- Sauder Woodworking Co., one of the largest wood industry manufacturers of ready-to-assemble (RTA) furnishings, says it has contracted with Siemens Enterprise Communications to deploy its Enterasys Network Management Suite and other components to upgrade IT applications across its 5 million square feet of  manufacturing operation.

As part of Sauder Woodworking's lean business strategy, Siemens Enterasys solutions was brought in to update the company's network on its sprawling campus in Archbold, OH. The updates increase mobility and IT responsiveness, and also apply lean operating principles to streamlining and automating IT practices.

The new infrastructure includes Enterasys S-Series modular switches, Enterasys Wireless and Enterasys Network Management Suite (NMS) management software to centrally manage and monitor the network.

Sauder Woodworking's lean business strategy is an initiative to simplify, reduce costs and avoid redundancies in its business processes and equipment - a trend sweeping large-scale woodworking industry manufacturers as the economy recovers.

As part of the project, Sauder Woodworking had Enterasys deploy wireless access and monitoring, which established security policies over 300+ access points and 2,500 devices.

"In addition to the security that comes with authenticating users with Enterasys Wireless, we've saved the money we would have spent re-cabling our facilities since we can now move devices without rewiring," said Jan Arvay, IS Director at Sauder Woodworking. 

With just one dedicated network engineer for Sauder Woodworking's 5 million square feet of manufacturing and distribution space, Sauder Woodworking relies on the Enterasys system to automatically send proactive alerts to the IT department. Sauder Woodworking also added Siemens Enterprise Communications telephony across its enterprise, which interoperates with the Enterasys infrastructure at Sauder Woodworking operating units throughout the U.S.

Sauder Woodworking Co. is not only a leading producer of RTAfurniture, but says it is also the nation’s fifth largest residential furniture manufacturer. Sauder markets more than 30 furniture collections sold under Sauder, Studio RTA, Studio Edge and Steadfast brands.

Sauder Woodworking is a privately-held, third generation, family-run business. Subsidiaries include: Progressive Furniture Inc., a manufacturer and importer of traditional solid wood, veneered and laminate furniture; and Sauder Manufacturing Company, a leader in church, educational, and health care seating. With  2,100 employees, the Sauder family of companies generates sales of nearly $450 million annually.