How One Industrial Partner Transformed Inventory Management with Smart Connectivity
A large, multi-location industrial machinery provider was outgrowing its legacy connectivity model. Aging landline circuits, rising costs, and slow deployment timelines were creating operational friction across hundreds of sites. INS partnered with the customer to redesign their network strategy, replacing outdated infrastructure with a flexible wireless solution built for speed, reliability, and long-term growth. The result was faster site activation, lower recurring costs, and a scalable connectivity foundation that could support expansion without disruption.
In a world where every second counts on the plant floor, staying ahead means embracing technology that works as hard as your team does. One of INS’s long-time partners, an industrial equipment provider, faced a challenge familiar to many manufacturers and distributors: managing vast inventories of tools, parts, and protective equipment across multiple locations with accuracy, efficiency, and minimal waste. What started as a traditional tool crib, staffed by personnel to distribute necessary supplies, had evolved into a sprawling network of automated vending machines. But with scale came complexity, and the existing infrastructure simply couldn’t keep up with the demands of modern operations.
INS and Ericsson stepped in with a vision: to combine cutting-edge connectivity, cloud management, and white-glove provisioning services into a turnkey solution that would not only meet the customer’s current needs, but also scale seamlessly into the future. The journey from manual inventory to a fully automated, data-driven system is a story of collaboration, ingenuity, and adaptability.
Understanding the Challenge: From Manual to Automated Operations
The customer had been working with INS for over a decade, gradually moving from traditional, labor-intensive methods of inventory management to a system relying heavily on automated vending machines. These machines dispense critical maintenance, repair, and operational (MRO) supplies, including personal protective equipment, cleaning products, and specialized tools.
While the concept was straightforward, the execution was anything but. Each machine acted as a small data hub, tracking what was taken, when, and by whom. But to function effectively at scale, these machines required reliable, high-speed connectivity at the point of use, inside facilities ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million square feet. Large warehouses constructed from concrete and steel could easily interfere with signals, and remote locations posed additional challenges.
The customer needed more than just hardware; they needed a partner who could integrate connectivity solutions, provide cloud-based management tools, and support the operational logistics so their teams could focus on running the business.
Crafting the Solution: Connectivity, Cloud Management, and White-Glove Service
INS approached the challenge by treating the customer’s operations as an ecosystem. We began with selecting the right industrial cellular routers (from Ericsson) to handle real-time data collection and communication for thousands of vending machines. What started as a seemingly simple 4G router became the backbone of a massive, scalable network, eventually supporting over 15,000 devices in the field.
Each router is paired with a corresponding SIM card and carrier, optimized to deliver reliable connectivity even in challenging environments. INS’s team works hand in hand with the customer to configure, test, and deploy every device. But the real magic happens in the background. A dedicated provisioning lab handles all the staging, activation, and testing of devices, ensuring that every router arrives pre-configured and ready for installation, with minimal effort from the customer.
One key innovation was the creation of a high-capacity provisioning table capable of connecting up to 200 devices simultaneously. This allows firmware updates, configuration templates, and cloud management settings to be pushed to devices in bulk, improving provisioning throughput by up to four times compared to previous methods. By investing in this infrastructure, INS ensured the customer could scale their operations without worrying about delays or operational bottlenecks.
INS also provides ongoing support for cloud management, helping teams remotely monitor device performance, push updates, and troubleshoot connectivity issues. The combination of hardware, cloud management, and white-glove provisioning means that the customer can operate with confidence, even as the system grows in complexity.
Overcoming Hurdles: Signal, Licensing, and Obsolescence
No large-scale deployment is without challenges. With tens of thousands of devices in the field, maintaining connectivity and managing software licenses proved to be ongoing hurdles. Routers have annual licenses, and with staggered deployment schedules, aligning start and end dates required careful coordination with the carrier and the customer. To simplify this process, INS helped establish a streamlined renewal system and worked with the hardware manufacturer to assign a dedicated customer success manager for ongoing oversight.
Signal strength was another challenge. Large, split-concrete warehouses can interfere with connectivity, and multiple devices in the same facility may compete for bandwidth. INS addressed this by testing optimal carrier options for each location and providing additional hardware, including boosters and external antennas, to ensure reliable performance.
Device obsolescence also posed a challenge. When routers approached end-of-life, INS coordinated with the manufacturer to beta-test next-generation models, ensuring seamless migration without disrupting operations. This close technical collaboration minimized downtime and kept the system running smoothly.
Delivering Impact: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Real-Time Insights
The results speak for themselves. With INS’s solution in place, the customer achieved significant operational improvements:
- Real-time inventory tracking across thousands of machines, enabling automated replenishment and helping reduce overstock and shortages.
- Accurate usage data, providing insights into employee behavior and supply trends.
- Streamlined shipping and on-hand stock management, reducing lost or stolen items.
- Time and cost savings, as employees no longer need to manually track and distribute supplies.
Beyond these measurable benefits, the solution also future-proofs operations. The routers’ feature-rich design, including dual-carrier failover, security features, and cloud-managed updates, is designed to help the system evolve alongside technological advancements. For devices that experience connectivity issues, INS maintains a process to evaluate, repair, and redeploy hardware, maximizing lifecycle value and reducing waste.
At the heart of this success story is the culture INS brings to the table: a willingness to adapt, problem-solve, and innovate to meet the customer’s unique needs. From the creation of the high-capacity provisioning table to the careful orchestration of licensing and cloud management, INS demonstrates that true service goes beyond supplying hardware. It’s about understanding operational challenges and delivering solutions that scale.
This approach is why the customer has trusted INS for over a decade and why their network of automated vending machines continues to grow in scale and sophistication. INS doesn’t just provide routers; we provide a complete operational partnership, working with the customer to help align technology, people, and processes for smoother deployment and ongoing operations.
