An Andon board visualizes current and relevant key figures for employees and executives in this lean production. This can happen at the place of value creation, but also in the offices. This keeps the management’s contact with Gemba. With oee.ai, an Andon board can be installed in no time at a low cost anywhere in the factory.
Andon-Board as Management-Tool
Andon is a method of visual management and part of the Toyota production system or lean production. An Andon board should be simple, self-explanatory and support for process control.
Taiichi Ohno, the founder of the Lean philosophy, described in his 1978 book “Toyota Production System” the Andon system as follows:
“When one looks up, the andon (the line stop indication board) comes into view, showing the location and nature of trouble situations at a glance.”
Over time, Andon has become more and more an information board for all process involved employees. The board displays status information about the current production situation, such as the number of units produced per day or per hour, the level of on-time delivery to the customer, or the accumulated amount of backlog. In this way, all those involved in the process are aware of the current situation – and can act accordingly.
Andon for OEE-Vizualisation
At this point oee.ai starts. With oee.ai sensors installed, any standard TV or display can become an Andon board with a small extra box. The only requirements are that the device has an HDMI connection and that it is set up in the coverage area of a WLAN.
The small additional box is connected once with the local WLAN and connected via an HDMI cable to the display – and after a few simple steps, the Andon signal is displayed. The additional box is configured to cover its power requirements from a USB port on the display. As a result, no additional power supply is required and the additional box automatically moves up when the display is switched on. A so-called kiosk mode prevents unwanted misconfiguration.
In this way, the following information comes to every location:
In addition to the key figures in the upper area, the process flow over the shift is visualized in the lower half of the display. So it is easy for executives, e.g. to assess the stability of the process or the length of shutdowns ad-hoc and visually, without relying on trailing reports.
What’s Next?
We have sparked your interest. Contact us at info@oee.ai or call us: +49 (0) 241/401 842 75. We will gladly provide you with oee.ai sensors, the Andon box, and access to the analysis cockpit for a trial period. Only then you decide. Also here we are easy!