Features and Capabilities
Andon Tool gives manufacturing teams the tools to communicate, respond, measure, and improve without special hardware, ERP integration, or complicated setup.
Request Management
Production support requests with full lifecycle tracking from submission to completion.
- Live production-support requests appear instantly on department boards
- Request claiming assigns clear ownership and records claim time
- Status updates keep requesters and supervisors informed in real time
- Priority levels and color visibility make urgent requests stand out
- Notes and completion records provide context for every request
- Late calls never get lost: set a time limit for each priority, and a call nobody answers in time turns red on every board, the TV and the dashboard, and counts as Overdue in reports
- A "Blocking Production" flag turns a call yellow so a stopped line stands out
- Give each kind of call its own color, and group request buttons into categories (Maintenance, Quality, Material…) to filter the board
- On a phone, each call is a card with a big Claim button, so responders can take a call from anywhere
- Workers can add a photo of the problem, so the responder sees it before walking over (Modern display, 200 photos a month)
Visibility
Real-time views for every role — from the shop floor to the front office.
- Department views show all open requests for each production area
- Work-area views focus on specific zones within a department
- Shared floor-device use supports kiosks and common-area screens
- TV display support enables large-screen boards for the production floor
- Open and overdue requests are highlighted for immediate attention
- Modern display: big picture buttons made for gloves, 2 per row on a phone and up to 5 on a TV, set per company or per device
- Downtime logged as "still down" shows as a live card with a running timer, and anyone allowed can tap End downtime
- Design your own TV slides with text, pictures and shapes, and play them in the KPI slideshow and on the TV dashboard
Measurement
Track response activity, completion data, and department performance over time.
- Response time measured from request submission to claim
- Completion time measured from submission to completion
- Request history preserves full details for every completed request
- Department reporting provides aggregated performance data
- Optional shift-based timing aligns measurements with scheduled work hours
Administration
Configure the system to match your organizational structure and workflows.
- Company roles define what each user can see and do
- Plant controls separate data and settings by facility
- Department controls manage teams and work areas independently
- Configurable work areas match your actual floor layout
- Configurable needs define the types of requests available to floor users
- Browser-based access requires no installation or special hardware
- A Plant Support role for engineers, CI and quality people: boards, KPIs, downtime and reports for their plant, without access to user management or people’s records
- Preview exactly what each role can see before you assign it
KPI Boards
Daily status tracking against your own criteria, visible on the floor and on TV displays.
- Daily green/yellow/red status entry against your own criteria
- Month grid and wall-calendar views show the full month at a glance
- Comments on any day for context and notes
- Missed days show gray for visible accountability
- Board images for announcements, safety photos, and HR communications
- TV slideshow with per-slide timers for rotating displays
- Split-screen TV dashboard: KPI + request board + schedule board + weather + documents
- All-departments Eagle View for plant managers to monitor every board at once
Downtime Tracking
Log production stoppages in seconds and see your biggest losses ranked by time lost.
- Anyone on the floor can log a stoppage in about four taps — no training required
- Preset reasons per department with automatic waste tagging using the 8 DOWNTIME wastes
- "Still down" option for ongoing events — add the minutes later when the line is back up
- Supervisor review with Pareto analysis ranked by minutes lost, grouped by reason, work center, or waste category
- Filter by period, department, work center, or waste category to find your top drivers
- Planned vs unplanned separation so reporting reflects real losses, not scheduled maintenance
- Entries left ongoing are flagged so nothing falls through the cracks
Optional add-ons
Two add-ons on top of a Regular or Enterprise plan, each with its own monthly price. Both are switched on for your first 30 days at no extra cost. See pricing.
Skill Matrix
Add-on · $150 a monthKnow who can run what, and keep the current work instruction at the machine.
- Who is certified on which skill, at what level, and where coverage is one absence away from trouble
- A library of work instructions and procedures that flags "needs review" when a new revision comes out
- Post a QR code at the work center so operators open the current revision; turn on a public link when a visitor or contractor needs it
- Training records, development plans and a printable one-page review sheet per employee
- Conversation records, with an optional word-for-word transcript
C.I.B., the Continuous Improvement Bot
Add-on · $250 a month, 1,000 messagesA continuous improvement coach that already knows your plant.
- A CI coach that starts from your own downtime and KPI data, and runs 5 Whys, fishbone, PDCA and A3 one question at a time
- A Monday CI brief for each plant, plus a monthly report, built from last week’s numbers and never people’s names
- A Kaizen board with a "did it work?" check after each fix
- Turns meeting notes or a recorded meeting into decisions and action items
- Translate: talk with your crew in English and Spanish
- Drafts a work instruction from photos or a short video; a person reviews it before it’s published
- Safety Walk: photograph an area for possible concerns tied to OSHA general industry standards and your own policies. A second set of eyes, not a safety inspection