Andon signals are straight-forward to understand as we are all use to seeing traffic lights on a road. Therefore ‘visually’ we have already jumped the first hurdle of understanding as we should be accustomed to the theory.
That theory is that the lights will change in order of ‘urgency’.
We don’t have to use these specific colours, for example blue, yellow, white, etc…can be used too and they will have a specific meanings.
In our example we start at green to denote, everything is OK. Just light on the road, you can pass through that junction as ‘in theory’ safe to do so. In our Andon example, we have signalled that conditions are normal and acceptable.
The use of orange is the start of things getting to a point of ‘caution’, where you are in-between ‘safe’ and as we will discuss ‘danger’.
Red is the final light in this example, and as mentioned, lets call it ‘danger’, but happy to change to another word that will state urgent action is required right now.
When you see red on the traffic light system, what do you do? Of course you stop! That’s the same here. Pull the Andon cord and stop the line and/or notify that immediate action is required at the spot you are at right now. This will vary in wording but the point is evident.
Now, what we haven’t discussed is the history of Andon but let’s just say Toyota is a very good place to start your further research…