in network design but during ongoing network maintenance, operations, and revisions. And only a detailed wireless experience monitoring solution can distinguish the root causes of problems—whether they are device-, application-, or infrastructure-based—through 24/7 monitoring.

7SIGNAL improves visibility for manufacturers

7SIGNAL’s wireless experience monitoring platform helps manufacturers maintain better Wi-Fi connections, vastly reducing performance issues and keeping productivity strong. 

The platform constantly tests and monitors WLAN performance at the network's edges—directly from the end-user's perspective. As a result, IT staff can quickly identify problems and implement real solutions. In fact, network support can become so fast and proactive that end-users often don’t even notice and report issues. 

Use this quick online assessment to see the possible value of wireless network monitoring for your organization. It estimates the ROI that 7SIGNAL’s Mobile Eye could achieve in your circumstances and setting.

7SIGNAL® is the leader in wireless experience monitoring, providing insight into wireless networks and control over Wi-Fi performance so businesses and organizations can thrive. Our cloud-based wireless network monitoring platform continually tests and measures Wi-Fi performance at the edges of the network, enabling fast solutions to digital experience issues and stronger connections for mission-critical users, devices, and applications. Learn more at www.7signal.com.