{"id":323,"date":"2022-09-28T05:54:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T05:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/2022\/09\/28\/pull-the-andon-cord\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T12:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T07:08:16","slug":"pull-the-andon-cord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/","title":{"rendered":"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<nav aria-label=\"Table of Contents\" class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents\"><ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#1-pull-the-cord-throw-an-alert\">1. Pull the cord, throw an alert<\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#2-culture\">2. Culture<\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#3-resolve-it-now\">3. Resolve it now<\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#4-continuous-learning\">4. Continuous learning<\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#who-is-working-on-these-practices-now\">Who is working on these practices now?<\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#andon-cord-in-software-environments\">Andon Cord in Software environments<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/nav>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Andon Cord catapulted Toyota into 40 years of unprecedented quality and domination. What is Andon Cord and how did they do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The production costs are super high. Actually, they have always been high. In 1984, it cost <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/NUMMI#History\">NUMMI<\/a> $15,000 per minute. That&#8217;s $42,758 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.in2013dollars.com\/us\/inflation\/1984?amount=15000\">today&#8217;s value<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This means any issues in production also results in great losses. Toyota knew this very well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer took upon the task and introduced <strong>Andon cord<\/strong> in Toyota&#8217;s manufacturing plants in the early 1900s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><u>The problem:<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take the assembly line, each employee has a specific job to do and pass the car to the next person.<br>\nHowever, if the next person finds a defect in the process of doing their job then it takes time to fix this problem. It also stalls the work for everyone ahead in the assembly.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--kg-card-end: markdown--><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This costs a lot of money and also low quality in their cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also, in a situation like this, an employee could end up <em>monkeypatching<\/em> a solution which lead to poor quality and increase in production costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><u>The solution:<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There had to be a better way. So, Taiichi Ohno introduced Andon Cord and here&#8217;s how it worked<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Install a long rope across the assembly line. When a defect is found by any employee, they simply pull the rope which triggers an alert and halts the entire production line. Following this, a line manager would work with the employee in understanding the defect to resolve the issue or pull the car out for further inspection.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--kg-card-end: markdown--><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Seems simple, doesn&#8217;t it? Everytime, an employee finds an issue &#8211; <em>pull the rope !<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In those days it may seemed like an extreme reaction, but it still worked great for Toyota. This rope is <strong>Andon Cord<\/strong> and for 40 consecutive years, this process led the foundation of Toyota&#8217;s unprecedented quality and domination in cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Taiichi_Ohno\">Taiichi Ohno<\/a> was later known as the Father of Toyota Production Systems<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"522\" height=\"390\" data-attachment-id=\"1127\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/image-7\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-7.png\" data-orig-size=\"522,390\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"image-7\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-7.png\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-7.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1127\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-7.png 522w, https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-7-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-7-400x300.png 400w, https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-7-200x150.png 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 522px) 100vw, 522px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Employee pulls the andon cord<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Andon Cord got pulled a LOT. Yet, it helped immensely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It became a signal to highlight an anomaly and this bought light on potential defects. When a defect was suspected, an alert got triggered, and a sign board would light up and systems were stopped waiting for the problem to be resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just installing the Andon Cord wasn&#8217;t enough though. Here are 4 major things Toyota did to get effective results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-pull-the-cord-throw-an-alert\"><u>1. Pull the cord, throw an alert<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each employee was highly encouraged to pull the cord. If you don&#8217;t pull, then you are basically compromising the quality and increasing the cost. That was not an option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No criticism for pulling the cord &#8211; even mistakenly pulling the cord or false-positives never witnessed a criticism. The entire team was onboard to the idea that a good quality product needs to be shipped and there is no compromise there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another way to look at it was &#8211; If you hesitate to pull the cord, then essentially we are looking at a compromised car quality. This was not accepted. Quality over quantity<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They achieved this by shaping the culture at Toyota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-culture\"><u>2. Culture<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When a cord is pulled, a manager would walk up to the employee and they would &#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Thank the employee for pulling the rope.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Remind them that no defect is small enough to be ignored and encourage to pull the cord and create an alert <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And say &#8211; &#8220;your efforts are appreciated by me and your CEO because you have saved a customer from receiving a defect&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The repetition of this gesture evolved into what we call today &#8220;Safety Culture&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result of this was not just quantified in terms of increased sales and amplified quality at Toyota but each employee would eventually abolish any fear bringing a lot of transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-resolve-it-now\"><u>3. Resolve it now<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lot of focus was on resolving the issue at hand now. There is no need for a long bureaucratic process. The manager would essentially ask &#8211; &#8220;How can I help you?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Help <em>you <\/em>and help <em>you now. <\/em>Eliminating long tail processes means continue to implement and improve at a high pace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Learning at a high scale needs principals and practicing these principals at all times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-continuous-learning\"><u>4. Continuous learning<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You see, <a href=\"https:\/\/itrevolution.com\/failure\/\">failure is not bad<\/a>. Look up the dictionary, it never implies that failure is actually a bad thing. Each failure is an opportunity to learn and that&#8217;s exactly what Toyota did to further improve themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Faster learning, better quality, lesser production costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"who-is-working-on-these-practices-now\">Who is working on these practices now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Amazon<\/strong> has a Customer Service Andon Cord. This was an established practice of metaphorically pulling an Andon Cord when they noticed a customer was overpaying or had overpaid for a service. They would scan their systems looking for these kinds of potential customer service mismatches. These were considered defects at Amazon because they had a vision of being an organization that was always customer centric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Netflix <\/strong>also encourages failtures and uses it for their learning. The popular Chaos engineering principles randomly brings down production servers. Developers plan and poke-yoke (<em>mistake proofing<\/em>) their code. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"andon-cord-in-software-environments\">Andon Cord in Software environments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think Andon Cord sets a great foundation for introduction of Incident Management in Engineering all around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much like Toyota, we all can learn to embrace incidents and look at them as an opportunity to learn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can run the same principles as Toyota to improve. I mean they did it in 1900s, I am sure we can do this today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schedule a team meeting and do this &#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Encourage teams to setup and receive alerts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A blameless culture. No incident is small or big. Thank you team-mates for creating an incident or setting up the integrations so you can get incidents<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Focus on resolution immediately. <em>If you work on temporarily fixing it, that&#8217;s good too but make sure to create a ticket on JIRA \/ Linear \/ Clickup to look into later<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Learn from your incidents. Ask the responder this &#8211; <em>How did you resolve this incident?<\/em> Ask them to answer in notes so the next time this incident repeats, other responders would know how to resolve. Continuously keep learning about your own systems. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I learnt about Andon Cord from &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/26083308-the-devops-handbook\">The DevOps Handbook<\/a>&#8221; written by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debios, and John Willis. It&#8217;s a great book and I highly recommend everyone from your engineering team to read it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andon Cord catapulted Toyota into 40 years of unprecedented quality and domination. Here&#8217;s how they did it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191914268,"featured_media":760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1428],"tags":[1370,1388,1385,1371],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-incident-management","tag-culture","tag-devops","tag-incidents","tag-values"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Andon cord empowers teams to spot and fix defects fast, boosting quality and transparency\u2014learn how this approach transformed Toyota.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andon cord empowers teams to spot and fix defects fast, boosting quality and transparency\u2014learn how this approach transformed Toyota.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spike&#039;s blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-28T05:54:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-06T07:08:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Andon-cord.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1110\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kaushik\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kaushik\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kaushik\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b137e57ace218547f02b86fdcb2d0e64\"},\"headline\":\"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-28T05:54:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-06T07:08:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1091,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/09\\\/Andon-cord.png\",\"keywords\":[\"culture\",\"devops\",\"incidents\",\"values\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Incident Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/\",\"name\":\"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/09\\\/Andon-cord.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-28T05:54:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-06T07:08:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b137e57ace218547f02b86fdcb2d0e64\"},\"description\":\"Andon cord empowers teams to spot and fix defects fast, boosting quality and transparency\u2014learn how this approach transformed Toyota.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/09\\\/Andon-cord.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/09\\\/Andon-cord.png\",\"width\":2400,\"height\":1110},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/pull-the-andon-cord\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/\",\"name\":\"Spike&#039;s blog\",\"description\":\"Learnings and opinions in a changing world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b137e57ace218547f02b86fdcb2d0e64\",\"name\":\"Kaushik\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7ec6b633161978fc09ed325cefde9061797a65a730e4b98c0eb26bc6925bc81?s=96&d=robohash&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7ec6b633161978fc09ed325cefde9061797a65a730e4b98c0eb26bc6925bc81?s=96&d=robohash&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7ec6b633161978fc09ed325cefde9061797a65a730e4b98c0eb26bc6925bc81?s=96&d=robohash&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kaushik\"},\"description\":\"Founder of Spike. I like sharing how we are building Spike and the intricacies of building a startup by waking people up for critical incidents.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.spike.sh\\\/author\\\/spikehq\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord","description":"Andon cord empowers teams to spot and fix defects fast, boosting quality and transparency\u2014learn how this approach transformed Toyota.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord","og_description":"Andon cord empowers teams to spot and fix defects fast, boosting quality and transparency\u2014learn how this approach transformed Toyota.","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/","og_site_name":"Spike&#039;s blog","article_published_time":"2022-09-28T05:54:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-06T07:08:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2400,"height":1110,"url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Andon-cord.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Kaushik","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kaushik","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/"},"author":{"name":"Kaushik","@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/#\/schema\/person\/b137e57ace218547f02b86fdcb2d0e64"},"headline":"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord","datePublished":"2022-09-28T05:54:56+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-06T07:08:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/"},"wordCount":1091,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Andon-cord.png","keywords":["culture","devops","incidents","values"],"articleSection":["Incident Management"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/","name":"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Andon-cord.png","datePublished":"2022-09-28T05:54:56+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-06T07:08:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/#\/schema\/person\/b137e57ace218547f02b86fdcb2d0e64"},"description":"Andon cord empowers teams to spot and fix defects fast, boosting quality and transparency\u2014learn how this approach transformed Toyota.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Andon-cord.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Andon-cord.png","width":2400,"height":1110},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pull-the-andon-cord\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Got an Incident? Pull the Andon Cord"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/","name":"Spike&#039;s blog","description":"Learnings and opinions in a changing world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/#\/schema\/person\/b137e57ace218547f02b86fdcb2d0e64","name":"Kaushik","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7ec6b633161978fc09ed325cefde9061797a65a730e4b98c0eb26bc6925bc81?s=96&d=robohash&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7ec6b633161978fc09ed325cefde9061797a65a730e4b98c0eb26bc6925bc81?s=96&d=robohash&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7ec6b633161978fc09ed325cefde9061797a65a730e4b98c0eb26bc6925bc81?s=96&d=robohash&r=g","caption":"Kaushik"},"description":"Founder of Spike. I like sharing how we are building Spike and the intricacies of building a startup by waking people up for critical incidents.","url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/author\/spikehq\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Sreekar","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Andon-cord.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfMe4Q-5d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":375,"url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/pagerduty-setup-from-beginner-to-pro-in-10-steps\/","url_meta":{"origin":323,"position":0},"title":"PagerDuty Setup: From Beginner to Pro in 10 Steps","author":"Sreekar","date":"18th March, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Struggling with PagerDuty setup? This comprehensive guide breaks down the process into 10 actionable steps. Whether you're configuring your first service for a small team or implementing advanced automation for enterprise-scale operations, we've got you covered.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;PagerDuty&quot;","block_context":{"text":"PagerDuty","link":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/category\/comparison\/pagerduty\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/background-18-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/background-18-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/background-18-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/background-18-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4432,"url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/incident-response-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":323,"position":1},"title":"Incident Response Team: Roles, Responsibilities, and Structure Explained","author":"Randhir Kumar","date":"27th November, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A strong Incident Response Team gives you a clear path to detect, respond, and recover before things spiral. This blog breaks down what an IRT is, how it works, the roles involved, team structure, and how to build one that fits your environment.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Incident Response&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Incident Response","link":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/category\/incident-management\/incident-response\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blog cover titled \"Incident Response Team: Roles, Responsibilities, and Structure\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/How-to-Build-Effective-Incident-Response-in-Slack-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/How-to-Build-Effective-Incident-Response-in-Slack-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/How-to-Build-Effective-Incident-Response-in-Slack-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/How-to-Build-Effective-Incident-Response-in-Slack-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/How-to-Build-Effective-Incident-Response-in-Slack-1.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/How-to-Build-Effective-Incident-Response-in-Slack-1.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5266,"url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/escalation-policy-for-critical-incidents\/","url_meta":{"origin":323,"position":2},"title":"Escalation policy for critical incidents","author":"Sreekar","date":"27th February, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Getting your escalation policy for critical incidents right takes a few careful decisions upfront. This guide helps you work through them.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Guides&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Guides","link":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/category\/guides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-9.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-9.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-9.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-9.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-9.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-9.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4367,"url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/incident-commander\/","url_meta":{"origin":323,"position":3},"title":"Incident Commander: Roles, Responsibilities, and Key Skills","author":"Randhir Kumar","date":"20th November, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"An incident commander is the single person in charge during a crisis. They drive the entire response effort. We explore their core roles, essential skills, and why every IT team needs a strong IC to manage complex incidents effectively.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Incident Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Incident Management","link":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/category\/incident-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blog cover titled \"Incident Commander: Roles, Responsibilities, and Key Skills\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-7.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-7.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-7.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Basics-of-Incident-Management-7.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1652,"url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/6-better-squadcast-alternatives-2026\/","url_meta":{"origin":323,"position":4},"title":"6 Better Squadcast Alternatives 2026","author":"Sreekar","date":"12th May, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Concerned about Squadcast after the SolarWinds acquisition? Explore these 6 alternatives that provide better reliability, advanced features, and competitive pricing. Don't let acquisition uncertainty impact your incident management effectiveness\u2014find your ideal replacement today.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comparison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comparison","link":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/category\/comparison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Basics-of-Incident-Management.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Basics-of-Incident-Management.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Basics-of-Incident-Management.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Basics-of-Incident-Management.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4561,"url":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/postmortem-on-datadog-incidents-not-autoresolving\/","url_meta":{"origin":323,"position":5},"title":"Postmortem on Datadog incidents not auto-resolving","author":"Damanpreet","date":"18th December, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"On December 17th, 2025, we found that Datadog incidents weren't auto-resolving due to an issue in our Incident Grouping logic. We resolved the issue, and now Datadog incidents are auto-resolved as expected. This postmortem details the incident timeline, root cause analysis, and lessons learned.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Postmortem&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Postmortem","link":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/category\/postmortem\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blog cover titled \"Postmortem on Datadog incidents not auto-resolving\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/background-47.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/background-47.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/background-47.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/background-47.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191914268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spike.sh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}