How Almetals Uses Annovox to Preserve Manufacturing Knowledge Through Video

A practical video-training approach helps turn experienced employee knowledge into reusable internal training while keeping proprietary process details protected.

Almetals, Inc. is using Annovox to create professional video-based training resources that help preserve manufacturing expertise, support employee development and make critical knowledge easier to reuse across the organization.

Almetals is a specialty metals slitter, processor and distributor founded in 1984, with operations in Wixom, Michigan, and Austell, Georgia. The company publicly highlights more than 450 years of collective industry experience across its team, and more than half of its associates have been with Almetals for at least 15 years.

That depth of experience is a competitive advantage. It also creates a familiar challenge for manufacturers: important operating knowledge often lives with experienced employees and is passed from person to person through observation, repetition and informal coaching.

Almetals is addressing that challenge by using Annovox to turn selected internal procedures and subject-matter expertise into clear, reusable video training assets. The finished videos are designed for internal use and can support onboarding, cross-training, refresher instruction, standard work and knowledge transfer without publicly exposing the proprietary details behind Almetals' operations.

Capturing What Experienced Employees Know

Written procedures remain important, but they cannot always show motion, timing, hand placement, visual checkpoints or the practical judgment that experienced employees apply during real work.

Video gives Almetals a way to document those details in context. Employees can demonstrate a process in the actual work environment while explaining what matters, what to watch for and how the task should be completed. Annovox then helps organize the raw footage into a more consistent training asset that can be reviewed, approved and reused. This is the same knowledge capture approach Annovox uses to preserve expertise before it leaves the building.

The objective is not to publish Almetals' operating knowledge. The objective is to preserve it inside the company and make it easier for the right employees to learn from it.

Supporting Onboarding, Cross-Training and Standard Work

Manufacturing training is often affected by shift schedules, production demands and the availability of experienced trainers. Even when the same procedure is taught repeatedly, the explanation may change depending on who is providing the instruction.

Reusable video training gives Almetals a consistent starting point. New employees can see how work is performed before or alongside hands-on instruction. Existing employees can revisit a process when they need a refresher. Cross-training can be supported without requiring the same subject-matter expert to repeat the full explanation every time.

Video does not replace experienced employees, supervisors or hands-on qualification. It helps those people teach more consistently and gives employees another practical resource when questions arise.

A Manufacturing-Focused Production Model

Annovox is built around the realities of frontline work. Subject-matter experts can capture a process using a phone or tablet rather than learning professional editing software. Annovox handles the production work, including structure, editing, graphics, voiceover options and human review, while the customer remains involved in reviewing and approving the final content.

This human-in-the-loop approach is especially important for manufacturing. AI can accelerate parts of the production process, but it should not be trusted to independently decide whether a technical instruction is correct. The people who understand the work remain responsible for validating the content.

Protecting Proprietary Manufacturing Knowledge

The public value of this use case is the training model, not the underlying procedures. Almetals decides what is recorded, who can review it and how the finished video is used internally.

A public article about the project should not identify machine settings, processing parameters, tolerances, customer requirements, material specifications, internal quality criteria or detailed process sequences. Those details are intentionally excluded because the most useful training content is often also the most sensitive.

The result is a practical balance: Almetals can preserve important operational knowledge for its workforce without turning proprietary expertise into public-facing content.

Building a Reusable Knowledge Library

The long-term opportunity is larger than a single video. Each approved training asset can become part of a growing internal knowledge library that supports employees across roles, shifts and locations.

As procedures change, video SOPs can be revised instead of recreated from the beginning. As experienced employees share what they know, the organization can reduce its dependence on memory and one-to-one repetition. Over time, the video library can support a more repeatable approach to onboarding, training and continuous improvement.

A Broader Lesson for Manufacturers

Many manufacturers have experienced employees, written procedures and capable trainers. The gap is often the time and production capacity required to turn that knowledge into clear visual training.

The Almetals use case shows how a manufacturer can begin closing that gap without buying another complicated authoring platform or assigning already-busy employees to become video editors. Frontline experts provide the knowledge. The company controls the content. Annovox manages the production process. For other examples of this model, see how PPC Flex repurposed existing recordings into multilingual training.

For manufacturers facing retirements, turnover, growth, cross-training needs or inconsistent work instruction, that model provides a practical way to preserve what their best people know and make it easier to teach.

About Almetals

Founded in 1984, Almetals, Inc. is a specialty metals slitter, processor and distributor serving manufacturers from facilities in Wixom, Michigan, and Austell, Georgia. The company supplies and processes aluminum, brass, copper, cold-rolled steel, fin stock, coated metals and stainless steel for industries including stamping, roll forming, HVAC, solar and automotive.

About Annovox

Annovox helps manufacturers and other frontline organizations turn real work into professional video SOPs and training content. Employees capture knowledge using a phone or tablet, and Annovox combines AI-assisted production with human review to create clear, reusable and multilingual training assets.

Preserve Your Frontline Knowledge with Video

Annovox helps manufacturers turn real work and experienced employee knowledge into clear, reusable video SOPs and training assets. Manufacturers interested in preserving frontline knowledge, improving onboarding or building reusable video SOPs can contact Annovox to discuss a pilot project.