How do you foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning from Andon and escalation systems?

@Toyota has a great example of Andon in their manufacturing plants. If you ever get a chance to visit one of their manufacturing plants, jump at the opportunity. Not all plants are open to the public. There is a plant in Ontario, Canada that you can book a tour of, either as an individual or group. Highly recommend it. Matt Rebeiro #process #andon #lss #leansixsigma

Remember, you can “see” Andon in operation in facilities but it is important to understand the ‘system’ that makes it work - standard work, repeatable process, working pitch and 70% line, support functions able to answer the call, problem solving skills in all…..culture, transparency, openness, welcoming problems, 5why and not 5who…and more. The lights and sounds are easy to replicate, and a working system takes so much more.

Andon is used to highlight that there's a problem and that needs to be solved. However if the culture in the organisation does not support that, you can have as many andons you want, it will not work is designed to. It is not just visiting or copying toyota, it is about what is behind the scenes that drive that culture of continuous improvement.

While using Andon lights/flags it is important to remember that they reside within a larger system, and everyone from the cell operator to maintenance and leadership should have an understanding of what green or red means. For some, red could mean cell-down due to a frequent equipment reliability issue, down due to lack of material or due to a machine change over. The point being, Andon should be a quick signal to all that there is a specific issue that needs resolved by support teams and the production team.

In my opinion comparing both culture the difference is upper management if upper management only believe their first layer like in cabinet meeting they will have no idea what's going on unless the do management change starting from bottom to top layer there is reason so many people leave their job as their manager believed in gossip and promote this culture So it is not team work

Good escalation structures make it possible to isolate problems early and limit their impact wherever possible. Defined action structures and escalation patterns can help employees choose the right level of escalation if they are inexperienced. Good communication channels should allow for real-time escalation through different TIER levels.

Here’s what I’ve used, and with respect to the 700 character limit, to foster a culture of continuous improvement using Andon and escalation systems: 1. Stress the value of continuous improvement. 2. Implement Andon systems to identify production issues. 3. Encourage problem escalation for resolution. 4. Provide regular training on these systems. 5. Celebrate improvements made through these systems. 6. Regularly review and enhance these systems. The goal is to empower everyone to identify and solve problems, leading to better processes and products.

I completely agree and something I’ve learned is that by pushing for a bottom up Lean mentality, as opposed from the top down, everyone begins to look at every day tasks from the Lean mindset!

In our Nonwoven production plant, we've leveraged Andon and escalation by treating every alert as a learning chance. For instance, when a machine issue was flagged, we didn't just fix it; we delved deeper to find the root cause, leading to better material quality from suppliers. Through weekly reviews and continuous feedback, we've ingrained a culture of swift response and proactive problem-solving, constantly refining our processes.

With my experience, Andon and escalation system is being used in the Apparel industry. Here it's name is Traffic Light System. In the stitching assembly line, if there is any problem occurred (machine breakdown), the operator turned on the red light, mechanic goes straight to that machine and try to resolve the issue. In some cases the fault is documented in the tabs for reference and if the defect is not resolved by the end of a specific time period than a alert is escalated automatically to the management team. It tells the severity of the issue and then everybody try to solve the problem.