Andon is the Japanese term 行灯 for « lamp » or « lantern »A board indicating in real time the quantity produced/quantity to produce or a board which points out the location and the type of malfunctions on a production line.
Andon System can be related and applied to non-conformity, quality defects, production requirements, performance, equipment availability etc.
Andon in Details:
- The status of ongoing processes made visible with overhead LED displays, colored lights or computerized or LED displays. The devices are called Andon boards.
- When the equipment shuts down Andon flags or light, sometime with sound, signals that help is needed to solve a problem. This signaling system is called the Andon system.
- When a workstation in the assembly line signals a problem, the production line is not stopped immediately. The manufacturing team has time until the product moves to the next workstation to respond and address the problem, before the Andon turns red and stops the assembly line. If the problem is small enough that can be solved in time between two workstations, can be marked as success without stopping the line. If the problem is complex, the team can decide that the line should stop.
- The workstation detects the defects by using countermeasures and error-proofing (poka-yoke).
- Applications of Andon system is very vast can be seen in many B2B and B2C business for example airports, self-serving restaurants, call centers etc.
Andon board Color Codes:
Most organization uses common color code as described below:
- Green: Good Production is running smoothly.
- Yellow: Problem Noticed. A team need to be dispatched to fix the problem within in specified amount of time.
- Red: Problem Occurred. The operation will be stopped because the team is not able to fix the issue in time. Top management gets notified.
Benefits of Andon:
- Bring immediate attention to anomalies and problems as they occur in the manufacturing process.
- Provide a simple and consistent mechanism for communicating information on the plant floor.
- Encourage immediate reaction to quality, down time, and safety problems.
- Improve accountability of workers and operators by increasing their responsibility for “good quality” production
- Improve the ability of supervisors to quickly response towards manufacturing issues and to resolve them.
- Top management can get quick automatic notification if work has been stopped at a particular location.
- It majorly improves the downtime of any process.
