Digital Andon

An Andon, in the context of manufacturing, is a mechanism for ensuring that problems which occur during production are immediately recognized and resolved with long-term fixes so they do not reoccur in the future. Traditionally, an Andon consists of an Andon cord pulled by the operator to signal that there is a problem and an Andon light, which calls attention to that problem.

More important than the physical mechanism is the underlying philosophy, which is to encourage operators and supervisors to work together to find the root causes of problems and implement long-term fixes to resolve those problems.