Eliminating scanner dead zones in high-bay distribution center storage

Client Context

A national third-party logistics (3PL) operator running a large regional distribution center with high-bay racking up to 32 feet. Client details are shared with permission in anonymized form.

The Problem

Handheld scanner connectivity failed intermittently in specific aisles, forcing workers to re-scan items or fall back to paper processes. The pattern correlated with rack height and time of day but hadn't been isolated by the facility's internal IT team.

Our Approach

We surveyed the facility at multiple heights, including at the top of the racking where most of the affected scanning activity occurred — not just at the ground-level walking path most surveys default to.

The existing access point placement and channel plan had been designed around ground-level coverage, leaving the top two rack levels in several aisles with marginal signal that degraded further during busy shift changes.

We redesigned AP placement and the channel plan specifically for full-height coverage, and validated the new design with scanners physically operating at rack height rather than relying on a coverage heat map alone.

The Outcome

Post-deployment testing confirmed full scanner coverage at all rack heights across the facility. Dock delay time attributable to manual re-scans and paper fallback processes dropped 31% in the following quarter.