Document Operator Knowledge: Practical Guide to Capture Industrial Know-How

The knowledge that leaves when the person leaves

In any industrial plant there are people who have been doing the same thing for 10, 15 or 20 years. They know what the machine sounds like when something is wrong. They know that the third step in the manufacturer's manual does not work and must be done another way. They know that on Tuesday mornings the pressure takes longer to stabilize because the compressor comes in cold from the weekend.

That knowledge is not in any manual. It's called tacit knowledge — in English, "tribal knowledge" — and is probably your company's most valuable and fragile asset.

Fragile because disappears the day that person leaves. And according to data from the REELEVO 2025 Survey, 87% of Spanish industrial SMEs identify dependence on these profiles as a high risk for their production, but only 23% have documented this knowledge.

Why knowledge transfer fails in most companies

Many industrial companies attempt some form of knowledge transfer and stumble at similar points. These are the most common causes:

"We will do it when the date gets closer"

Retirement is seen coming years in advance, but the documentation is left for the last month. By then, the expert already has his head elsewhere and the process is done in a hurry and without depth.

"Let him teach the new one"

The operator-to-operator transfer seems like the natural solution, but it has serious problems: it depends on the pedagogical skill of the expert (which is rarely good), it is inconsistent (every day teaches differently), there is no record, and it takes up the productive time of two people for weeks.

"Let's make a manual"

Someone from the quality department sits down with the expert and writes a 40-page document with screenshots and diagrams. The document is perfect. Nobody ever consults it. On the day it is needed, no one can find the file or it is outdated.

"This cannot be documented"

The most dangerous myth. Yes it can be documented. The thing is that the usual format (text written in Word) is not capable of capturing tacit knowledge. You need a format that captures how the expert really does it, not how someone who has observed him describes him.

What type of knowledge do you have to capture (and what not)

Not all expert knowledge has the same value or the same urgency. You have to prioritize:

Critical Knowledge (capture first)

• Processes that only that person masters: If tomorrow doesn't come, what stops? Start there.
• Undocumented settings and configurations: the real parameters vs those in the manufacturer's manual. The adaptations it has made over the years.
• Troubleshooting: what to do when something fails. The signs that indicate that something is going to fail. The 5 most common problems and how to solve them without calling the technician.

Important knowledge (capture later)

• Start and stop sequences: order matters, and many times the actual order differs from the manual.
• Quality criteria: how the expert knows that a piece is good or bad. What he looks at, what he touches, what he listens to.
• Interactions between machines: how the fit of one machine affects the performance of the next one in line.

Knowledge that you do not need to document

• Processes that are already correctly documented in manufacturer's manuals and are followed as is.
• Knowledge shared by several operators (there is no dependence on one person).
• Tasks that are going to disappear due to a change in machinery or process.

Methodology: how to capture knowledge in 4 phases

Phase 1: Dependency Mapping (1 day)

Before documenting anything, you need to know where is the risk. Make a list of all the machines and processes in your plant and answer these questions for each one:

1. How many people know how to operate this process correctly?
2. If the main person is missing tomorrow, what happens?
3. How long would it take a substitute to learn?
4. When is the main person expected to leave the position? (retirement, rotation, etc.)

Processes where only 1 person knows how to do it and there is a risk of exit in the short-medium term are your absolute priority.

Phase 2: Capture sessions with the expert (1-2 weeks)

The key to this phase is that the expert documents the process while executing it. Not afterwards, not by heart, not by dictating to someone of quality. At the workplace, with the machine, step by step.

Practical tips for the sessions:

• One session = one process. Don't try to document everything in one morning. 30-60 minutes per process is enough.
• The expert leads. Don't tell him what to document. Ask: "How do you do this?" and let him structure the steps.
• Capture the “why.” Not only what he does, but why he does it that way. "I always wait 30 seconds before speeding up because otherwise the material gets stuck" — that's pure tacit knowledge.
• Includes errors. Ask: "What usually goes wrong here? What would you do if...?" Troubleshooting is the most valuable part.
• Don't look for perfection. An imperfect but real procedure is infinitely more useful than a perfect manual that no one consults.

Phase 3: Structuring and accessibility (2-3 days)

Once captured, knowledge needs to be organized by machine and process, and be accessible at the workplace.

The structure should be:

• Machine → Process → Sequential steps
• Each step: instruction + expert detail + troubleshooting if applicable
• Direct access from the machine, without searching folders or servers

If the substitute has to turn on a computer, navigate through folders and open a PDF to consult a step, he or she is not going to do it. Accessibility is what determines whether procedures are used or ignored.

Phase 4: Validation and transition (1-2 weeks)

Before the expert leaves, you need to verify that what is documented works:

1. An operator who does NOT master the process follows the documented procedures.
2. The expert observes and corrects what is missing or unclear.
3. Procedures are updated with corrections.
4. It is repeated until the substitute can complete the process correctly without help from the expert.

This step is critical. If you do not validate before the expert leaves, you risk discovering the gaps when it is too late to fill them.

When to start (hint: sooner than you think)

The most common mistake is starting too late. The ideal window to document the knowledge of an operator who is going to retire is 6-12 months before departure. This allows:

• Do the capture sessions without rushing.
• Validate with real substitutes.
• Iterate and improve procedures.
• Let the expert resolve doubts that arise after the initial documentation.

But retirement is not the only scenario. Voluntary turnover, long-term layoffs and restructurings also generate loss of knowledge — and those do not give 12 months' notice.

Therefore, the best strategy is to document critical processes now, regardless of whether someone plans to leave. It is not just a knowledge transfer project: it is a company asset that should be built before there is urgency.

Do you have key operators whose knowledge is not documented? make our operational risk diagnosis and discover how much real risk your plant has — result in 2 minutes.