LED lights in a large range of sizes and designs are supplemented with audible products, many of which are multi tine and volume adjustable.

A well known international on-line retailer with fulfilment centres across the UK has an extensive and complex network of conveyors and picking areas to process customer orders. It is vital that appropriate warning devices are fitted to conveyors to warn operators of the start and stop of operation of a line. A simple solution has been to fit the equipment with simple sounder devices which emit a warning, but very often such devices can be disabled by mischievous operators and rendered useless.

Having carried out an extensive review of the operation Werma proposed an upgrade of the handling equipment by fitting sophisticated bright flashing beacons with integral volume adjustable multitone sounders from its 444 and 423 Series products.

The plant operator was able to adjust the volume output of the sounders to ensure that the local area – rather than the entire warehouse – was being warned as appropriate. In addition, different tones could be selected which enabled staff to recognise in which area a warning was being sounded. The very bright and long lasting LED flashing beacons ensure that a clearly visible optical warning can be seen by all. Care was taken to mount the beacon/sounders in elevated positions to ensure that they could not be tampered with.

Disruptions to productivity can be reduced significantly by deploying andon light systems on packing and despatching lines. Andon light systems indicate the status of a workstation and are commonly used in some of the UK’s largest on line retail operations. In a simple traffic light configuration the green light may indicate the workstation is operative, an amber light shows that supervision is required to attend to a developing concern, such as shortage of packing material, while a red light can be deployed to indicate a serious disruption to the work flow.

Werma’s andon light systems can be enhanced with a simple low cost wireless monitoring package called WIN. A wireless transmitter unit is fitted to the andon light set and transmits the status light change to a receiver unit attached to a client PC or directly into the IT network infrastructure. Multiple users in key positions can then view the status of the workstations and react to disruptions to productivity. Remote key users can be notified by screen alerts and WIN can generate emails to be sent automatically to nominated addresses, thus ensuring that appropriate people are notified promptly as soon as issues occur.

 

Changes in the status of the andon lights are stored on the Werma software and can be reviewed by any client operating WIN on his local PC. Runtime and productivity screens give accurate and impartial historical views on the productivity of workstations and management reports can be generated and exported to, for example, excel with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Improved transparency of the operation, identifying issues promptly as they occur and monitoring response time to fixing the issues are just some of the benefits the system offers.

A typical starter pack, including hardware and all software costs, can works out as little as £350 per workstation, and the system, being wireless is simply to install or retrofit to existing andon light systems.