ANDON & Visual Board Templates (print-ready)

Why visual controls matter

Teams adopt visual controls so abnormalities, priorities, and the right next actions are obvious at a glance. These resources focus on simplicity: clear signals, standard meanings, regular refresh cadence, and minimal text so teams see what needs attention and can act fast.

What this pack contains

• Printable board templates for common uses: Shift board, ANDON board, simple Kanban lane board, and a compact metrics widget sheet (sizes for A3/A2 and US Ledger/Tabloid suggested).
• Color guidance and a recommended legend for consistent meaning across locations.
• Sample daily metrics widgets with suggested definitions so teams measure the same things consistently.
• Practical instructions for placement, mounting, and content refresh cadence (who updates, when, and how).
• Deployment checklist and common pitfalls to avoid (mal hungers).

Quick principles to follow

• Keep signals obvious: Use a limited palette, large type, and clear icons/labels.
• Make status actionable: Every red or amber state should map to an owner and next action.
• Standardize meanings: Use the same colors, symbols, and cadence across similar teams so signals transfer across areas.
• Design for update: Place boards where the team works and make refresh simple (dry-erase, magnetic cards, or quick printed inserts).

Color and legend guidance

Limit to three primary status colors plus neutral backgrounds:

• Green – Normal / Within target
• Yellow – Degradation, needs attention soon
• Red – Abnormal, stop and respond
• Neutral (white/grey) – Informational headings, static labels

Provide a small legend in the top-left of every board. If you use icons (bell for ANDON, clock for delay), place them consistently and include the owner responsible for escalation.

Placement, size, and mounting

• Mount where the team congregates—near the work cell, not in a distant office.
• Choose size by viewing distance: A3/11x17 for small teams, A2/17x22 or Tabloid for larger cells, and a wall board for multi-cell coordination.
• Use durable materials: laminated prints, dry-erase overlays, magnetic backs, or plexiglass with sticky notes for frequent changes.

Refresh cadence – who updates and when

• ANDON signals: Real-time. Respond immediately. The person who triggers should log the cause and the owner must act.
• Shift board: Update at shift start and at shift handover. Use it to capture shift goals, issues-to-watch, and quick metrics.
• Daily metrics widgets: Update once per day (end of shift or shift start) so the team can review trends during huddles.
• Kanban lane boards: Update as cards move. WIP limits should be visually enforced during the shift.

Sample daily metrics widgets (compact, consistent definitions)

• Safety – Near-miss or incident count (with definition of reportable events)
• Quality – Defect count or first-pass yield (%)
• Delivery – On-time shipments / orders (%) or takt-related delivery metric
• Productivity – Pieces per hour or simple OEE headline
• Improvement – Number of kaizens or suggestions closed this week

For each widget include a one-line definition and the period (shift/day/week) so values are comparable over time.

ANDON template conventions

• Keep the ANDON area small and highly visible: status lights (or colored cards), simple text field for short description, and a required 'owner' field.
• Define three signal types: Info (non-critical), Assist (need help), and Stop (line stop or critical failure).
• Capture minimal required info: timestamp, signal type, brief cause (1–6 words), immediate owner, and action taken.

Simple Kanban board template

Columns: Backlog / Ready / In Progress / Blocked / Done. Use large magnetic cards or printed cards with space for:

• Card title, priority or due date
• WIP limit visible at the top of 'In Progress'
• Block reason field if moved to Blocked

Printable settings and file notes

Prepare versions for two paper families: A-series (A3/A2) and North American (11x17, 17x22). Supply high-contrast PDF exports with crop marks and an alternate laminated-ready layout with margins for mounting. Use vector-based artwork for clean scaling.

Deployment checklist (quick start)

1. Pick one area and one visual control to pilot (ANDON or shift board).
2. Agree the objective, metric definitions, owner roles, and refresh cadence in a short kickoff (15 minutes).
3. Print and mount the template within sight of the team; populate the first day's data together during the first huddle.
4. Run the board for two weeks; capture feedback in the daily huddle and iterate on what to display or simplify.
5. Standardize successful elements and roll them to additional areas with the same color/legend conventions.

Common mistakes (mal hungers) and how to avoid them

• Decorative boards: Keep content purposeful—if a widget isn't used in decisions, remove it.
• Infrequently updated visuals: Match cadence to the metric. If updating is hard, simplify the widget or automate data capture later.
• Too many colors or metrics: Reduce to the minimum set that drives action.
• No owner for alerts: Every abnormal state must show who will act and how fast.

How to adapt these templates

Start with the supplied layouts, change only the titles, metric definitions, and owner names for your area. Keep iconography and color mappings the same so signals remain consistent across teams. For larger deployments, create a short style sheet (two pages) describing colors, fonts, and sizes so local prints remain consistent.

Next steps and suggested experiments

• Try a 2-week pilot with daily huddles and measure whether response time to red ANDONs improves.
• Record one example problem and its resolution each day to build a small improvement backlog tied to the board.
• Scale successful templates across similar cells and keep a central registry of local variations to preserve useful standardization.

Note for administrators: This content is designed to be paired with printable PDFs or editable vector files. When publishing, include the print-ready PDFs for A3/A2 and 11x17/17x22 and provide editable source files (PowerPoint or SVG) so teams can copy and adapt quickly.