When your most experienced person retires: succession planning for electronics and embedded systems companies

The senior test technician at an industrial drives maker has tested every model the firm has shipped since its first. From the hum of a unit on the burn-in rack he can tell whether the DC link capacitors are tired. He retires at the end of next year. Nothing he knows about the older models is on paper, and customers still running those drives ring for repairs every month.

The sector overview for electronics makers points out that single people often carry a whole product, a code base or a test method in their heads. When that person is retiring rather than resigning, you have something precious: warning. This guide covers how to spend it, drawing on our succession planning approach.

• Senior testers who judge a unit by sound, warmth and meter readings that no document describes.
• Legacy repair hands who know substitutes for obsolete ICs and the faults each ageing design develops.
• Process engineers and bath chemists in board fabrication who read plating and etching lines from experience and a Hull cell panel.
• Calibration leads who know which reference drifts in humid months and which fixture leaks under pressure.
• Long-serving design engineers who remember why a board in production was laid out the way it was.
• Line setters who can tune any placement program and know each machine's moods.

Tacit skill passes slowly. A successor must see the rare faults, not just the routine ones, and rare faults surface only every few months. Starting a year or more before the retirement date lets the successor live through a full cycle of products, seasons and customer complaints. Starting in the notice month hands them a list of things they will not understand.

Seasons matter more than outsiders expect. Some drive faults appear only in summer, when the air inside a customer's control panel runs hot. Some calibration drift shows only in the monsoon. Plating chemistry behaves differently after a long shutdown. A successor who has not lived through each of these with the expert beside them will meet them alone for the first time.

1. 1

   Confirm the date and the person's wishes

   Talk with the retiring person early and with respect. Some want to hand over fully; some would like to stay on part-time. Plan around their wishes within what the business needs.

2. 2

   Name one successor, not a committee

   One person who will own the knowledge, with a second in support. A vague group handover leaves nobody accountable.

3. 3

   Write the capture list together

   Sit with the retiree and list everything they do that nobody else can. The template below gives a starting shape.

4. 4

   Work side by side on real jobs

   The successor stands beside the retiree on every rare repair, test or adjustment, then takes the lead while the retiree watches.

5. 5

   Record as you go

   Phone clips of tests and repairs, annotated photographs and a short repair note per model, filed in the shared drive under each model number.

6. 6

   Agree the link after retirement

   Where the retiree is willing, set up a paid arrangement for occasional questions or visits during the first year after they leave.

Specialist, role and last working day: ________.
Successor and support person: ________.
Products, models or processes only they handle: ________.
Rare faults and how they are recognised: ________.
Fixtures, jigs or tools with special settings: ________.
Obsolete parts and known substitutes: ________.
Customers or suppliers who call them directly: ________.
Clips and notes recorded so far: ________.
Successor's most recent solo attempt on each item: ________.

The successor's job changes during the handover, and their role description should say so. Trim their other duties, add the capture and pairing work to their goals, and schedule a grade or pay review for the day they take over. For how roles are written where products live for decades, see how long-life product firms write roles. For mapping such roles across a whole unit, see mapping critical roles in contract manufacturing.

Older models often survive on paper schematics, a binder of service bulletins and firmware burned onto chips nobody can reprogram any more. Scan the binders. Photograph the boards from both sides. Copy firmware images off working units while a programmer that reads them still exists. Agree with purchasing which last-time buys or cross-referenced parts will keep the repair bench alive after the retiree goes.

A retiring specialist can feel shoved aside by a succession plan. Thank them publicly for what they built. Ask them to teach rather than to write manuals alone. Present the successor's progress back to them as their own achievement. People share more freely when they feel their knowledge is valued, not mined.