Unused knowledge is a form of manufacturing waste that can cost your organization opportunities to improve productivity, enhance quality, and reduce expenses. If you’re fabricating rubber products in-house, examples include the “tribal knowledge” of metalworkers who bond door gaskets and the expertise of design engineers who know that rubber has different tolerances than metal.
This article explains why unused knowledge is a form of manufacturing waste and how you can recognize its symptoms. You’ll also learn how to correct it, and how overprocessing applies specifically to rubber products. Outsourcing your rubber fabrication to Elasto Proxy can help, so contact us to learn more about the value we provide.
Why is Unused Knowledge Wasteful?
Knowledge is one of the most valuable resources in manufacturing. Without it, employees can’t get great results. For example, a cab manufacturer that applies headliners with adhesives needs to know how temperature and humidity affect the curing process. Otherwise, workers may apply adhesives under conditions where curing takes longer or remains incomplete.
When employee knowledge isn’t shared, manufacturers may experience more than increased scrap rates and longer cycle times. Unused knowledge also limits innovation. Employees often have ideas for process improvements, but employers need a structured way to gather this information and act upon it.
What are the Symptoms of Unused Knowledge?
Now that you understand what unused knowledge is, how can you recognize it? Look for these symptoms in your own operations.
- Repeated Mistakes and Quality Issues: When learning isn’t shared, errors are repeated. For example, a cab manufacturer’s employees may install door gaskets from the center instead of the edges. This can overstretch the rubber so that the gasket doesn’t fit.
- Inconsistent Process Outcomes: Some employees always clean the area around the door frame. Others install gaskets without first wiping down the frame with isopropyl alcohol. The result is that some taped gaskets stick better than others.
- Over-Reliance on Key Personnel: Depending on a few “go to” workers for tasks like cutting headliners can become a problem if all these employees are absent at the same time.
- Slow Problem Solving: Workers who don’t know which rubber part to install first may struggle with work instructions. This can increase errors and lengthen cycle times.
- Apathy and Disengagement: Employees who feel that their ideas are ignored may stop offering suggestions for improvements and become apathetic or disengaged.
How Do You Correct Unused Knowledge?
Eliminating unused knowledge involves these organizational best practices.
- Knowledge Capture and Documentation: Standard work instructions need to include input from the shop floor and not just top-down directives.
- Cross-Training and Mentoring: Pairing experienced employees with new hires is one way to mitigate the effects of more retirements in manufacturing.
- Continuous Improvement Programs: Kaizen, a key concept in Lean manufacturing, encourages employees to share their ideas for improvements.
- Digital Knowledge Management Systems: Manufacturers can use large language models (LLMs), a type of artificial intelligence, to answer questions about materials and processes.
- Root Cause Analysis and Feedback Loops: Documenting and acting upon the insights of employees who are the closest to problems leads to better solutions.
- Recognition and Incentives: By rewarding the sharing of information, employers can eliminate disincentives to hoard knowledge in the name of job security.
Can Outsourcing Address Overprocessing?
You can also address the problem of unused knowledge by outsourcing your parts fabrication to Elasto Proxy. As an experienced rubber fabricator, Elasto Proxy understands the best way to bond a gasket, or to cut a headliner to size. We can also share our knowledge of gasket installation and speed assembly through kitting and custom packaging.
Ready to learn more? Eliminate unused knowledge by tapping into Elasto Proxy’s expertise.
