An Andon board creates transparency and responsiveness in lean production!
Andon-Board — Communicate clearly, alert quickly, motivate employees, increase efficiency!
Visualize key figures and clearly communicate goals with an Andon board and production control stations and keep an eye on downtimes at all times! An Andon board creates transparency — so everyone in production is on the same level of knowledge.
Faster alerting through digital fault messages reduces the response time to downtimes. Categorized error messages also enable process optimization and the targeted elimination of the causes of malfunctions.
Fault reports are useless if they are not delivered to the right people. Get automated information about malfunctions or downtimes via app, smartwatch, phone, SMS or e‑mail.
Transparency and responsiveness for your manufacturing
Transparent:
Our Andon Boards
Whether key figures, current malfunctions or other operational message texts. Our Andon boards allow all employees to be brought up to date with the same information.
Signaling:
Alarming solutions
Downtime notifications only make a difference if the right employee hears about them. With our Notification Center, calls, SMS, emails or app notifications can be used for this purpose.
Communicative:
Digital fault messages
Avoid long reporting chains for malfunctions through digital input options. Give workers the possibility to call for help or report downtimes.
Optimizable:
Evaluation options
The goal of an Andon solution should be fewer disturbances. The basis for such optimizations is the historical data of the messages. Pull valuable information from disruption reasons and times.
Flexible and simple: the apronic Andon board
We understand andon boards as important components of the continuous improvement process and as a well-suited lean manufacturing tool. Therefore, during the development of prodwatch we made sure that you as the user have all the strings in your hands!
Via the graphical editor integrated in prodwatch you can create the andon display yourself and adapt it again and again. For this purpose, you will find many so-called widgets in the editor, which you can freely place and configure. Display the remaining shift or cycle time as a bar chart or clock. The display of status information of the workstations (malfunction, master call, material call, etc.) can also be done via a widget. Target, actual and trend piece counts can also be easily displayed. In addition, there are many other widgets, such as scrolling texts, OEE and target-actual diagrams, graphic separators and much more.
In addition to the self-designed page shown here, you also have the option of displaying your own slideshow consisting of any number of pdf documents. This allows you to bring your own content to your Andon display easily, clearly and quickly!
Learn how to use andon boards in the spirit of lean manufacturing in our whitepaper!
Our free whitepaper gives you practical ideas and implementation suggestions for your Andon board. From the simple display of production key figures to the comprehensive alarming solution for malfunctions. Let us inspire you!
Andon Boards in Lean Manufacturing
Lean production, also known as lean manufacturing, uses a variety of tools to minimize waste. Waste can be time, labor, money, material or space. An Andon system helps with the idea of this minimization of waste through the resulting transparency of the production status and other key figures. This allows, for example, to react quickly in the event of disruptions and to prevent wasted time. This quickly increases productivity and employee identification with manufacturing. Product scrap also becomes transparent, which also provides a focus on wasting materials.
Andon boards and attached or integrated alarm systems are a good way to make manufacturing as transparent as possible so that waste can be detected and stopped. With prodwatch you can freely design the andon boards, show short-term messages via message texts and display current documents at the workstations. These and many other functions allow the integration of prodwatch into a continuous improvement process.
The 8 types of waste in terms of lean management
In lean manufacturing, the eight types of waste are often mentioned. These wastes lead to inefficient production and should be eliminated as far as possible. The different types of waste can be remembered using the mnemonic DOWNTIME:
D
Defects
O
Overproduction
W
Waiting
N
Not-utilizing Potential
T
Transport
I
Inventory
M
Motion
E
Extra Processing
By using lean production methods and tools, these types of waste can be made visible and eliminated to the greatest extent possible. Systematically eliminating these types of waste usually leads to higher productivity, better quality and lower costs. Typically, waste is addressed through lean methods such as Kanban, SMED, Kaizen or 5S. An Andon board is particularly helpful in providing transparency and identifying inefficient manufacturing processes. But also the information of workers about the manufacturing process at the workstations plays an important role.
For example, fault messages can be used to address the “W” in downtime. Instead of waiting a long time for help or reporting malfunctions on foot, digital reporting tools can be used. This means that errors in the process can be responded to quickly and the workers, and thus the entire assembly process, do not have to wait. The “T” can also be optimized in this way by providing materials management with driving orders that are accurate to requirements. An Andon board thus has a direct influence on many aspects of DOWNTIME:
How does an Andon board benefit our customers and you?
Keeping an overview of manufacturing with Andon boards
Fast response to malfunctions or worker questions
Minimize downtime through targeted alarming
Motivate workers through information
It is always difficult to measure the effects of individual systems on complex manufacturing processes. Especially with a product as versatile as prodwatch, there are countless starting points for possible savings or improvements in the processes. Some profitability analyses of our customers showed that the system was break-even after less than one year. We have been able to determine the following empirical values with our customers in different industries after using prodwatch.
Andon-Boards from apronic
We at apronic have been allowed to implement many Andon applications for our customers. Therefore, we have a comprehensive know-how of what is possible and how it can be implemented. In numerous projects, a wealth of experience has grown that has culminated in standard software for assembly digitization prodwath. This offers you a comprehensive tool for all described andon applications. We are looking forward to your call and to being allowed to bring you to new peak performances of your production in an exciting project!
