Andon: How to better control its production thanks to advance/delay?

Although it was invented by the car industry in the 1950s, Andon then became part of today factories as a visual management tool for the production chain. In fact, Andon is a Japanese term that can be translated as “paper-lantern”.

Let’s discover what Andon Advance / Delay brings to the industrial production chain!

Understand what visual management is

Simply, the Andon is defined as a visual or sound signal that is on the production line. This visual management tool can be activated manually by the operators or automatically by the machines.

So, Andon can have two objectives:

To alarm the operators and all the contributors of the origin of a certain anomaly which could affect the production: This is the Anomaly Andon. It allows to anticipate production downtimes and to quickly intervene on any dysfunction.
Inform the various people of the plant on the progress of production. It is, in this case, the Andon Advance/Delay which allows regulating the rate of production according to its progress.

Andon – advance/delay to better control the production chain

Implanted along the supply chain, the Andon acts as a production indicator. He informs the various people about the goal, the progress and the delay of the production.

In fact, the Andon Advance/Delay works in real-time to provide instant visibility of the activity. It allows the various parties to locate the parts in production in real-time in order to plan the necessary actions according to the progress. In other words, the Andon Advance/Delay allows to monitor production and anticipate the delay and progress.

With this visual management tool, supervisors and managers will have the opportunity to intervene instantly to correct any anomaly. By facilitating decision-making, the Andon Advance/Delay allows a better control of production in order to achieve the plant objectives.

Andon – advance/delay for better coordination with suppliers and customers

Implanted within the workshops, the Andon advance/delay facilitates the management of logistics. In fact, depending on the real-time progress of the production, it is possible to plan the supply and delivery in an optimal way.

Improved management of production delay allows the company to maintain a healthy relationship with suppliers and customers. Combined with Kaizen tools, the Andon Advance/Delay allows the company to save time and improve its performance.

Industry 4.0 uses all the tools available to build performance and maintain healthy relationships with its various partners. Andon is one of the essential tools to achieve the objectives. The information must flow as quickly as possible to ensure relevant decision-making. Thus, this visual management tool fits perfectly into a connected factory that exploits the digital technologies of internal communication.

Which Andon tool to use?

At Picomto, we have developed an Andon module, to support manufacturers in their digital transformation. Coupled with digital work instruction software, operators now have all the tools to increase their efficiency and productivity.