USAGE OF WALKIE TALKIES IN INDUSTRIES

USAGE OF WALKIE TALKIES IN INDUSTRIES An industry is a place where a product or good useful to mankind is produced. The product produced can be as small as a safety pin or as heavy as vehicles and machineries. The industrial revolution in the late 1700’s led to manufacturing industries contributing to more than a third of the World’s economic output and they have remained very important to economic development of countries till date. Depending on the size of the industry, there can be anywhere from a handful of employees to thousands of them working together to ensure products are produced, stocked up and distributed the right way. There are different independent departments like production, testing, quality assurance, warehouse, security, safety, management etc. around the industry and communication keeps flowing between and within these departments. How do employees communicate within an industry? Before the popularity of cell phones, people had to depend on landlines or an office boy to send and receive information in factories. While the first method was faster, phone bills were not cheap to pay every month. The latter option was really slow and one had to depend on an external person every time he/she wanted to talk to someone. Now that everyone has a cell phone, one would think the problem was solved. Wrong! Cell phones or mobile phones have the below limitations when it comes to using them as communication devices in industries and factories. • The cost per call is very high • In places without network/signal like basements or hill tops, cell phones are not of any use • One cannot connect to several people at the same time (e.g. a manager wanting to convey the same information to 30 of his employees have to make 30 calls with a cell phone) For all these above mentioned reasons, walkie talkies are the best choice. What are walkie talkies? Walkie talkies are hand held communication devices that send and receive voice through radio channels. A walkie talkie looks like a slightly larger cell phone (the old Nokia models) and has a prominent antenna protruding out from the top. When a person wants to talk, he/she presses the push to talk button on the device and speaks into the microphone. This sends the voice signals to the antenna where voice signals are converted to radio signals and is sent through the preset frequency channel. It is received by one or more receiver devices which are also tuned to the same frequency. Here, the antenna converts the radio signals back to voice signals and this is heard through the speaker. The working is very simple and as long as the sender and receiver devices are within a specific distance, they can keep communicating without any disturbances. The distance between which these devices work depends on the power of the device used. It can range anywhere from a few meters (for devices bought online for cheap prices) to up to 10-12 kilometers (TalkPRO walkie talkies are good examples). When the management in an industry chooses walkie talkies, they need to find out the maximum distance between which two employees need to connect and invest on the right one. Walkie talkies do not incur airtime charges Like how a cell phone needs a network provider like Airtel or Vodafone to work with, a walkie talkie needs no such external provider. Each walkie talkie is tuned to a particular frequency and when two devices are in the same frequency band, they can communicate for no extra cost all 24 hours a day, every day of the year. They are the best devices to use for places like factories and manufacturing units where people are required to be in constant touch with each other. The talk time of a walkie talkie is 48 hours and after that their batteries just need to be charged before they can be used again. Walkie talkies need no network towers This is just an addition to the previous point. Most cell phones do not work in undergrounds or hilltops where their network provider does not have a tower to transmit and receive signals. A walkie talkie has no such problems as it does not depend on external signals. Walkie talkies can connect to several people at the same time This is a very interesting feature of a walkie talkie. It was mentioned above that any walkie talkie that is tuned to the transmitter’s frequency can hear what is being communicated. So a sender can communicate to ‘N’ number of receivers at the same time with just a press of a button. This is what makes these devices really special. Below is an example of how this would work in an industry setting. A packaging and delivery manager has 30 employees working under him in a factory. He is informed that the packaging label that was delivered today had a printing mistake and employees need to refrain from using it. The factory spans to a few kilometers and employees are at different locations, packaging goods produced from each production house. He can use his walkie talkie and connect with all 30 people in an instant. Information would be passed and the work can be put on hold until the error is rectified. Such licensed walkie talkies can have up to 16 channels. Each channel can be dedicated to different work groups in the industry and this ensures people from other departments are not disturbed when information is passed across one specific group. Communication in case of emergencies In industries where heavy machinery is used day in and day out, the chances of injuries or mishaps like fire/ electrocution are high. By having a walkie talkie around, once can immediately ask for help and arrange for first aid without searching for phone numbers on the mobile and waiting for the relevant person to pick up. Benefits of quick communication Reaching out to the right people at the right time can help allot tasks, crosscheck information and help prevent mistakes that occur due to lack of communication. It also ensures different teams are in constant touch with each other and goals are met and work is synchronously done. By using different channels, discrete communication within the teams is also possible. This saves time and the manager/lead can constantly keep track of the group’s performance. The main requirement of an effective team is good communication and walkie talkies make that possible every single day in thousands of industries all around the world. In a lot of cases, walkie talkies have saved lives, prevented critical errors and helped increase productivity of individuals and the factory or business as a whole.

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