The Retiring Workforce Problem: How Manufacturers Capture Expert Knowledge Before It’s Gone

30-second summary:

As experienced operators retire, manufacturers risk losing critical process knowledge. Teams that capture real work on video and turn it into AI-powered work instructions preserve expertise, train faster, and prepare for a new generation of workers.

The knowledge problem no one has time to solve

Many manufacturing operations managers share the same concern:

• “Our best people are retiring.”
• “They know things that aren’t written anywhere.”
• “We keep saying we’ll document it, but production comes first.”

This isn’t hypothetical.
It’s happening quietly, one retirement at a time. It’s becoming a huge issue especially in USA and Europe.

When experienced operators leave, they take with them:

• Setup shortcuts
• Machine usage know-how
• Failure warning signs
• The “why” behind each step
• Years of hard-earned judgment

Replacing a person is possible.
Replacing their knowledge is not.

Why retiring experts rarely leave documentation behind

In theory, this is where SOPs should help.
In reality, they rarely do.

Experienced workers:

• Don’t think in documents
• Explain things while doing them
• Adjust steps based on context
• Skip “obvious” details they’ve internalized

By the time retirement approaches, asking them to write procedures feels unrealistic.
And most operations managers already know the outcome: partial notes, outdated files, or nothing at all.

The risk compounds with every new hire

At the same time, the workforce is changing.

Manufacturers are onboarding:

• Younger (GenZ) workers who expect digital, visual learning
• Foreign workers who don’t share the same native language
• Employees who rotate roles faster than before

This creates friction:

• Shadowing takes longer
• Instructions vary by shift
• Knowledge transfers inconsistently
• Supervisors answer the same questions repeatedly

On forums and our internal discussions, operations managers often describe the same pain:

“We train people, but everyone ends up doing it slightly differently.”

Video captures what retirees actually know

The fastest way to preserve expert knowledge is not writing.
It is recording real work as it happens.

Short videos capture:

• Sequence and timing
• Tool handling
• Machine feedback
• Safety checks that never make it into text
• Subtle, informal explanations that actually mater

Most experts are comfortable explaining their work verbally.
Asking them to “talk through what you’re doing” while working feels natural—and fast.

This turns knowledge capture into a side effect of doing the job, not a separate project.

Turning raw video into usable work instructions

Raw video alone is not enough.

Long recordings are:

• Hard to search
• Hard to reuse
• Hard to standardize

This is where AI changes the outcome.

AI can:

• Break long videos into clear steps
• Extract actions, warnings, and context
• Create consistent structure across procedures
• Make instructions usable on the shop floor

Instead of writing from scratch, teams review and refine what already exists.

Why this works for the next generation of workers

Younger employees already learn from:

• Short videos
• On-demand content
• Search-driven answers

When work instructions are:

• Visual
• Broken into steps
• Available on a phone or tablet

Adoption increases naturally. Onboarding time decreases.

For multilingual teams, the same instructions can be translated without duplicating effort, ensuring everyone follows the same latest standard.

The next step: interacting with work instructions, not searching them

The future of work instructions goes beyond static steps.

Instead of:

• Searching PDFs
• Scrolling long documents
• Asking coworkers

Operators will:

• Ask questions directly
• Get step-specific answers
• Jump to the exact moment in a process

Think of it as ChatGPT for your own shop-floor knowledge—grounded in real videos and real procedures, not generic advice.

This turns captured knowledge into something alive:

• Always accessible
• Context-aware
• Consistent across shifts and locations

This is a sneek peek into what we are preparing for 2026. Stay tuned and apply for TagPlan Work Instructions Early Access.

From risk to advantage

The retiring workforce is a real risk.
But it is also a narrow window of opportunity.

Teams that act early:

• Preserve decades of experience
• Train faster with less supervision
• Reduce variability across operations
• Build a knowledge base that grows instead of disappearing

The future belongs to manufacturers who treat knowledge as infrastructure—not as something stored in people’s heads.

This knowledge will unlock new ideas, improve your IP and AI will be able to actually use it.

That future is already taking shape.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can manufacturers capture expert knowledge before experienced operators retire?

The most effective way is to record experts performing real work while explaining what they are doing and why. Video captures details that are rarely written down—timing, adjustments, warnings, and judgment—and AI can then turn that footage into structured work instructions that remain usable long after the expert leaves.

Is it realistic to document processes when production pressure is high?

Yes, if documentation is treated as a byproduct of doing the work instead of a separate task. Recording short videos during normal operations requires far less effort than asking experts to write SOPs, and it avoids pulling them away from production for long periods.

How does this approach help with training new and younger workers?

Younger and Gen Z workers learn faster from visual, on-demand content. Step-by-step video-based instructions reduce reliance on shadowing, shorten onboarding time, and allow new hires to learn independently without constant supervision.

Can this work for multilingual or international manufacturing teams?

Yes. Because instructions are generated from real processes and structured into clear steps, they can be translated consistently across languages. This helps ensure all operators follow the same standard, regardless of location or native language.

What does “chatting with work instructions” actually mean?

It means operators can ask questions in plain language and get answers directly from their company’s own procedures and videos. Instead of searching PDFs or asking coworkers, they can jump straight to the relevant step or moment in a process, similar to how people use ChatGPT—but grounded in verified shop-floor knowledge. This feature is not available yet. But sign up to get early access as soon as it’s released.

Join TagPlan Work Instructions Early Access or just say hello to [email protected].