When orders slip or throughput slows, it’s rarely one big failure. Instead, it’s the countless small stalls that quietly pile up. An associate walks across the floor to use a wall phone. A supervisor repeats directions because the floor was too noisy. A shift starts late because no one knows what changed in the last hour.
Individually, none of these moments feel critical. But together, they drag the whole operation down.
Distribution centers are massive — some now sprawl nearly a million square feet, larger than 15 football fields. Yet many still rely on fixed tools like wall phones and badge-locked kiosks for communication. Every time an associate steps away from a station to place a call, or a manager shouts instructions hoping someone nearby hears, productivity quietly erodes.
And conditions make communication even harder. DCs are loud and communication breakdowns are common. Often, language barriers are the culprit. Supervisors may give direction in English while many associates are more comfortable in Spanish, leading to repetition, misinterpretation, or silence. Layer on the constant hum of conveyors, forklifts, and other machinery, and it becomes easy to see why critical instructions get missed and why communication on the floor is such a persistent challenge.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. warehouse and storage sector reported a record $2 billion in lost labor hours tied to inefficiencies like rework and miscommunication in 2023.
If these communication breakdowns were one-off instances, they wouldn’t be such a worry. But the problem is that they compound. A picker coming back from break, or a fresh team starting the night shift, needs to quickly align on priorities and fit into what was already in motion. If teams were already struggling to coordinate against a background of communication breakdowns, then this new picker or crew don't stand a chance when it comes to figuring out what was going on. Work ends up getting repeated, or the wrong tasks are prioritized. In any case, the momentum of the floor slows to a crawl.
These small issues remain constantly out of view, stacking up shift after shift until they snowball into noticeable delays. They’re only felt once things have already gone off the rails. By then, shipments are already late and more are backing up. Serious time and resources are needed to get things back on track.
But what if you could spot these problems the moment they surfaced and correct them before they grew? Imagine an app that not only revealed where breakdowns were happening but also gave you the tools to fix them right away. With AI that analyzes and summarizes conversations, Zello pinpoints communication issues as they occur. And with crystal-clear audio, real-time translation, and searchable transcriptions, those issues can be resolved immediately.
Imagine a worker in the middle of a picking shift who notices that the items on their cart don’t match what’s on the pick list. Instead of walking across the warehouse to track down a supervisor, they pull out a device to use Zello. Their voice is instantly translated so the supervisor hears it in perfect English. The worker explains the issue, and the supervisor quickly directs them to stop the current pick and move over to the direct-to-consumer zone, where a priority order is waiting to be filled. Even with the constant hum of conveyors and forklifts nearby, the worker hears the instruction clearly. And if loud machinery had made it hard to catch every word, they could simply replay the message or skim the transcript to confirm the details.
Later, at shift change, an AI summary highlights the picking error that had been flagged earlier in the day. The issue shows up in the daily email digest, giving supervisors a clear view of the problem and how it was resolved. They notice the mismatch came from an outdated pick list in one section of the warehouse. Before the next crew even clocks in, the supervisors update the pick list in the system and adjust the zone assignments so workers aren’t sent to the wrong location again. Instead of snowballing into repeated delays, the problem is caught, documented, and fixed before it spreads.
Had AI not flagged the problem, supervisors might have missed the outdated pick list entirely, and the same mistake would have repeated until it caused real delays. Zello breaks that cycle. By surfacing small breakdowns the moment they happen and combining that visibility with clear audio, instant translation, transcription, and replay, Zello makes problems impossible to ignore and gives teams the tools to solve them before they slow the floor.
Stat to consider: A 2024 MHI industry report found that 61% of DC leaders rank real-time workforce visibility as their #1 challenge.
With Zello, you get that visibility plus the tools to act, so invisible issues never turn into major delays.
Future-proof your DC with Zello + AI. Contact us today.