What is an Andon Cord and why would I need it?

"Two weeks ago, I pulled the andon cord for our company," Toyoda wrote.

If one team is constantly pulling the andon cord, some of their work may be shifted to another team or more labor may be added.

"We had heavy arguments about installing the andon cord here," said Mr. Higashi, Nummi's president.

As in all its plants, behind every worker hangs the andon cord, which, when pulled, instantly summons a supervisor with the power to stop the line before any error is passed on.

Protect Your Business from Dishonest Employees 10 Ways to Reduce Energy Consumption Do You Have an Andon Cord?

Still, in the article, Mr Toyoda boasted that two weeks ago he halted production of eight models by pulling the so-called andon cord, a quality-control device with which every Toyota worker can stop production.

"Two weeks ago, I pulled the andon cord for our company," Toyoda said, equating the company's recent production suspension to the cord a factory worker can use to halt an assembly line if a problem is detected.

In some cases, it has done so with inventions, like the andon cord, which any worker can pull to stop the assembly line if he notices a problem, or kanban, a card system that allows workers to signal when new parts are needed.

But in the broadest sense, Toyota itself failed to pull the andon cord on this issue, and treated a growing safety issue as a minor glitch — a point the company’s executives are now acknowledging in a series of humbling apologies.

Company failed to pull the 'andon cord' In Toyota lore, the ultimate symbol of the company’s attention to detail is the “andon cord,” a rope that workers on the assembly line can pull if something is wrong, immediately shutting down the entire line.

Toyota has long been known in business circles for its culture of quality, the vaunted "Toyota Way," with its cycle of continuous improvement and the power of any employee on the assembly line to stop production to fix problems by pulling a so-called "andon cord."