Andon displays, OEE, TEEP & the edge gateway, explained.

An andon display is a real-time visual signal on the factory floor that shows machine or line status the moment it changes, running, stopped, idle, or in fault. The term comes from the Toyota Production System, where andon (Japanese for "lantern") let any operator surface a problem instantly.

A modern andon display is a screen at the line showing live status, OEE, TEEP and downtime reasons, so the team reacts to a stop now instead of finding out at end of shift. Taktos Edge drives an andon display directly from real machine state read off the PLC, so what's on the screen is what the controller actually knows.

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is the standard measure of how productively a machine runs. It's the product of three factors:

• Availability: the share of scheduled time the machine was actually running.
• Performance: how close it ran to its ideal cycle rate.
• Quality: the share of parts produced that were good.

So OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality. An OEE of 100% means only good parts, at full speed, with no stops. Taktos Edge computes OEE live from real machine data, not a number someone keys in at end of shift, and breaks it into its three components so a loss points to a cause instead of a feeling.

TEEP (Total Effective Equipment Performance) measures output against total calendar time, every hour of every day, instead of only against scheduled production time. The formula is TEEP = OEE × Utilization, where Utilization is scheduled time divided by all calendar time.

OEE answers "how well did the machine run while we were running it." TEEP answers "how much of the machine's total available capacity are we actually using." TEEP exposes the hidden capacity sitting in unscheduled shifts, weekends and idle hours, capacity you can use before buying another machine. Taktos Edge reports both side by side.

Taktos Edge captures and categorizes stops as they happen, straight from machine state, no clipboard, no end-of-shift recall. It splits OEE loss into its Availability, Performance and Quality components so each loss points to a cause, and reports real-time OEE, TEEP and categorized downtime reasons live off the line.

Taktos Edge is an edge gateway that reads OEE and TEEP straight from the PLCs, robots and inspection systems you already run. It connects over EtherNet/IP, needs no new sensors and no PLC replacement, and shows live machine performance either on a monitor at the line as an andon display or headless to a plant-wide or cloud dashboard.

It's built by Assembly & Automation Technology, Inc. (AAT), a custom machine builder and controls integrator with 40 years on the factory floor.

An edge gateway is a device installed at the machine or in the control cabinet that collects data directly from industrial equipment such as PLCs, robots and vision systems, and makes it available to dashboards, databases or the cloud.

"Edge" means the processing happens locally at the source of the data rather than in a remote data center, so data is available immediately and securely without sending raw control traffic off-site. Taktos Edge is an edge gateway purpose-built to read OEE and TEEP off the controllers AAT works with every day.

Taktos Edge connects to your controller over EtherNet/IP and pushes live machine state to a monitor mounted where operators stand. OEE, TEEP, current status and downtime reasons update the instant a stop hits.

Because the data comes straight from the PLC's own tags, not a manual entry or a separate sensor, the andon screen reflects the true state of the machine. No extra floor infrastructure is required beyond the display and the gateway.

Most OEE software is written by software vendors and leaves you to connect it to your own machines. Taktos Edge comes from the other direction: it's built by AAT, a shop that has commissioned capital equipment for 40 years and writes ladder logic for a living.

AAT writes the code, wires the gateway into the panel, and stands behind the entire path from controller to screen, including the custom controls work, communications and safe write-back that most OEE vendors can't touch. It's installed and commissioned on your line, not a license you set up alone.

Taktos Edge reads over EtherNet/IP from the controllers AAT builds on every day, including Rockwell / Allen-Bradley CompactLogix and GuardLogix PLCs programmed in Studio 5000, along with the robots and inspection systems integrated alongside them, such as Epson SCARA and 6-axis robots and Cognex and Keyence vision systems.

Because AAT writes control code for a living, the gateway is mapped to your actual PLC tags rather than a generic data model. Running a controller not listed here? AAT can scope the connection as part of the install.

No. Taktos Edge reads the data your PLC already produces over EtherNet/IP. No bolt-on sensors to add, no PLC to swap, no rip-and-replace of your existing controls. The gateway wires into the control panel and reads existing tags, so the line keeps running the way it always has.

Yes. Because Taktos Edge understands the control code, the same gateway can carry information back down to the controller, such as part numbers, recipes and work orders, making it a two-way layer, not just a read-only window.

Safe write-back to a live controller is custom controls work that AAT scopes, programs and stands behind. Write-back add-ons include part-number assignment and work-order entry from the floor.

Two modes, one product:

• On a monitor: drives a live andon-style screen at the machine where operators stand, showing OEE, TEEP and status the instant a stop happens.
• Headless: drops into the control cabinet with no display and feeds a plant-wide or cloud dashboard, so you can see and compare every line from one place.

Start with a single screen on one machine and roll out headless across the plant later, same product, no migration.

Yes. In headless mode the gateways feed a single plant-wide or cloud dashboard that shows every line in one pane of glass, with live OEE per machine, current status and trends, so you can compare lines and spot the floor's biggest losses at a glance.

Beyond the standard OEE, TEEP, loss-breakdown and downtime-reason dashboards, AAT builds custom add-ons on top of the data already flowing through the gateway:

• Predictive maintenance: trend faults, cycle drift and wear to catch problems before they stop the line.
• Part-number assignment: push the right job and recipe down to the machine.
• Work-order entry: run orders from the floor, written back to the controller.

Need a screen or workflow for a specific task, station or role that doesn't exist yet? AAT's controls team builds it around your floor and your process.

AAT is based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and deploys Taktos Edge globally. As a custom machine builder, AAT has decades of experience commissioning capital equipment and integrating controls for customers around the world. That is hands-on experience, not a claim on a brochure.

The Northeast home base anchors on-site work in the region, while remote configuration, headless and cloud deployment, and on-site commissioning let Taktos Edge run on lines wherever they are. To discuss an installation in your location, get in touch or call 781-935-1991.

Taktos Edge is built by Assembly & Automation Technology, Inc. (AAT), a custom industrial automation company in Chelmsford, Massachusetts with 40 years building Rockwell-based capital equipment and integrating PLCs, robotics, vision and safety systems.

Because AAT designs, programs and commissions the machines themselves, Taktos Edge is built by people who wire panels and write control code, not software vendors who've never been on the floor.

The quickest start is one screen on one machine. AAT wires Taktos Edge to the PLC and puts live OEE and TEEP in front of your team, then builds out to additional lines or a headless plant-wide rollout.

To see it running on your own line, book a demo or call 781-935-1991.