• Documentation of standards and procedures
• Cross-training
• Centralized archives or storehouse of records
• Job shadowing or mentoring

Documentation of standards and procedures
Standards create a professional environment of “best practice” procedures. They enable organizations to confidently create systems, policies and procedures, maintain autonomy from vested interest groups and assure high operation quality that leads to exceptional records and information management performance. Establishing standard operating procedures and documenting policies and procedures are the first step because many organizations still lack documented policies, procedures and related manuals. When creating these documents you must use the “tacit” and “explicit” knowledge. Tacit knowledge includes what is sometimes called "tribal knowledge”. If we look at the typical task for an operator or maintenance personnel to conduct a routine inspection in his/her assigned area, the explicit knowledge related to the task may be provided in a checklist or procedures specifying the frequency of these inspections, and the information to be collected (See Fig. 1). The associated tacit knowledge may include the recognition of abnormal conditions or potential problems based upon any of the five senses (See Fig. 2). There is not a clear division between explicit and tacit knowledge but rather a spectrum. For us explicit knowledge is primarily about what to do and how to do it and tacit knowledge is how it is to be done. It is this knowledge that we must capture when creating documents and standards and it is this vital information we must capture before our workers retire.

Fig. 1 Example of a detailed lubrication inspection.

Fig. 2 Example of the Tacit and Explicit knowledge captured in an SOP.

Cross Training
Cross-training is training an employee to do a different part of the organization’s work, allows multiple employees to learn to do a job and reduce an organization’s risk if an employee leaves. This type of training becomes even more important for mission-critical tasks and processes that may be required to keep the organization operating or delivering service. Cross-training should be comprehensive so employees feel confident in their abilities to complete these other processes and responsibilities.

Centralized Archives or Storehouse of Records
While few organizations have a knowledge management plan in place, some organizations are undertaking some effort to record or store institutional knowledge. These efforts mirror those key components mentioned earlier and include requiring written manuals, documentation of processes and procedures or the development of a central database. Other strategies focus on records management such as document imaging systems and centralized archives. Finally, utilizing your companies computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to its fullest extent by capturing all of the data possible for review and further decision making opportunities.

Job Shadow or Mentoring
An effective knowledge management strategy begins with understanding what knowledge is at risk and how losing this knowledge will impact the organization. This is not a simple task and will require a somewhat systematic review, especially with individuals that have deep institutional knowledge from long careers within the organization. Companies may choose to use different strategies from job shadowing to peer-to-peer knowledge (Mentoring) transfer.

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