How to Use Andon Alert

Andon Alert is a real-time factory floor alerting and monitoring platform. When something goes wrong at a workstation (a machine goes down, a quality issue appears, or parts run out), a worker submits an alert directly from their workstation. The right people are immediately notified by SMS and email, and the alert stays visible on every screen until it's resolved.

The term Andon (行灯) comes from the Toyota Production System, a signal used to surface problems immediately. Traditionally, this meant expensive stacks of hardware lights and dedicated wiring. Andon Alert delivers the same real-time visibility through software, running on the computers and monitors already on your factory floor.

The default solution for factory floor communication is still a walkie-talkie, or worse, a worker walking across the floor to find a supervisor. These approaches share a critical flaw: there's no record that any of it happened. The problem was reported, maybe it was handled, and the moment passed. Next time the same machine breaks, the team starts from scratch.

Built-In SOPs: Prevent the Next Incident

Every alert carries a complete record: the workstation, the alert type, when it was triggered, any message the worker typed, who acknowledged it, when it was resolved, and the full notification history. Over time, your alert history becomes a de facto Standard Operating Procedure library: a searchable record of exactly what broke, why, and how it was fixed.

When a machine fails for the third time in a month, you have the data to make the case for preventive maintenance. When a new supervisor joins, they can review historical resolutions before their first shift. That institutional knowledge no longer walks out the door.

Signing up takes a few minutes. Choose a plan, complete checkout through Stripe's secure hosted payment page, and you're immediately directed to set up your factory. No waiting for a sales call, no hardware to ship.

Choosing a Plan

Plans are differentiated by the number of workstations you need to monitor. Start with the Starter plan if you're evaluating the system or have a smaller floor, and scale up to Professional or Enterprise as you grow. All plans include SMS and email notifications, unlimited users, full reporting, and the kiosk interface.

Checkout Flow

After a successful payment you're taken directly to the factory onboarding form. This is where your factory is created in the system and you're assigned as its Factory Admin.

What You'll Enter

After Onboarding

Once onboarding is complete you're redirected to your main dashboard. A set of default alert types (Emergency, Safety Concern, Maintenance, Materials, and Manager) are created automatically. From the Admin panel you can set up workstations and invite your team; from the Supervisor Dashboard you can see your factory floor in real time.

A workstation is any position on your factory floor you want to monitor independently: a machine, an assembly station, a quality inspection point, or an entire department. Each workstation has its own dedicated screen, its own alert history, and its own on-call assignments.

Creating a Workstation

Navigate to Admin → Workstations → Create Workstation. Give it a clear, descriptive name workers will immediately recognize (e.g., "CNC Mill #3", "Welding Bay A", "Final Inspection"). Your plan's workstation limit determines how many you can create.

Alert Types

Alert types define the categories of problems a worker can report. Each has a name, a severity level (1 = highest priority), and a color shown on kiosk cards, the supervisor dashboard, and the status timeline. Four defaults are created for every new factory:

Contact support to add, edit, or remove alert types. You are free to customize names and colors to match your facility's terminology.

Each workstation runs the Andon Alert kiosk: a full-screen browser interface designed for quick use on the factory floor. It runs on the same computer already at the workstation, with no additional hardware required. The supervisor dashboard can be displayed on any wall-mounted monitor or TV in the same way.

Andon Alert uses a permission level system to control what each team member can see and do. Permissions are assigned per-factory, so a user can have different access levels at different facilities.

Invite Codes

New team members join through invite codes, which are unique links that pre-associate a registration with your factory. This ensures every user is correctly linked to your factory from the moment they create their account.

On-call assignments define who gets notified when an alert fires at a specific workstation, and how long the system waits before escalating to the next person. Each workstation manages its own on-call roster independently.

Adding Users to On-Call

From Admin → Workstations → On-Call Settings, add any user with Supervisor (400) level or higher. Set their default delay in minutes:

Notifications & Escalation

Andon Alert checks all active alerts every minute. For each unacknowledged alert, it evaluates every on-call user's delay, and sends a notification when elapsed time exceeds their threshold. Escalation is automatic and reliable with no manual intervention required.

Per-Alert-Type Delay Overrides

Users can have different delays for different alert types on the same workstation. A safety alert might always escalate immediately (0 minutes), while a parts-needed alert waits 10 minutes. These are configured from the On-Call Settings page by expanding a user's row and adding per-type overrides.

User Notification Preferences

Each user controls their own notification preferences from their personal dashboard:

The kiosk is the worker-facing interface: simple, fast, and designed for use in a loud, busy factory environment. A worker can trigger an alert in two taps.

Triggering an Alert

Acknowledging & Resolving

Supervisors can acknowledge or resolve alerts from the kiosk using their PIN, or from the supervisor dashboard. The complete alert lifecycle:

When a supervisor resolves an alert they can add a resolution note (e.g., "Replaced worn belt, machine back online"). That note is stored permanently with the alert record and appears in the admin alert history, building your SOP library over time.

The supervisor dashboard is the command centre for your factory floor: a live, auto-refreshing grid showing every workstation's current status at a glance. Display it on a wall-mounted monitor so the entire team can see floor status without asking.

Reading the Dashboard

Each workstation appears as a card. The card's color reflects the severity of its active alert type. A clear workstation shows a neutral state. Key indicators:

The Reporting dashboard gives Team Leads, Supervisors, and Managers a data-driven view of factory performance over time. Access it from the sidebar or from the supervisor factory page.

Summary Cards

Four time-range cards (Today, Yesterday, This Week, and Last Week), each showing:

Charts

Four charts update dynamically when you change the time range dropdown:

24-Hour Status Timeline

The 24-Hour Status Timeline shows the past 24 hours of activity for every workstation in a visual grid, similar to a service status page. Each row is a workstation. Each column is a 15-minute segment. Segments are colored by the highest-severity alert active during that window.

Each segment uses the same color as the alert type that was active, using the same colors you configure for each alert type across the rest of the system. For a full reference, see the Alert Types section above.

Hovering over any segment shows a tooltip with the workstation name, time range, and all alerts active during that window, including type, triggered/resolved times, and current status. Alerts that began before the 24-hour window but were still active when it starts are also captured.