In large-scale chocolate manufacturing, uptime is not a luxury. It protects production lines, temperature-controlled processes, and global supply commitments.
For one of the world’s largest cocoa and chocolate producers, connectivity between Southeast Asian factories and its Singapore regional headquarters became mission-critical.
To support expansion across Indonesia and Malaysia, the company partnered with IX Telecom for scalable industrial network solutions designed specifically for distributed manufacturing environments. With multiple factories located in remote and semi-rural industrial zones, the client required resilient network infrastructure for factories that could maintain production continuity without disruption.
The Challenge
Connecting Factories in Hard-to-Reach Industrial Zones
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Zurich, this global chocolate manufacturer operates 53 factories across more than 30 countries. Its Singapore regional HQ oversees rapid growth throughout China, Indonesia, Japan, and Malaysia.
However, several new production sites like Rancaekek, Gresik, Bandung, Makassar (Indonesia) and Port Klang (Malaysia) faced significant connectivity challenges:
Key Challenges
- No fibre infrastructure in industrial zones or rural factory locations
- Limited providers capable of supporting enterprise-grade deployments
- Frequent network outages causing manual production fallback
- Lack of centralized network visibility across manufacturing sites
Without reliable connectivity, manufacturing automation, ERP systems, and supply chain coordination were at risk. The client required high-availability managed network services for manufacturing to unify operations under a centralized command model.
The IX Telecom Solution
Hybrid Industrial Network Architecture for Continuous Production
IX Telecom designed a hybrid, resilient architecture tailored to each factory’s location and production demands:
- Urban Factories: MPLS primary, backed by Dedicated Internet Access (DIA)
- Rural Production Sites: DIA primary with wireless radio/microwave redundancy
- Infrastructure Development: Fibre deployment in previously unserved zones, including night and weekend coordination during COVID restrictions
- Centralized Connectivity: All factory traffic securely routed to Singapore HQ for unified monitoring and control
- Local Engineering Support: Rapid on-site response through regional partners
Results
Scalable Network, Central Command & Zero Manual Downtime
Within the deployment timeline, IX Telecom successfully connected chocolate factories across Indonesia and Malaysia, enterprise-grade resilience to a Fortune 500 food producer.
- Unified Command: All Southeast Asian factory sites are now linked to the Singapore HQ, allowing for real-time visibility and control
- Minimized Downtime: Hybrid connections seamlessly failed over when issues occurred, ensuring continuous factory operations
- Cost Savings: Reduced reliance on manual processes and minimized revenue impact from outages
- Scalable Architecture: Ready to onboard new factories or relocate production with minimal disruption
- Responsive Local Support: A dedicated partner network enabled quick dispatch of engineers even in remote towns and industrial zones
Ready to strengthen your factory network infrastructure? Speak with our experts and discover how we can build a resilient solution for your manufacturing environment.