Every steel plant has a few people who can tell a failing roll bearing by its sound, or know which shim pack the F3 chock really needs. Much of that know-how was never written down, and when those people retire it leaves with them. Steel plant knowledge capture by voice lets experts explain their work while they do it, and turns what they say into reviewed procedures newer technicians can search. Hear how a recorded repair becomes an approved SOP in a short knowledge capture demo.
Record What Your Best Fitters Know While They Work, Before They Retire
The iFactory Voice Knowledge Agent listens while experts narrate a repair. It transcribes, tags the recording by asset and failure mode, drafts an SOP for human review and feeds the copilot, so new technicians can ask the same questions later.
The Skills Gap Is a Knowledge Gap Too
Hiring is only half the problem. A 2024 study by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute estimates that US manufacturing could need as many as 3.8 million new employees between 2024 and 2033, and that 1.9 million of those jobs could go unfilled. Even when roles are filled, new people arrive without the years of judgment the leavers carry. Talk through your own retirement list in a short planning call.
What Is Already Written Down, and What Never Was
The philosopher Michael Polanyi summed up tacit knowledge as "we can know more than we can tell." Explicit knowledge, such as torque values and PM intervals, is already in manuals and the CMMS. Tacit knowledge, such as how a bearing sounds before it fails, is learned by doing and rarely written down. Voice capture works best on the middle of this range, where experts can explain what they notice if someone asks at the right moment. Map your own gaps with our knowledge team.
- Bolt torque values
- PM intervals and checklists
- Lubricant grades
- Lockout steps
- Which check to do first on a hot chock
- Shortcuts that are safe, and ones that are not
- Known quirks of one specific crane or pump
- Why a fix was done a certain way
- The sound of a failing bearing
- The feel of a correctly seated seal
- Reading a caster mould by eye
- Needs video and mentoring too
Who to Capture First: Retirement Window Against Knowledge Risk
You cannot record everyone at once, so rank people by two things: how soon they leave, and how many others know what they know. Someone retiring next year who is the only person able to set up the coiler mandrel comes first. Fill in this grid with HR and area managers, then book sessions from the darkest cells outward. Fill it in together in a prioritisation session.
Two Ways to Get Knowledge Out of an Expert's Head
Both methods come from established practice. Structured interviews draw on techniques such as the critical decision method, where an expert walks back through a real event and is asked what they noticed and why they chose what they did. On-the-job narration is a think-aloud method: the expert simply says what they are doing and why while they work. Most plants need both. Ask our support team which suits each expert.
New Technicians Ask, Experts Answer, Even After They Leave
Every approved SOP and tagged recording feeds the iFactory copilot. A new technician asks out loud, hears the answer and sees exactly which recording and procedure it came from.
From a Spoken Repair to an Approved SOP in Six Steps
SOP generation AI does the slow parts: transcribing, tagging and drafting. People do the parts that need judgement. ISO 9001 asks for documents to be reviewed and approved for suitability and adequacy before use, and an AI draft is no exception. Nothing reaches the copilot as an SOP until an engineer has signed it off. See the review gates in a workflow demo.
Tags That Make a Recording Findable Years Later
An untagged recording is just another file nobody opens. Each clip gets tags from your own asset register and failure mode list, so a search for "F3 chock overheating" finds it alongside the work orders for the same asset. Tags are suggested by AI and confirmed in review. Set up your tag lists with our support team.
A 45-Minute Session Plan You Can Reuse
A good session feels like a conversation, not a test. Keep it short, focus on one asset or one failure, and always end by checking what was said. Use the plan below for structured interviews; for narrated jobs, use only the first and last blocks. Run a sample session with us in a capture demo.
How a Copilot Answer Shows Its Sources
An answer nobody can check will not be trusted on a mill floor. The copilot answers only from approved SOPs and reviewed recordings, names its sources, and says plainly when it has no answer instead of guessing. Ask our support team how sources are shown.
Size the Effort and the Time Saved in Hours
The real cost of capture is people's time, so count it honestly. The worksheet below uses assumed inputs to show the arithmetic only, in hours rather than money. Your finance team can apply its own labour rates. Build your version in a sizing session.
Six Rules That Keep Experts Willing and Content Trusted
Capture fails when experts feel replaced or when the content goes stale. These rules address both. Agree them with crews and worker representatives before the first recording. Talk them through with our support team.
Voice Agent, Copilot and AI Server in One Package
iFactory delivers the Voice Knowledge Agent as a turnkey system. A pre-configured NVIDIA AI server ships racked and ready with speech and language models pre-loaded, so recordings and transcripts stay on site. You rack it, plug in power and Ethernet, and the AI is live. To scope it for your plant, request a turnkey quote.
- Pre-configured NVIDIA AI server, racked and ready
- Headset mics and handheld capture app
- Speech-to-text tuned to your plant vocabulary
- Tagging from your asset register and failure modes
- SOP drafting with review and approval workflow
- Copilot with source-linked voice answers
- 24×7 remote monitoring of models and hardware
Expert grid filled, server installed, asset register and tag lists loaded.
Sessions with the highest-risk experts, first SOP drafts reviewed and approved.
Approved content feeds the copilot, technicians trained, refresh dates set.
Steel Plant Knowledge Capture Software That Listens
iFactory is built for people who work with their hands, where typing up notes after a shift rarely happens. Our support team can plan a first capture wave with you.
What Plant Managers Ask About Voice Knowledge Capture
Keep Thirty Years of Know-How on the Floor
Record experts while they work, turn what they say into approved SOPs and give new technicians a copilot that answers with sources. Delivered turnkey, live in 6 to 12 weeks.
