Digital Andon system and activity management
Since 2015, PingFlow has been equipping the production lines with an Andon system, digital visual management and activity management to improve visibility and production performance: Factory efficiency gain from 2015 to 2018 of 4%, thanks in part to the Andon application.
Andon system has constantly evolved thanks to the know-how of the company Pingflow which has adapted to the specific demands of our company, such as the creation of backups for each person of the support services, the top start-ups that are created in our traceability.
Andon system has become an indispensable tool for the performance of our business and allows us to initiate continuous improvement actions thanks to the database analysis possibilities.
– Method services manager for Faiveley Transport Amiens
Goals
The Andon system is initially used at Faiveley Transport Amiens in order to prevent production operators from moving around or looking for a support person. This may occur during a blockage or stoppage while performing an PO (production order).
The support services using Andon are: Quality, Methods, Maintenance, Test benches, Technical, Leader, Team Leader, Logistics, Shipping, etc.
Challenges
In 2018, Faiveley incorporated new production tracking causes into the Andon system, such as requests for crates/ disposal of finished products or top start.
These are therefore causes of appeals different from production stoppages but linked to daily operating causes, resulting in an increase in the number of calls.
Solutions
Faiveley Transport Amiens is a production site for railway equipment that includes 50 different workstations. An administrator is trained to change the configuration of the Andon application. For example, in the method department with 5 persons, each person is in charge of an average of 10 workstations. The configuration allows the person to be assigned to the workstation for which he is responsible and to send him an SMS.
- The Andon call application is installed on each production workstation. It allows operators to trigger an Andon call, and automatically send a text message to someone in a support service.
- The “Andon processing” analysis application is installed on the computers of each person in a production support department. It allows you to view current Andon calls and manage the calendar of support resources assigned to the call point.
- The Andon application also allows you to connect to a database to view reports on calls/production stops. It allows the method team to study malfunctions (MUDA) by manufacturing station and to target problems and causes of non productivity. Quarterly meetings are held on the Andon’s reports with each department manager to study the data and supply an action plan.
View of the Andon display
Web views, created with the Pingflow tool, Pingview, allow to distribute real-time information about ongoing calls in a targeted way (for example, in the methods department, only Andon ”methods” calls will be displayed).
Results
Since the introduction of the Andon system at the Faiveley Transport Amiens site:
- In 2015 appropriation of the tool and creation of different causes by support service, establishment of means and interlocutors by support services. (means = telephones and screens for direct viewing of Andon calls).
- In 2016 the system evolves by creating causes for production operation (prod monitoring), in addition to the causes “Stop production”.
- Establishment of objectives for production support services over the time taken into account of a call.
- In 2017 massive development of the causes of calls Andon «functioning», and organization of quarterly meeting for the analysis of histories and the construction of action plans.
- In 2018, the number of Andon calls per day increased from an average of 80 in 2016/2017 to 117 in 2018 following the addition of the various “operating” call causes.
Conclusion
- 66,000 Andon calls since the implementation of the tool (sent by 110 operators distributed over 50 workstations),
- All the support services are covered by the Andon tool: from the management committee to the shipment (60 people),
- 55 different call causes identified for each workstation (for the 12 support services),
- 56 organizations and improvements actions of the Andon tool since its implementation.
