The problem
Critical knowledge is tacit, scattered, tied to people. With retirements and turnover, the company loses know-how every day.
Abilis SRL · Knowledge Engineering · Manufacturing
Knowledge has
a new shape.
We design it.
Not just knowledge, but know-how: Abilis helps manufacturing companies engineer skills, experience and processes — because the real value lies in the know-how of those who build, set up and maintain.
We bring what today lives in people's heads into digital form: we engineer what an organization knows, to give it something new — the ability to evolve. With measurable KPIs, from machine downtime to onboarding to generational handover.
Measurableknowledge becomes data
Connectedprocesses linked together
Transferableno longer tied to one person
Usableready to operate and innovate
Because knowledge — and above all know-how — when it is organized, shared, available and searchable, becomes the foundation for innovation and growth.
We value the past so it becomes
an accelerator of the future.
Every manufacturing company holds an invisible treasure: decades of solutions, trade tricks, decisions, corrected mistakes, never-written processes. If it stays in a few heads, it is a risk. If it is engineered, it is an asset.
We make knowledge measurable, connected, transferable and usable.We engineer what an organization knows — to give it the ability to evolve.
The Abilis answer
Consulting to engineer knowledge and know-how: we extract processes from people's heads and bring them into digital form, structured and searchable.
The result
New company assets: living procedures, skill maps, knowledge bases ready for training, quality and artificial intelligence — to be capitalized.
Not just knowledge, but know-how
Knowledge is written down.
know-how is engineered.
Manuals tell you what to do. Know-how tells you how to really do it: diagnosing by sound, setting up to a tenth, tricks without stopping the line. It is tacit, personal, fragile — and worth more than any document. Abilis makes it explicit, verified and transferable.
What the company has already written
- Drawings, BOMs, work cycles and nominal parameters
- Machine manuals, datasheets, quality instructions
- ISO procedures, forms, control sheets
Useful, but not enough: it doesn't explain the exceptions.
What lives only in experts' heads
- Field diagnostics: vibrations, sounds, chips, tool wear
- Setups, zeroing, compensations and tenth-of-a-millimetre “tricks”
- Recoveries, restores and restarts after stops or alarms
- Preventive maintenance that avoids failure before it happens
If it retires with the person, the company stops.
What we do
Knowledge engineering,
end to end.
We don't just digitize documents: we engineer the way the company knows and knows how.
Knowledge engineering
We collect, organize and model technical, production and organizational knowledge: taxonomies, glossaries, concept maps, relationships between processes.
- Critical-knowledge audit
- Company maps and ontologies
- Wikis and knowledge bases
Know-how engineering
We turn expert experience and gestures into real operating procedures: from “we've always done it this way” to verifiable, measurable, improvable sequences.
- Shadowing and operational interviews
- Procedures, checklists, standards
- Video procedures and microlearning
Processes from heads to digital
We map processes as they really happen — not as designed — and bring them onto shared, available, searchable digital platforms.
- Process mapping as-is → to-be
- Digitization and automation
- Integration with quality and IT
Creating new assets
The deliverable is not a report: it is proprietary assets that stay with the company, get updated and capitalized on the balance sheet and the market.
- Proprietary knowledge assets
- Onboarding and handover kits
- AI-ready datasets
The Abilis method
From tacit to capitalizable,
in four steps.
Elicitation
Where is the knowledge? Interviews, side-by-side work, document analysis. We identify critical knowledge, key people and risks.
Output: critical-knowledge mapEngineering
How is it structured? We model processes, skills and experience into standard formats, verified with those who perform them every day.
Output: models, procedures, taxonomiesDigitization
How is it used? We publish on searchable, connected, updatable platforms — usable in production, training and service.
Output: living knowledge baseCapitalization
What is it worth? Assets become equity: measurable, transferable, ready for audits, certifications, finance and AI.
Output: capitalizable assetsOrganized
Every content item has a place, an owner, a version.
Shared
Accessible to those who need it, when needed.
Available
On the shop floor, in the office, remotely. Always.
Searchable
Found in seconds, even by a machine.
Generational handover (operating case)
How do you maintain machine tools when those who know how retire?
when those who know how retire?
CNC lathes, machining centres, grinders, transfer lines: a stoppage is never “the broken machine”, it is the know-how missing at the moment of failure. Abilis turns senior maintainer and setter experience into assets that stay — so decades of know-how aren't lost in a single retirement.
On the field, hands-free
Shadowing the key maintainer, POV footage with wearables, voice notes during diagnosis, setup and recovery. No downtime to “write procedures”.
Output: raw library of real know-howFrom gesture to verifiable sequence
Fault tree per machine, preventive and predictive checklists, tolerances and compensations, typical errors and exceptions — verified with those who perform them daily.
Output: living machine cards + video proceduresThe junior works autonomously
Onboarding kits for maintainers and operators, skill matrix per shift, semantic search at the machine and a chatbot trained only on your knowledge. Private AI, your perimeter.
Output: continuity without “ask Mario”MachineCritical know-how (tacit)Abilis asset (explicit)
CNC lathe / Machining centreVibration and tool-wear diagnosis “by ear”, recovery after alarms, thermal compensationsDiagnosis card + fault tree + video recovery searchable in 60 seconds
Grinding / LappingWheel dressing, unwritten parameters for micron finishes, smell/sight checksStandard parameters + tolerances + verified dressing checklist
Transfer / Automated lineFast changeover, station micro-adjustments, scrap-free restartsSetup sequence + times + typical errors + skill matrix per shift
Enterprise · Measurable KPIs
If it isn't measured,
it isn't an asset. It's an opinion.
Every Abilis engagement starts from a baseline assessment and is verified at 30-60-90 days on the pilot. No storytelling: six indicators that Management, Operations and Quality read every month. Indicative targets — we set the baseline together in the assessment.
Unplanned machine downtime
−20% → −40% hours/month per critical machine
Faster diagnosis and preventive actions cut the stoppages that erode margin.
MTTR · diagnosis and recovery time
−30% → −50% average minutes per failure
Fault trees and video procedures bring the solution to the machine in seconds.
Operational onboarding
months → weeks −50% time to autonomy
Transfer kits and microlearning: new hires work safely without endless shadowing.
Non-conformities and rework
−15% → −25% scrap and rework
Verifiable sequences and checklists reduce repeated errors and shift variability.
Information search time
< 60 sec from minutes to seconds
Semantic search across procedures, cards and videos: the right answer at the right time.
Critical know-how coverage
> 80% processes with owner + verified procedure
Critical-knowledge map and skill matrix: no process depends on a single person.
Baseline
Assessment: stoppages, MTTR, scrap, onboarding times and single-point-of-failure processes.
90-day check
Pilot on 1 critical process: before/after comparison with the shop manager.
Governance
Monthly review, versioning and audit.
Abilis platform
Engineered knowledge
becomes operational, every day.
Engineering knowledge is the foundation. Our advanced application platform makes it collectable in the field and usable by everyone — in the real workflow.
Wearables
Knowledge is captured where it is born: on the shop floor, in the field, hands-free. Guided procedures, voice notes and operator point-of-view footage.
Semantic search
Find answers by meaning, not keywords. Query the entire knowledge base in natural language and get to the point in seconds.
Web interfaces
Knowledge where needed: workstation, tablet, smartphone. Fast access with role views — production, quality, service, engineering.
Operational chatbots
Assistants trained exclusively on the company's knowledge: procedures, troubleshooting and operational answers, always available.
Private AI
Models run only on your data, within your perimeter. Know-how never trains others' models and never leaves the company.
Why it pays off
Knowledge becomes equity. Equity is capitalized.
When knowledge is engineered it stops being a hidden cost and becomes an intangible asset that increases company value.
- Continuity: know-how doesn't retire with people — it stays with the company.
- Efficiency: fewer errors, fewer stoppages, onboarding in weeks instead of months.
- Quality & compliance: traced, auditable, certifiable processes.
- Innovation: an ordered base is the prerequisite for reliable automation and AI.
- Value: documented, measurable assets, also valuable on the balance sheet and in extraordinary operations.
What stays in the company
- Corporate knowledge basesearchable wikis, procedures, datasheets
- Skill and experience mapwho knows what, at what level, where the risk is
- Digital process libraryas-is / to-be, owner, KPIs, versions
- Transfer kitonboarding, shadowing, generational handover
- AI-ready datasetclean, structured content for assistants and semantic search
All yours. No lock-in: open formats, full documentation.
Who it's for
Designed for manufacturing companies.
Manufacturing SMEs
The founder and a few senior technicians know everything. Abilis turns that knowledge into a system that supports growth, new hires and generational handover.
Scaling mid-size companies
More sites, more lines, more variants. We align different ways of working into one digital, measurable, improvable standard.
Groups and supply chains
Suppliers, plants, service: connected, shared knowledge reduces non-conformities and response times across the chain.
How to start
Three ways to start,
one goal: assets.
Critical-knowledge assessment
We map where the knowledge that matters is, who holds it and where you risk losing it. You get clear priorities and scope.
Pilot project
We engineer one critical process end-to-end: from tacit to digital, verified with those who perform it and immediately usable.
Continuous program
We build the company's living knowledge base — governance, updates, new processes — ready for quality, training and AI.
Frequently asked questions
What we're always asked.
What does “knowledge engineering” mean?
It means extracting knowledge and experience — often tacit — modelling it into standard, verified formats, and publishing it digitally in organized, shared, available and searchable form.
What do you mean by “not just knowledge, but know-how”?
Knowledge is what is already written: drawings, parameters, manuals. Know-how lives only in experience: diagnosing by sound, tenth-level setups, restarts after an alarm, preventive actions that avoid failure. Abilis engineers both, but continuity — especially in machine-tool maintenance — hinges on the know-how that retires with people.
How do you measure results? Which KPIs?
We start from an assessment baseline (machine stoppages, MTTR, scrap, onboarding times, owner-less processes) and verify the pilot at 30-60-90 days: unplanned downtime, diagnosis and recovery time, onboarding, non-conformities, information search time and critical know-how coverage. Only what is measured becomes an asset.
Do you have a concrete machine-tool maintenance example?
Yes: CNC lathes and machining centres where only the senior maintainer can diagnose vibrations, compensate thermal drift or restart after a stop. We capture the know-how with shadowing and video procedures, model it into living machine cards, fault trees and preventive checklists, and make it searchable at the machine — so generational handover never stops production.
Where do we concretely start?
From elicitation: interviews and side-by-side work with key people to identify critical knowledge and risks. The first output is the critical-knowledge map with intervention priorities.
Do our data and content stay ours?
Yes. Everything we produce belongs to the company, in open, documented formats. No lock-in: the knowledge base lives on even without us.
Do we need existing documentation or written procedures?
No. We can start from zero: our job is precisely to turn what lives only in people's heads into verifiable digital procedures.
How do you ensure know-how stays ours?
With private AI: models and data operate within your perimeter, on your content. No training of external models on your knowledge — it stays a proprietary asset and competitive advantage.
Do you only work with manufacturers?
That's our focus — where know-how is most critical — but the method applies to any organization with processes and experience to preserve.
How long does an engagement take?
It depends on scope: the assessment defines timelines and deliverables before starting. A single-process pilot is the fastest way to see concrete results.
Contact
Let's talk.
The first step is surfacing what you already know.
Tell us where knowledge is most critical — a department, a process, a key person. We'll reply with an initial read and an elicitation proposal.
Abilis SRLKnowledge engineering consulting
Emailsite@abilislab.com
FocusManufacturing companies and SMEs
“You Can’t Stop Knowledge”