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FM Knowledge Loss Is an Asset-Risk Event

Retirement and turnover can remove diagnostic capability overnight

Osmos Global Research & Knowledge Centre1 min readSign in to download

University of Tennessee case research hosted by IFMA examines apprenticeships, vendor partnerships and leadership development as responses to institutional-knowledge loss.[3] It is a specific case, not evidence for a universal retirement percentage.

Analysis

Experienced technicians often know failure signatures, access constraints, safe sequences and system interactions that are absent from manuals.

Osmos Global analysis: knowledge risk should be mapped against critical assets and recovery tasks. The relevant question is whether another competent person can diagnose and act under real conditions.

Leadership implication: workforce succession belongs in operational-resilience governance, not only HR planning.

Decision lens

Recommended action. Identify critical tasks with single-person dependency and create supervised successor coverage.

Cite this

Osmos Global Research & Knowledge Centre (2026). FM Knowledge Loss Is an Asset-Risk Event. Osmos Perspective, Osmos Global. https://www.osmosglobal.org/articles/fm-knowledge-loss-is-an-asset-risk-event

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