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Tacit Knowledge

The Promise Lives in People’s Heads

The text discusses the critical gap in knowledge retention within manufacturing, particularly as veteran engineers near retirement. It emphasizes that interchangeability assessments rely on historical context often lost when experienced employees leave. Solutions, like capturing decision-making context, are proposed to build “product memory” and ensure continuity for future engineers.

The reasoning most worth capturing is the reasoning your experts can't articulate.

The reasoning most worth capturing is the reasoning your experts can’t articulate. 

The article highlights the challenges of capturing tacit knowledge in engineering design, emphasizing that valuable insights often exist informally within experienced professionals. It advocates for recording reasoning during decision-making processes and acknowledges the importance of mentoring, suggesting a balanced approach between documentation and recognizing human expertise in knowledge management.