Frontline employees are the backbone of manufacturing operations. Their performance directly correlates with the productivity, quality, and overall success of the business. Yet, even as their jobs have become increasingly complex, these workers often lack the essential learning and knowledge resources that would make them more productive.
According to a recent study from LNS Research, 74% of manufacturing organizations rely on outdated, top-down training programs that fail to engage employees or deliver on operational outcomes.1
The top-down approach was never ideal. It doesn’t account for rapid, independent learning. It relies on seasoned employees supporting new hires over long periods of time. That was sufficient for the last several decades. Retention was high among the baby boomer generation – most of whom remained with the same company for their entire career. They’d develop skills, and became more proficient over the years, while sharing their knowledge with others.
Today, younger generations change jobs rapidly and can leave a company before they’ve even finished onboarding. Compounding the problem, 2025 will see the largest wave of 65-year-olds entering retirement,2 taking a wealth of tribal knowledge with them. 84% of manufacturers have already seen the loss of experienced personnel negatively impact operational performance.
Those who have prioritized industrial knowledge management initiatives are already experiencing the benefit of a more autonomous workforce. But nearly half of manufacturers haven’t started, and 14% have no plans to do so. Unfortunately, that will likely lead to more green-on-green training, a continued decline in employee engagement, and operations that suffer because of it.
If industrial knowledge management and continuous learning are new to you, it’s not as arduous an undertaking as it might seem. And the benefits will yield far more in tangible outcomes than you’ll invest in the effort.
Industrial knowledge management encompasses the processes and technology used for creating, controlling, and making knowledge accessible to employees. These are your SOPs, work instructions, safety policies, and reaction plans. Essentially, all the information your employees need to independently do the right thing.
Where do your resources exist today? In many organizations, knowledge exists across a spectrum of repositories and platforms—paper binders, shared file drives, a bit in your QMS, a bit in your MES, etc. And yes, quite a lot of your company’s knowledge likely exists in the minds of your senior employees.
When critical information is siloed and hard to access, it becomes harder to maintain and distribute to those who need it. If nobody’s using it, it may as well not exist.
Instead, make these resources part of your frontline employee toolbox. SOPs and work instructions should be a guide available to every worker as they perform critical tasks. Safety protocols should be clear at the time and place they’re most relevant. Reaction plans should be accessible within seconds of when the situation demands them.
When critical information is easily available to employees, you’ll build competency, improve employee retention, and drive operational performance.
If access to operational knowledge isn’t modernized, manufacturers put themselves at risk of a continuous decline in operational performance compared to their competitors. Retention and the ability to replace retiring employees will make it challenging to maintain current performance levels, much less make the efficiency improvements investors expect.
Findings from LNS Research identify these critical areas for improvement:
Manufacturers that work toward these goals will see improvement in employee morale, engagement, and retention. However, they won’t get there with outdated tools.
They’ll get there by investing in knowledge management solutions that streamline and simplify the way their employees learn and work.
Knowledge Management covers a broad spectrum of business initiatives from the factory floor to the back office. Here are just a few examples of the results seen by those who successfully implemented these tools:
Investing in a modern knowledge management solution is imperative to remain competitive in a rapidly changing business environment. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll have the tools you need to respond to whatever comes next.
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