ANDON SYSTEM is a part of Lean manufacturing unit. The Lean manufacturing process is used to eliminate all the waste from the production line. Andon’s system is a visual and audible alert system installed in the production units to record failures in the production chain. The Andon system ensures better management of production downtime's both automatically and manually. It allows better management of the resources of the industry for better productivity. The Andon system follows the Lean philosophy and helps in eliminating different sources of waste such as:
• The transportation waste associated with information transfer and transportation of equipments.
• The inventory waste related to the conservation of the stock and the resources involved in its management.
• The motion waste related to the movement of products and the operators.
• The time waste related to the waiting time of equipment, decisions or the end of the machine cycle.
• The wastage due to over-processing.
• The waste associated with the overproduction of the products.
• The defects wastage related to the poor quality products and the actions necessary for their recycling.
The Andon system is a visual tool that can easily display an anomaly on a workstation. It is an on-screen dashboard systeminstalled in the production lineto ensurescontinuous monitoring of the operations in progress. It sends an alert via the digital network about any glitch encountered in the production area and displayed directly on the screen to alert everyone.
Benefits of Andon’s System
The automatic visual display system ensures numerous benefits as below:
• The on time alert on the visual display platform provides a better understanding of the situation by reducing the time involved in finding information and breakdowns involved during the shutdown of the production line.
• Andon system ensures cost reduction by significant management of time, reducing production costs caused by unplanned downtime.
• It provides better communication in the industry. The future of the industry is characterized by the connectivity related to the exchange of information and data in real time. The visual and sound displays promote a better flow of communication between the various stakeholders.
• It provides better control over the anticipating problems in the production area. Andon allows maintenance and management teams to have more control over the production unit.
• Andon system effectively collects the information about the functioning of the production floor so that the production chain must go from the lowest levels of the organization’s hierarchy to decision-making positions.
Andonsystem could act as a heart of Lean manufacturing approach because it opens door to various continuous improvement approaches that aim to optimize the plant’s performance at all levels.It is obvious to say that Andon has anvital place in the connected industry. Coupled with digital work instructions, operators now have all the tools to improve their productivity and efficiency. Robato Systems is a leader in the automation and digitalization solutions in various sectors. To enquire about Andon’s system, book your demonstration at www.robatosystem.com.
