PNH-201C
Breakdown button at the workstation, in the red-flap version: a call for maintenance, repeated every 30 s until cancelled on the spot. Battery-powered.
Quantity: 20
Example configurationIndustry
Radio Andon: breakdowns go to maintenance, material shortages to logistics
Buttons with red and green flaps at every workstation, a receiver with Tablica Synoptyczna in the maintenance department, pagers for technicians and logistics staff, and a text message to the night-shift supervisor.
- 20workstations on the line
- 40buttons: breakdown and material
- 5pagers: maintenance and logistics
01 / Investment context
What problem does this configuration solve?
The assembly line has 20 workstations. When one of them stops, the worker has to tell the right person: a technician if a tool or a machine has stopped, or logistics if material has run out. Without a signal from the workstation, they do it by leaving the job and looking for the team leader — and by then it is not only their own workstation that is standing still.
From a distance both kinds of stoppage look the same, yet different people respond to them. A technician called to a material shortage loses time, and a logistics worker cannot clear a fault. Nobody knows how long the response took, either, so any discussion of how work is organised rests on impressions rather than data.
The investor’s goal: A call sent from the workstation with a single button reaches the right person, lasts until it is cancelled on the spot and leaves the response time in the archive.
How does this configuration work?
Each workstation has two sealed buttons with a cancel key (PNH-201C): one with a red flap for breakdowns and one with a green flap for material shortages. The call repeats every 30 seconds until the person who has come cancels it with the key on the same button — so cancelling happens at the workstation, not in an office.
In the maintenance department an identification receiver (IDO-1000) passes the calls to Tablica Synoptyczna on a touch-screen computer (SPA-1000/T), which shows “Workstation 12 — breakdown” and logs the time of the call and of its cancellation. Technicians carry pagers (OBI-4SH) programmed with the breakdown buttons only, and logistics staff carry pagers with the material buttons, so each person receives only their own calls.
On the night shift, when nobody in maintenance is watching the screen, an SMS module (GSU-SP1000/L) sends the events registered by Tablica Synoptyczna to the shift supervisor. The module works together with the software, so the computer running Tablica Synoptyczna stays on at night as well. The receiver and the module run on one 12 V DC power supply.
02 / Operating principle
From signal to action.
Two buttons at every workstation keep breakdowns and material shortages apart. Each call goes to the right people.
Breakdown
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01 / Signal source
PNH-201C Button with a red flapThe worker calls a technician when a tool or machine stops.
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02 / Reception
IDO-1000 Receiver and Tablica SynoptycznaTablica shows “Workstation 12 — breakdown”; at night, a text goes to the shift supervisor.
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03 / Notification
Maintenance Technicians’ pagersThe pager shows the technician the number of the workstation with the breakdown.
Maintenance answers breakdowns, not logistics. The call repeats every 30 seconds until the technician cancels it at the workstation; the archive logs the response time.
Material shortage
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01 / Signal source
PNH-201C Button with a green flapThe worker calls logistics when the material runs out.
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02 / Reception
IDO-1000 Receiver and Tablica SynoptycznaTablica shows the workstation and the type of call; at night, a text goes to the shift supervisor.
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03 / Notification
Logistics Logistics staff pagersThe pager shows logistics staff the number of the workstation that is out of material.
Logistics deals with shortages, not a technician. The person who brought the material cancels the call at the workstation, and the archive logs the response time.
A simplified functional diagram.
03 / Installation components
Devices in this configuration
An example selection — the number of devices depends on the site.
PNH-201C
Material-shortage button next to it, in the green-flap version: a call for logistics, cancelled by the person who has brought the material.
Quantity: 20
IDO-1000
Identification receiver in the maintenance department: recognises each of the 40 buttons and passes the events to Tablica Synoptyczna, which labels them with the workstation name and the type of call.
Quantity: 1
SPA-1000/T
Touch-screen computer with the Tablica Synoptyczna software: a list of open calls and an archive with the time each call was raised and cancelled.
Quantity: 1
OBI-4SH
Pagers: 3 for maintenance technicians, set to the breakdown buttons, and 2 for logistics staff, set to the material buttons. They show the workstation number.
Quantity: 5
GSU-SP1000/L
SMS module for Tablica Synoptyczna, LTE: on the night shift it sends events to the shift supervisor; supports up to 10 phone numbers.
Quantity: 1
Installation component
12 V DC power supply
Power supply in the maintenance department for the receiver and the SMS module; both accept 12 V DC.
Quantity: 1
Catalogue figures describe a device under stated conditions, usually in open terrain, and are not a guaranteed range in every installation. Device quantities in the examples are indicative.
04 / Value for the investor
What does this solution give you?
The call reaches the right person
Breakdowns go to the maintenance pagers and shortages to the logistics pagers — nobody runs to a call they cannot deal with.
Response times as data
The archive shows how long each call lasted from raising to cancellation — data for discussing work organisation without introducing an MES.
No cabling along the line
The buttons run on batteries and are fitted at the workstations without running wires — also on a line whose layout will change some time later.
05 / Before installation
What needs to be settled for a similar investment?
Before devices are chosen, what matters is the site’s conditions and how the system ties into the final installation.
Requirements to verify
- This is a channel for people to report problems, not a machine safety circuit: it does not stop the line and does not replace an emergency stop. Nor is it an OEE measurement.
- A range test near the line’s metal structures and racking, before the buttons are fitted and the receiver’s location is chosen; it also checks that the pagers receive calls throughout the hall.
- Who responds to which call on each shift: how many technicians and logistics staff there are, and who receives the text messages at night.
- Workstation names and call types to be entered in Tablica Synoptyczna, and which buttons are assigned to the pagers of each department.
- 12 V DC power in the maintenance department for the receiver and the SMS module, the Tablica Synoptyczna computer running around the clock, and mobile network coverage at that spot.
Example configuration — it needs a technical selection for your site.
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