In the manufacturing industry, an andon is a status display device used to alert the work team—by sound or visually—that assistance is needed immediately, or to identify where they need to concentrate their efforts. An andon device allows an operator to ask for help and it provides information.

With modern andon systems, the supervisors and the assembly-line team are alerted by devices such as electronic boards with colored lights, text, graphics, alarms, music, or prerecorded messages that can specify the current condition and the required action to rectify the situation.      

Andons can be activated manually when there’s trouble on the assembly line (e.g., Lucy stuffing truffles in her mouth) or automatically when machines detect defective parts or stock outages and immediately stop.  

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