Andon Cord
Andon Cord is a Toyota quality practice. At Toyota, team members on the assembly line are responsible for the parts they use. They are inspectors for their own work and that of co-workers. When a problem on any vehicle is spotted, any team member can pull a rope — called an Andon Cord — strung along the assembly line to halt production. Only when the problem is resolved is the line restarted. This process involves every team member in monitoring and checking the quality of every car produced. Inspired by Toyota, Amazon Customer Service team developed an Andon cord of its own. It allows a CS associate to immediately halt sales of an ASIN when customers indicate there may be a serious defect.