Use case
Shop Floor Communication
The line stopped four minutes ago. The person who can fix it will find out when someone walks over.
01 · Customer pain
Events travel at walking speed.
Machines know the moment something needs attention. Getting that moment to a human still relies on stack lights someone must see, radios someone must answer, and walks across the floor.
Escalation is informal: if the first person is busy, the event waits. Response times are unmeasured because nobody records when the call for help actually started.
Alarms without an audience
Stack lights and local alarms help only whoever happens to be nearby.
Events never reach team channels
The tools people actually watch, phones, Teams, Slack, displays, are disconnected from the machines.
No escalation path
If the first responder is occupied, nothing routes the event to the next person.
Response time is invisible
Without timestamps from event to acknowledgment, response cannot be measured or improved.
02 · Outcome first
From machine event to the right person, in seconds.
FlowFuse turns machine and operator events into routed notifications: andon displays, team-channel messages, SMS escalation chains, with acknowledgment and timing captured for every event.
Events routed, not broadcast
The right role gets the right event on the channel they actually watch, with context attached.
Escalation that runs itself
Unacknowledged events climb the chain automatically; nothing waits on a walk across the floor.
Measured, shrinking response times
Event-to-acknowledgment timing becomes a metric you can see and improve.
03 · How it works
How FlowFuse builds connected andon.
Getting an event to the right person is a small number of pieces, not a product. The routing logic is identical at every site; only the people, channels and shift patterns differ, and that is what decides the pattern.
Pipeline plus external configuration
The routing and escalation flows are built once and distributed by pipeline. Who responds, on which channel, during which shift is read at runtime from a central configuration source, so a rota change or a new contact never requires a redeploy.
Read the pattern in the docsThe individual pieces
Capture the event
Machine signals, alarm bits and operator call buttons all become the same kind of event, collected by an edge instance next to the equipment.
DocsModel the event
Each event carries type, area, severity and the role that should respond. Routing decisions are made against that shape, not against a machine address.
Keep the directory outside the flow
Roles, contacts, channels and the shift calendar live in configuration rather than inside the flows, so the floor can change who responds without touching the application.
DocsDeliver where people look
The same event fans out to andon displays, team channels and phones, each with the context the recipient needs to act on it.
Acknowledge and escalate
An unacknowledged event climbs the chain on a timer. Nothing waits on someone happening to be free.
Record the timing
Event, notification and acknowledgment timestamps land in your database, which is what turns response time into a metric you can manage.
04 · Why this is important
Downtime is often waiting time in disguise.
A meaningful share of every stop is the gap between the event and the right person knowing about it.
Minutes of waiting hide in every stop
Multiply the notification gap across every stop and shift; the total is a production line's worth of capacity.
Informal escalation fails on bad days
Exactly when the floor is busiest, word-of-mouth routing breaks down.
Communication data improves staffing
Knowing which events, where, at what times, shapes shift coverage and skill placement.
05 · Why off-the-shelf doesn't work
Why the usual approaches stall.
Andon exists in many forms; connected, routed, measured andon rarely does.
Lights and towers, no routing
Visual signals with no notion of who should respond or what happens if they do not.
Locked to one vendor's screens
Built-in call functions reach only the people logged into that system.
Everything posted to everyone
Unrouted alerts train people to ignore the channel.
06 · With / without FlowFuse
Without FlowFuse
Events wait for a passerby
Stack lights and shouts; response depends on proximity.
No record of response
Event-to-fix timing unmeasured, unimprovable.
Every plant improvises
Each site wires its own ad-hoc notification hacks.
With FlowFuse
Events reach the right person in seconds
Routed notifications with context, on channels people watch.
Acknowledgment and timing captured
Response becomes a measured, managed metric.
One pattern across sites
The same escalation flows deployed fleet-wide.
07 · Build it with AI
From described to deployed, with the FlowFuse Expert
The FlowFuse Expert works on this use case with you, from routing logic to summarizing what happened overnight.
Describe it, get a starting flow
Tell the Expert your events, roles and channels; it assembles a routing and escalation starting flow. Currently in open beta on FlowFuse Cloud.
Refine with in-editor assistance
Function Builder and completions handle message formatting, shift calendars and escalation timers.
Own and adapt what you built
The flow explainer documents routing rules so supervisors can read and adjust them without a developer.
AI capabilities noted as beta are in open beta on FlowFuse Cloud at time of writing.
Automotive, Food & Beverage, Aviation & Aerospace, Electronics & Appliances · all industries
Close the gap between event and action
Talk to an expert about connected andon and escalation, or route your first event today.
