Skills are the foundation of Skills management. Before you can record what your operators know or describe what a workstation requires, you need a skills catalog: the list of skills that matter on your site.
Before creating your first skill, make sure your organization's settings (skill scale, mandatory validity period, mandatory evidence) have been defined with your Customer Success Manager.
What is a skill?
A skill is something an operator must know how to do to work safely and to standard. A good skill is specific enough that a team leader can observe it and say "yes, this person can do it".
✅ Good examples | ❌ Too vague |
Forklift driving | Logistics |
Changeover on press 4 | Machines |
Visual inspection of welded parts | Quality |
Lockout / Tagout (LOTO) | Safety |
🧩 You don't have a detailed list of skills yet? That's fine.
Many plants only track one thing today: which workstation each operator can work on, and at which level (for example "Line 3 assembly: level 3"). You don't need to break this down before starting with Fabriq.
Start with what you have. Your current workstations and operator levels can be imported into Fabriq. Each workstation becomes a skill rated on your scale, so your team leaders immediately find the matrix they know. Contact your Customer Success Manager to organize the import.
Then go into detail, one workstation at a time. When you are ready, work out what an operator really needs to know to work on a workstation (for example: starting the line, changeover, quality checks, safety rules). These become your detailed skills, and you can then define them as the required skills of the workstation.
Start with your most critical workstations: there is no need to split everything at once.
Who can create a skill?
Only the site admins of a site and the organization admins can create and edit the skills of this site. All users can see the skills that were created for the organization's sites.
Create a skill step by step
Step 1: Open the skills catalog
Go to the Knowledge tab in the menu, open the Skills catalog, then click "Create".
Step 2: Fill in the general settings
Name: a short, explicit name. Two skills cannot have the same name on the same site.
Description: a short explanation in plain words of what the operator must be able to do and how it is checked for each level.
-> You can choose how this name and description must be translated if you have more than one language on site.
Site: the site this skill belongs to. If you are admin of only one site, it is selected automatically.
Category: helps you group and find skills (for example Safety, Quality, Production...). Categories are defined in your site's settings and are used across Fabriq.
Evaluation type: how the skill will be assessed (see below).
Validity period: how long the skill remains valid after an assessment (see below).
Choose the evaluation type
Certified (binary validation): the operator is certified or not. Best for skills validated by a training, a test or a licence.
On a scale: the operator reaches a level on your organization's scale (for example from 1 to 4). Best for skills learned progressively through practice.
The form shows the levels of your scale so you can check it fits the skill.
✅ How to choose? Ask yourself: "Is there an intermediate state between not knowing and knowing?" If yes, choose On a scale. If the answer is simply "the operator has the skill/certificate or not", choose Certified.
Set the validity period
The validity period defines when an operator's skill expires and must be assessed again. Enter a number and a unit, for example 12 months or 2 years. If the skill never needs to be checked again, choose "No validity period".
Depending on your organization's settings, a validity period may be mandatory for some evaluation types. In that case, the "No validity period" option is not available.
💡 Set a validity period when the skill is subject to regulations, when it is rarely practised (and can be forgotten) or when your quality system requires periodic re-qualification.
Step 3: Save
Click Create. The skill now appears in the skills catalog and can be used in workstations and matrices.
Edit a skill
Site admins and organization admins can update a skill at any time from the skills catalog. If you are neither a site admin of the skill's site nor an organization admin, you will see the message "Only site admins of the selected skill's site can update it".
Already have a skills catalog?
If you already list your skills somewhere (for example in an Excel matrix), you don't have to create them one by one: your catalog can be imported. Contact your Customer Success Manager to organize the import.
💡Tips to build a good catalog
Start small. Begin with the 10 to 20 skills that matter most: safety-critical tasks and the skills needed on your key workstations.
Use the same naming rules everywhere, for example "Action + equipment" (Changeover on press 4).
Involve your team leaders. They are the ones who will assess operators: they should recognize every skill in the list.
Next step: describe your workstations
Once your skills are created, you can list the skills each workstation requires.
→ Read next: Create a workstation and define its required skills.
If you have any questions, our support team is one click away.