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Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1547121
104 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2026 steps, and sign-offs. They are not good at uncov- ering why an operator checks one thing before another or why two readings that appear accept- able can still point to a problem. The missing information is in the small decisions of what he looks at first, which reading he doesn't quite trust, the sound that makes him turn around, and the condition that tells him to wait five minutes before making an adjustment. After 20 years, those decisions don't feel like decisions anymore; they're simply part of running the line. If you ask how he knows a bath is starting to drift, he may say, "You can just tell." That information has to be drawn out before it can be organized. AI can help. Start With a Conversation Instead of trying to pull that knowledge out of your plater with a form, use AI to start a conversation. You just need one experienced operator, one in- terviewer, and a small block of time. The interview can happen in one sitting or over several shorter conversations on different days. With the opera- tor's knowledge, record each conversation so no- body has to take notes. Explain that you're trying to capture how the process is actually run, so the next operator can learn faster and make fewer mistakes. Most experienced people are happy to teach what they know. They just don't want to spend an after- noon staring at empty boxes on a computer screen. Start With One Process Choose one process for the first interview instead of trying to document the whole department. This gives the operator something real to walk through. Ask him to picture the beginning of a normal shift and take you through what happens from the moment he ap- proaches the line. If possible, have the current work instruction, control plan, and a recent job traveler nearby. These can remind him of steps without forc- ing the conversation to follow the paperwork. Note: The interviewer does not need to be the company's top plating expert. In fact, there's an advantage to using someone who is still fairly new since new people ask questions that the rest of us have stopped asking: • "What do you look at first?" • "What does the line look like when it's running well?" • "What do you notice before a problem shows up in the data?" • "What mistakes do new operators make?" • "What do you do that isn't written in the current instruction?" It also helps to ask the operator to compare situ- ations, which gives him a way to explain details that may not come to mind when he is only asked to describe a normal day. What is different on a Monday morning after the line has been idle all weekend? What changes after a heavy production day? If his/her answer to a question is, "You just know," ask about the last time that "knowing" occurred. What caught his attention? Where was he standing? What did he check next? What would have made him stop the line? That's where the useful details begin to surface. "The pump didn't sound right" might mean a particular rattle that only happens when flow starts dropping. Or a reading may still be inside the process window, but an experienced operator notices that it's moving faster than it should. Those are the details a standard work instruction usually misses. Don't worry if the conversation jumps around. Experienced operators may remember one problem Use This Exact AI Prompt Use only the information in this transcript. Do not add steps from outside knowledge. Organize the material into five sections: what the operator checks, what normal oper- ation looks like, warning signs, the action he takes, and why he takes it. Identify every place where the operator says "usually," "it depends," or "you just know," and turn those statements into follow-up questions. If infor- mation is missing, mark it as "not stated." INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: [Paste the interview transcript here.]