Manufacturing
Two-way radios for plants and production floors
A plant is loud, big and busy. Maintenance is in one building, shipping is in another, and the line stops while someone walks to find the right person. We put production, maintenance, quality and shipping on separate Zello channels that reach the whole site, with a Dispatch Hub seat in the control room to see and reach everyone.
Short answer
Do radios work inside a metal building?
Ours do, in most plants, because Zello runs on cellular and Wi-Fi rather than a repeater that has to be heard through the walls. Inside steel-clad buildings we confirm signal on site and, where cellular is weak on the floor, our device management puts the radios on the plant Wi-Fi instead. We check it before you buy, not after.
The problem
What gets in the way
Production, maintenance and shipping each need their own conversation, but a single-channel radio puts the forklift traffic, the maintenance call and the line supervisor on top of each other. Conventional systems fade between buildings and behind heavy equipment, and every new building means another repeater. Phones do not survive the floor and do not get answered on it. When a line goes down, the cost is measured per minute, and most of those minutes are spent finding the person who can fix it.
How we set it up
How the channels are set up
We set up Zello channels that mirror the plant: production supervisors on one, maintenance on another, quality and safety on a third, shipping and receiving on a fourth, and a broadcast channel that reaches every radio at once. Channel roles control who talks to whom, so only supervisors speak on the broadcast. Maintenance technicians usually get rugged handhelds; forklifts and yard trucks get vehicle units; shift supervisors get a lighter radio with a screen and an earpiece. The control room runs a Zello Dispatch Hub seat, and the live map shows where each technician is when a call comes in.
Typical use cases
Where it gets used day to day
Maintenance dispatched to a stopped line without a walk to the shop. Forklift and yard traffic coordinated between the dock and the warehouse. Shift handover across three buildings. Quality holds communicated to the floor at once. Safety incidents raised with an Emergency Alert and the caller’s location on Plus. Contract packaging and food plants keeping sanitation, production and shipping in step across a multi-building site.
Recommended solution
What we would recommend
Managed Zello Plus on rugged handhelds for maintenance and production leads, vehicle units for forklifts and yard trucks, and a display radio for supervisors covers most plants. Plus adds Emergency Alerts and Message Vault, which safety teams use for incident review. The Telox TE320 handles dust, wash-down areas and drops; the Inrico S380 suits supervisors who coordinate rather than lift. Plants that already issue rugged phones for work orders can run Zello on a Sonim device instead. Either way we test signal on the floor, including inside the steel buildings, before recommending anything.
Questions
Questions plant managers ask us
What manufacturers want to know before replacing the radios on the floor.
Will we hear anything over the machinery?
The radios are loud, and for the noisiest areas we supply noise-cancelling headsets and earpieces. The bigger gain is that calls go to the right channel: a maintenance call is not competing with forklift traffic for the same speaker.
We have three buildings and a yard. Does it reach all of them?
Yes. Because the radios use the cell network and your Wi-Fi rather than a repeater in one building, coverage does not stop at the wall. We survey each building before quoting, and we say plainly if a spot is weak.
Can we keep the radios we already have on the floor?
Often, yes. The Zello radio gateway can bridge an existing conventional system so the old radios and the new ones share a channel. See radio interoperability for how that works and what equipment it needs.
Are there radios safe for the solvent store or the paint line?
We assess hazardous areas per site. We confirm your area classification first, then recommend hardware certified for it; the Sonim XP Pro and XP5plus carry Class I Division 2 non-incendive ratings. Nothing goes into a classified area until the certification has been checked against it.
Do we have to license frequencies or install an antenna?
No. Conventional plant radio systems often need a licensed frequency and a rooftop antenna. Ours run over the carrier networks, so there is nothing to file and nothing to install on the roof.
Related
A typical plant setup
Maintenance and production leads usually carry the Telox TE320, supervisors the Inrico S380 with an earpiece, and forklifts and yard trucks take the Telox M3. The control room runs a Zello Dispatch Hub seat, with real-time location from Managed Zello Plus showing who is closest to a stopped line.
Plants with an existing radio system can keep it in the conversation through radio interoperability. Solvent stores and paint lines need hardware certified for the area classification, which we confirm per site; the business two-way radios page lists the full range.
Get started
Tell us how your team works today
Send us your building list and how the floor talks today. We will come back with a coverage survey, hardware and pricing in one document.