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Operator at work on industrial equipment

DevLearn 2026 · Expo Stage

When your best operator retires, their know-how stays.

Manufacturing workforce intelligence: knowledge capture, skill retention and succession planning

Thomas Bellamy · Co-founder and CRO, Edplay

If your training disappeared tomorrow, would anyone on the shop floor notice?

Not the LMS dashboard. The floor.

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Manufacturing intelligence · AI knowledge retention

What's your knowledge retirement plan?

Steve, a maintenance worker on a factory floor

years on
the line

skills
documented

When he leaves,
what stays?

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What operations leaders told us · October 2026

We didn’t have to explain the problem. They did.

“We were losing a lot of people for retirement… Some of these people have done 50 years of working there.”

Operations leader, chemicals manufacturer

“We’re typically too busy to fill out the documentation… then we lose visibility of that as soon as they forget. Or they leave.”

Reliability lead, refining

“If we learn something here, how do we ensure that everybody in [our other site] learns the same thing quickly?”

Operations strategy lead, medical device manufacturer

“We were even talking about putting GoPros on some of our core operators… but how do we then do something with that data?”

Operations leader, chemicals manufacturer

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The approach

Turn expert know-how into knowledge that stays.

01 Capture

Record the real task while the expert talks it through. Add the SOPs and manuals you already have.

02 Verify

AI drafts the SOP and training. Every step traces to the recording or an approved document. A qualified person signs off.

03 Deliver

Approved knowledge linked to each machine. Operators get it mid-shift, in their own language.

04 Prove

Retest against the plant’s own competence standard. See who is qualified on every machine.

AI prepares. People decide.

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01 · Capture

Capture expert know-how by recording the work.

Capture trolley

A floor station where headsets charge and upload when docked.

Portable case

The same flow for pilots, smaller sites and site visits.

Phones and headsets

Use the devices the site permits. Phone capture is the starting route.

Tap your badge

Take a device

Do the task, talk it through

Send for approval

Use a headset, or a phone where the site allows it.

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See it on a real line

From a recorded task to an approved course.

Line clearance on a contact lens blister packaging line, captured hands-free and turned into training.

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02 · Verify

Turn recordings into approved SOPs and training, in your teams' languages.

Every step traces to a source

The recording or an approved document. You can click through and check.

Unsupported content is rejected

If the source can’t back it, it doesn’t reach the floor.

A qualified person signs off

Then it’s translated for every team, from the same approved source.

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03 · Deliver

New starters learn the exact machine, from your best people.

Real footage, approved steps

They watch the person who did the task last time, not a stock animation.

Mid-shift, in their language

At the point of need, not in a classroom weeks earlier.

Keep the approval gate

AI prepares the draft. People review and publish the method the floor will follow.

One standard template for every SOP and course.

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04 · Prove

Completion is not competence.

Level 1

Read the approved procedure

Level 2

Passed verified training and assessment

Level 3

Observed doing the task on the floor

“Today it says this person has demonstrated competence once they’ve signed to say they’ve read it… there are 3 dimensions to this now.”

Operations strategy lead, medical device manufacturer

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04 · Prove

Track capability by person, machine and task.

Map skills, not attendance

Track capability at skill level, not just whether someone finished a course.

Prioritise the gap

Distinguish a skill gap from missing approved knowledge, then choose the right next action.

Protect critical knowledge

Use the gap and retirement-risk report to decide whose expertise to capture next.

A live skills map, a prioritised gap list, and approved answers on mobile mid-job.

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Succession

Build ready-now successors for critical roles.

Critical task	Steve · 21 yrs	Successor A	Successor B
Autoclave cycle	L3	L2	L1
Seal integrity test	L3	L3	Due
Line changeover	L3	L1	L2
Fault diagnosis	L3	,	L1

L1 read · L2 trained and assessed · L3 observed on the floor

Flag retirement risk on critical roles and who holds them.

Capture those experts first, before the retirement date.

See who is one level away on each critical task.

Follow a clear path from new starter to trusted expert, signed off by skill.

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How we measure outcomes

Measure the gap closing, not the course finishing.

Gap closure rate

Track gaps closed against the baseline. Use the plant's own competence scale.

Time to competence

Count days from the gap being found to qualified sign-off on the task.

Retest pass rate

Measure the share passing on the first retest, not only training completion.

Reviewer edit rate

Track how much qualified reviewers change the AI draft before approval.

Connect the scorecard to non-conformances, scrap, downtime or first-pass yield.

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How to start

Start with what you already have.

Phase 1 · Foundation

Create and standardise

Turn the SOPs, videos and training you already have into approved material, in one standard template.

Phase 2 · Insight

Connect and see

Connect the systems you already run, see who knows what on which machine, and find the gaps.

Phase 3 · Scale

Capture and roll out

Add hands-free capture on the floor and roll out across lines and sites.

The 12-week pilotWeeks 1 to 4: Connect and baselineWeeks 5 to 8: Capture and verifyWeeks 9 to 12: Train and prove

12 work areas225 contributors32 to 4 headsets4Core connectors set up

Proposed scope, not a commitment. Lock a baseline with operations before you start.

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Enabling the future workforce

Build the people who will run your site next.

Learn the way they work

Short, visual, mobile-first guidance that fits the next generation's work.

Contribute, not just consume

Every operator can contribute. The knowledge base grows with the team.

Grow into expert roles

Clear, approved paths from new starter to trusted expert, tracked by skill.

Ready for growth

New lines, sites and shifts start with proven methods already in place.

Keep your best methods in the business, not only in your best people's heads.

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Take back to your plant

Three questions for Monday.

Whose retirement would hurt your plant most, and what have you captured from them?

Could you show who is qualified on every critical machine, tonight?

When did training last move a number operations tracks?

“I wish we’d started capturing this ten years ago. The next best time is today.” · Plant operations lead

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Get in touch

Visit us at Booth 631

Viktor Potapov, CEO

Cell:(512) 687-4417

Email:victor@edplay.ai

Thomas Bellamy, CRO

Cell:(512) 659-6177

Email:thomas@edplay.ai

Connect with us

Viktor Potapov

Thomas Bellamy

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