The Problems with Tribal Knowledge.

Human memory is both fallible and transient. The whisper game demonstrates the fallibility of our memories. In this game, people sit in a circle. One person has the original of a short narrative, which she whispers into the ear of the person to her left and so on around the circle.

When the final version is compared to the original, the differences can be quite humorous, but in a manufacturing environment, the mouth-to-ear transmission of tribal knowledge can result in inefficiencies, unsafe practices, and inconsistent quality of products. An advertisement for the Sequence software demonstrates the transience of human memory. A person in a manufacturing environment smiles as he learns that he just won the lottery. In short order, he and all of his knowledge about the manufacturing process will be leaving the building forever. Illness, death, retirement, relocation, job changes, and other events can result in a significant loss of information about manufacturing procedures.

Learn more about transforming tribal knowledge into written instructions and the benefits to the manufacturing companies.