GlossaryKind of term: Manufacturing termKnowledge retention
What is knowledge retention?
Knowledge retention is recording your people's shop knowledge and keeping it findable, so decisions in planning and estimating do not depend on one person.
Knowledge retention is recording, sharing and keeping current the knowledge a company needs to do its work well. In a machining shop it is mostly knowledge that is not on the drawing: which setup works for a given part, at what overhang a tool starts to chatter on a given machine, which cutting data hold up in a difficult material, what lead time a finishing supplier needs. Part of it can be made explicit; part of it is skill and only passes on through working together.
How is shop knowledge retained?
Retention only works when the knowledge sits where the decision is made: with the part, the setup or the estimate line, together with the reason. Common carriers are setup sheets, process plans, tool and cutting-data libraries, CAM templates, work instructions and the outcome of nonconformance reports. Knowledge goes stale when machines, tooling or materials change; a recorded rule with no owner and no date cannot be trusted after a few years. ISO 9001:2015 asks in clause 7.1.6 that an organisation determines and maintains the knowledge needed for its processes.
How does knowledge retention work in practice?
Two cost engineers pricing the same part may differ on cycle time, but also on what surrounds it: the number of setups, an extra inspection, an allowance for a material that may distort. When that knowledge sits with one person, cost and lead time depend on that person, and a repeat order is harder to price in their absence. Recorded decisions make a price checkable and a deviation explainable.
What is knowledge retention often confused with?
Knowledge retention is not an archive. A folder of old programs and drawings keeps information, but retains no knowledge if nobody can find which decision belongs to which part and why.
How do you see knowledge retention in Blake?
In Blake decisions stay with the part: the setups you enter and accept per route, drawing values someone confirmed or corrected, with who and when, and corrections to an estimate line with their reason. A repeat part sits next to its last priced calculation.
Frequently asked questions
Which knowledge should you record first?
Start with decisions that affect cost or quality and that now sit with one person: setups and workholding per part, departures from standard cutting data, known pitfalls at setup, and allowances in the estimate with their reason.
How do you keep recorded knowledge from going stale?
Give every rule an owner and a date, and record it with the part or machine it applies to. When a machine, tool or material changes, review the rules that belong to it.