Walk onto a well-run production floor and there is usually one screen everyone glances at without thinking: the andon board. It answers the only question that matters in the moment — is the line running, and if not, who’s on it?
What is an andon board?
An andon board is a shared display that shows the live status of every station or line in a work area. Where an andon system is the whole signal-and-respond loop, the andon board is the part you look at — the at-a-glance picture of what’s open, what’s waiting, and for how long.
A good board turns a floor full of separate machines into one readable status. Instead of walking the line to find out what’s wrong, a supervisor reads the board and knows instantly which station raised a call, what kind of call it is, and whether anyone has responded yet.
How an andon board works
When an operator raises a call — a machine fault, a material request, a quality check — a tile for that station lights up on the board. The tile shows:
- Which station raised the call;
- What type of call it is (down, material, quality, safety), usually color-coded;
- How long it has been waiting — a timer that counts up until someone responds;
- Status — waiting, acknowledged, or being worked.
The moment the right responder acknowledges and resolves the call, the tile clears — and every one of those events is recorded for reporting later.
What the colors mean
Andon boards borrow the traffic-light convention because it’s instantly understood:
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Running / normal — no action needed |
| Amber | Warning or a call is waiting for a responder |
| Red | Stopped or urgent — line down, needs help now |
The scheme is configurable, but the principle never changes: status has to be readable by color, from a distance, without stopping to think.
Andon board vs. andon light
These get confused, but they do different jobs. An andon light (or stack light) sits on one machine and shows that single station’s state. An andon board aggregates every station into one view. You typically want both: the stack light tells the operator at the machine, the board tells the supervisor watching the whole line.
Physical vs. digital andon boards
Traditional andon boards were physical grids of light bulbs, hard-wired to each station. They work, but they’re rigid: adding a station or changing a call type is an electrical job, and a light box can’t tell you how long anything took.
A digital andon board — a TV or monitor driven by software — removes those limits. It can show call type, station, live wait-time timers, responder names and running counts, all updating instantly. And because it’s software, every call is logged, so the same board that shows today’s status also produces your response-time reports.
The wireless, cloud-connected andon board
Destec’s Smart Call ANDON Board is a digital board fed by wireless call points — no rewiring to install or expand. Operators raise calls from wireless buttons or keypads; the board shows them live, color-coded by station and status; responders get the same call on a watch or phone; and every response time flows into Bell Cloud analytics. It’s the classic andon board idea, minus the electrical project — and with the data the old light boxes never gave you. Destec has built this kind of wireless plant signaling since 2006.
Do you need an andon board?
If your supervisors find out about downtime by walking the floor or waiting for someone to shout, a board pays back fast. Start with one line: put a digital board where the supervisor sits, wireless call points at the stations, and watch two weeks of response-time data. The board makes the problem visible; the data tells you what to fix.