Visual control of production lines

Visual monitoring is a system of elements that are employed on production lines and in all aspects of the work site to facilitate follow-up of performance, reduce problems and reduce losses in multiple directions, and this page deals with one aspect of these elements.

Automatic stomach stop and human intervention technique in Japanese JIDOKA

§ One of the elements that helps to quickly solve production problems and build high quality is employing the concept of self-stopping of the equipment, which means the ability of production equipment (one machine) to sense and identify any malfunction or shortcoming in the performance of the equipment, as well as follow up on the product produced by the equipment and identify any deviation from the specifications Its quality, and in this case the machine itself depends, and the number of the machine (station) is lit on a large board so that the supervisor of the production unit can see it. In this case, either the worker supervising the machine rectifies the defect, or the production supervisor intervenes quickly to solve the problem, or through the work team, Or stop the whole production line if needed and this helps to build 100% quality.

The technique of automatic stop of the stomach and human intervention is called in Japanese JIDOKA.

The technique of using the illuminated signboard in Japanese is called ANDON

The technique of using the illuminated signboard in Japanese ANDON

§ The worker is also allowed to stop the production line if he encounters a defect in his work area, where the process number lights up on the plate, and the supervisor goes directly to follow up on fixing the defect and re-running the production line.

This method represents a kind of daily improvement work and allows real-time identification of any problem related to any equipment, production process or defective product. It is a good employment of visual monitoring concepts and helps to produce a 100% quality product.

The possibility of stopping production lines does not mean that the lines stop constantly, but because of the tremendous speed in solving problems and preventing their recurrence, the lines do not stop at all.

Together, these elements (circulation card, production instruction card, automatic equipment stop, and illuminated panels) serve as a visual control system that facilitates production movement and ensures quality building during manufacturing.

Visual monitoring plays a major role in improving performance and reducing errors