In manufacturing, continuity is the quiet engine of productivity. Year after year, tenured engineers, plant managers, and process specialists have kept operations humming—not just by following procedures, but by knowing when and how to adapt them. But what happens when those decades of institutional knowledge leave the plant before they can be passed on?

This is the challenge that manufacturers across the US are beginning to face. Longstanding employees are aging out of the workforce, and there simply aren’t enough skilled or interested candidates ready to replace them. This so-called “industrial brain drain” isn’t just a future risk; it’s already happening, and its results are tangible. And try as we might, machinery upgrades and automation can’t fill the vacuum left by someone who’s run the same line or managed the same supplier relationship for 40 years.

Our manufacturing operations consultants have seen firsthand how vulnerable a plant can become during these transitions. More than just finding replacements for retiring workers, the challenge lies in preserving what’s at risk of being lost: critical process knowledge, supplier nuances, and the deeply embedded know-how that can’t be trained in a two-week onboarding. Let’s take a closer look at what’s causing the drain—and how organizations can get ahead of it.

A Quiet Crisis: What’s Causing the Manufacturing “Brain Drain”?

The US is undergoing a historic demographic shift. In 2024, the youngest Baby Boomers began retiring. This signaled the start of the largest surge of retirements in modern American history. The surge is expected to continue for several years, with more than 4.1 million Americans turning 65 each year through 2027, according to research from the Retirement Income Institute.

The manufacturing industry is feeling the impact more than most. As reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly one in four US manufacturing workers was 55 or older in 2020—a figure that represents millions of experienced employees nearing retirement age. Unfortunately, this comes at a time when the industry is already struggling to fill open roles. According to Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute’s 2024 Digital Skills Report, manufacturing will need to fill 3.8 million vacant jobs between now and 2033, 2.8 million of which will result directly from retirements.

But the problem isn’t just the volume of roles to fill; it’s also the years of experience that are leaving the industry. In many cases, those retiring from manufacturing are employees with decades of plant-specific knowledge—workers who have navigated unplanned outages, vendor issues, regulatory audits, and internal bottlenecks. Beyond leaving a vacancy, their departure creates a knowledge vacuum that can disrupt operations, delay production, and weaken supply chain stability.

At the same time, manufacturers are struggling to attract the next generation of workers. As reported in the Digital Skills Report, applicant interest in manufacturing jobs is shrinking, even as roles become more technically demanding and digitally complex. Whether skilled or new to the workforce, people simply aren’t applying to manufacturing at a replacement rate.

This is where the role of an internal operational process consultant becomes crucial. We help manufacturers not only address talent shortages, but also safeguard the institutional knowledge that’s at risk of disappearing with each retirement. Whether through knowledge capture, process mapping, or supply chain operations consulting, outside expertise can fill critical gaps and help build long-term capacity.

Why This Loss of Knowledge Hits So Hard

What makes the wave of manufacturing retirements particularly damaging isn’t just the sheer number of people leaving; it’s what they take with them. In manufacturing, this means tribal knowledge: the hands-on, experience-based insights that don’t exist in any manual but keep production lines moving, quality stable, and supply chains resilient.

This type of knowledge (how to finesse a temperamental valve, work around a finicky raw material, or maintain throughput during a bottleneck) is the invisible glue that holds most facilities’ operations together. And when it walks out the door, it doesn’t just slow things down; it destabilizes entire operations.

According to the 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2019 Pulse of Engineering report, over 60% of engineers surveyed reported the loss of knowledge or information upon employees’ departures as being very or extremely important. And this is with good reason—we’ve seen the effects of mass retirement in recent years. 

In 2017, Boeing had to rehire several hundred retirees just to keep commercial jet orders on track, highlighting the irreplaceability of veteran expertise in high-stakes environments. And according to Panopto’s 2018 Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report, large US businesses lose an average of $47 million annually due to inefficient institutional knowledge sharing.

At FP360, we’ve seen these ripple effects firsthand in our supply chain work. Without veteran employees to pass along nuance and context, even well-staffed facilities can struggle with execution. Younger staff may follow SOPs to the letter but lack the experience to know what’s missing when something goes wrong.

That’s where an experienced operations consultant adds immediate value. We work with manufacturers to extract and preserve that at-risk knowledge before it vanishes through structured interviews, shadowing, and real-time documentation. Additionally, we can perform a full audit of your processes to validate what has worked well, where things can be improved, and provide detailed manuals which include and improve upon that institutional knowledge. More than just recording tasks, we capture the decision-making logic and problem-solving instincts that are essential to smooth, safe operations.

Closing the Gap: How to Capture What Matters Before It’s Gone

While retirements may be inevitable, the disruption they cause doesn’t have to be. The key is identifying where institutional knowledge lives in your organization, then building systems to extract and share it systematically before it walks out the door. And the sooner companies act to retain or replicate tribal knowledge, the more resilient they’ll be through the coming waves of retirement.

At FP360, our role as a manufacturing operations consultant often begins when clients realize how much of their operations depend on knowledge that isn’t written down, visible in dashboards, or captured in SOPs. But with a few deliberate shifts, organizations can begin turning tribal knowledge into operational assets.

Here are a few high-impact strategies we’ve helped to implement:

1. Build a Knowledge-Capture Sprint into Offboarding

Don’t let retirement sneak up and catch your operations off guard. Instead, make it a clear and intentional phase. Carve out a few weeks (four to eight is a good starting point) dedicated solely to documenting the info that doesn’t live in SOPs: process nuances, equipment workarounds, and the “here’s what to watch for” wisdom. Think of this time not just as an exit, but as a final handoff project.

2. Mix Experience Levels in Process Reviews

When revisiting workflows or troubleshooting recurring issues, don’t just rely on the usual voices. Instead, speak with employees from multiple experience levels. Senior employees often bring overlooked context, while newer hires can help highlight what hasn’t been clearly communicated. This blend of perspectives is where the real insights start to surface.

3. Skip the Training Library and Make “Micro-Demos” Instead

You don’t need to aim for a full-blown, perfectly polished video training series. Instead, encourage short, informal recordings of high-skill tasks done correctly (a smartphone, a steady hand, and someone narrating a tricky task as they go is often enough). Whether it’s calibrating a machine, resolving a recurring supply issue, or running a maintenance reset, these micro-demos become searchable references for new hires and shift leads.

4. Make Knowledge Capture Part of the Day-to-Day

If you treat documentation like extra work, it’s often the first thing to fall off. That’s why we help teams embed it directly into frontline workflows. Using lightweight tools (like voice notes, annotated checklists, or in-line process comments) keeps it simple and ensures that documentation becomes part of the work, not extra work.

5. Assign a “Process Steward,” Not a Full-Time Trainer

In plants without formal training departments, designating a point person to manage knowledge continuity can be a game-changer. This should be someone who knows the line and has the trust of their peers. Their job: spot undocumented steps, collect input from peers, and work with leadership to keep your playbooks current and evolving.

The Bottom Line on Closing the Gap

These strategies aren’t just tactics for preserving know-how; they’re shifts toward building a culture of continuity. When teams start capturing what they know in real time, they do more than preserve knowledge—they create a system that supports onboarding, troubleshooting, and long-term resilience. Even with a lean crew, that’s entirely possible with the right structure and support.

Let’s Capture Your Critical Knowledge Today

The industrial brain drain is real (and growing), but it doesn’t have to derail your operations. With a proactive strategy and the right consulting support, you can preserve your team’s expertise, stabilize your workflows, and protect your competitive edge.

At FP360, we partner with manufacturers across the globe  to map, document, and transfer the tribal knowledge that keeps facilities running. Whether you’re already seeing the effects of retirements or want to get ahead of them, our manufacturing consulting team can help you build continuity into your operations before it causes bottlenecks.

Schedule a consultation with FP360, and let’s talk about how we can help you safeguard your institutional knowledge today.