Andon Board

An andon light, in its most common use, is a status indicator for a work area. It generally has green, yellow, and red lights in a stack. As the operator experiences abnormal conditions, he or she lights a different color. The colors have meaning. Yellow might be a call for help, and red might be a pending line stop. In many cases, the lights are accompanied by an audible alarm.

In sophisticated installations, the lights are connected to an andon board.

This andon board shows the status of all the lights for all the work areas. When a light is lit and the alarm starts sounding, the leadership, maintenance, and engineering teams, as well as any other teams involved in the andon process, can immediately see where they need to go to help solve the problem.

You can see an andon board in action in our andon process infographic series.

The Andon Board in Action