Where Production Never Stops: Industrial Wi-Fi Built for Automation
From groves to grocery shelves, Cobram Estate is a staple in Australian kitchens. But behind every olive oil bottle is a high-velocity operation where precision and timing are everything. As a vertically integrated business, olives move continuously from growing to production, bottling, and distribution. At its Lara facility, finished product moves directly off the line into a large warehouse, where pallets are stacked, staged, and dispatched nationwide.
Industry:
Manufacturing, Warehousing, & Logistics
Products:
RUCKUS Wi-Fi 6 Access Points (R550)
RUCKUS One
warehouse footprint
dependent on Wi-Fi
network disruption
When autonomous forklifts were introduced to streamline that movement, wireless connectivity became critical to keeping operations running without interruption. In this environment, Wi-Fi was no longer supporting the operation; it was part of it. To enable continuous production in a complex industrial setting, Cobram Estate partnered with RUCKUS to deliver a network built for automation, reliability, and scale.
The Challenge: When Automation Exposes the Limits of Wi-Fi
At Cobram Estate’s Lara site, operations run at pace. But when autonomous systems were introduced into the 5,000 sqm warehouse, the reality of the existing wireless network quickly surfaced.
Coverage existed, but it wasn’t consistent. Signal performance fluctuated across high ceilings, dense racking, and stainless-steel processing infrastructure, creating unreliable roaming between access points. That inconsistency wasn’t just inconvenient, it introduced real operational risk.
If connectivity drops, the operation stops. In a fast-moving production environment, that interruption quickly cascades across the entire workflow, impacting throughput and efficiency.
The Solution: Engineering Connectivity for Continuous Movement
Cobram Estate moved away from patching the problem and instead took a design-first approach. A full RF site survey and professional design ensured the network was built around the physical realities of the warehouse, from layout to materials and movement patterns.
RUCKUS delivered a Wi-Fi 6 solution using R550 access points, centrally managed through the RUCKUS One cloud platform. The focus was on seamless roaming, predictable signal performance, and real-time visibility, ensuring the network could keep pace with automated movement across the facility.
This wasn’t just an upgrade in coverage. It was a shift to a network designed to support automation as part of the operational workflow.
“When automation is driving your production, there’s no room for dropouts. With RUCKUS, every part of the operation stays in motion.”
Shane Wilkens, IT Manager, Cobram Estate Olives
The Results: Automation That Actually Keeps Moving
The change was immediate. Autonomous forklifts now operate continuously along predefined paths, moving pallets from production to dispatch without interruption. What was once a point of failure is now a dependable part of the production line.
The improvement goes beyond the warehouse floor. With centralized visibility and simplified management, the IT team can monitor and manage performance without constant intervention. At the same time, the upgraded network enabled certificate-based authentication and resolved long-standing office connectivity issues.
With a reliable wireless foundation in place, Cobram Estate is now using this deployment as a blueprint for expansion across Australia and into the United States.
