Application
This unit applies to an employee who will be participating in team projects that focus on making improvements to selected office-related processes to eliminate waste and improve value-add to the customer.
The unit covers team members contributing to the breakthrough improvements based on knowledge of their own and the broader office functions and how they contribute to meeting customer requirements.
This unit assumes that one or more processes in the office have been mapped and a target area for breakthrough improvement has been identified.
The office environment may include administrative, transactional or service-based processes in or attached to a manufacturing organisation, within their value stream or similar environments, such as health care, education, financial, construction or Defence services.
Prerequisites
Not applicable.
Elements and Performance Criteria
1 | Contribute to planning improvement events | 1.1 | Identify own role and functions and those of the broader office and how they contribute to value to the customer |
1.2 | Make suggestions for changes that might lead to improvements in the targeted process | ||
1.3 | Participate in team activities to identity breakthrough improvements to be implemented | ||
1.4 | Identify own project tasks and task sequencing for improvements |
2 | Assist in making improvements | 2.1 | Identify metrics relevant to own role in the target process |
2.2 | Gather baseline data on these metrics | ||
2.3 | Undertake tasks as allocated in the project plan | ||
2.4 | Communicate with team and project leader on progress, achievements and difficulties | ||
2.5 | Contribute to making adjustments and finding solutions to problems |
3 | Contribute to evaluating improvements | 3.1 | Gather comparative data on the metrics once changes have been made |
3.2 | Participate in team activities to evaluate the outcomes of the event | ||
3.3 | Make suggestions for additional changes and/or improvements for areas of poor performance |
4 | Sustain improvements | 4.1 | Consistently apply the new procedures/processes in own work area |
4.2 | Apply monitoring mechanisms | ||
4.3 | Report non-conformances and suggestions for further improvements |
Required Skills
Required skills |
Required skills include: communicating with others to clarify scope of breakthrough improvement activity, contribute suggestions for improvement and review results visualising normal office procedures in terms of flow and contribution to customer benefit planning and prioritising own tasks in implementation of breakthrough team activity identifying office waste (muda) reading and interpreting documents describing office procedures recording activities and results against templates and other prescribed formats working with others to solve problems |
Required knowledge |
Required knowledge includes: how the targeted process contributes to value for the customer standard office procedures within the targeted process for own activities and others in team difference between continuous improvement and breakthrough improvement breakthrough improvement techniques as is relevant to own job area competitive systems and practices tools and techniques as applied in the office, for example: value stream mapping 5S Just in Time (JIT) process mapping establishing customer pull key performance indicators/metrics identification and elimination of waste (muda) problem solving A3 reporting Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) methods of making/recommending improvements |
Evidence Required
The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included. | |
Competitive systems and practices | Competitive systems and practices may include, but are not limited to: lean operations agile operations preventative and predictive maintenance approaches monitoring and data gathering systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM) database, accounting packages, business intelligence or other office process-related database programs statistical process control systems, including six sigma and three sigma JIT, kanban and other pull-related operations control systems supply, value, and demand chain monitoring and analysis 5S continuous improvement (kaizen) breakthrough improvement (kaizen blitz) cause/effect diagrams takt time process mapping problem solving run charts standard procedures current reality tree Competitive systems and practices should be interpreted so as to take into account: the stage of implementation of competitive systems and practices the size of the enterprise the work organisation, culture, regulatory environment and the industry sector |
Office | Office may include: a physical location or a remote or virtual location where information/administrative/transaction/service based functions are conducted An office typically produces information and/or services as deliverables to internal or external customers and stores records in hard copy or electronically |
Breakthrough improvement | A breakthrough improvement is one that delivers a better ratio of value-add to non-value add from the customer perspective. It is characterised by: using a formal process being a discrete targeted activity that is achieved in a relatively short timeframe delivering significant level of improvement |
Monitoring mechanisms | Monitoring mechanisms may include: scheduled audits regular monitoring and/or reporting activities communications, such as standing items for team meetings tracking and visual display of performance measures |
Waste | Waste (also known as muda in the Toyota Production System and its derivatives) includes: errors in documents or data transport of documents doing unnecessary work waiting for the next process step process of getting approvals unnecessary motions backlog in work queues under utilised employees too many signature/approval levels unclear job descriptions obsolete databases/files/folders collecting unnecessary data interruptions that do not add value purchase orders not matching quotation full or bulk printouts when partial printout would do printing out when electronic files could serve the purpose holding unnecessary stock of office supplies generating reports that are not read other activities which do not yield any benefit to the organisation or any benefit to the organisations customers |
Range Statement
The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included. | |
Competitive systems and practices | Competitive systems and practices may include, but are not limited to: lean operations agile operations preventative and predictive maintenance approaches monitoring and data gathering systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM) database, accounting packages, business intelligence or other office process-related database programs statistical process control systems, including six sigma and three sigma JIT, kanban and other pull-related operations control systems supply, value, and demand chain monitoring and analysis 5S continuous improvement (kaizen) breakthrough improvement (kaizen blitz) cause/effect diagrams takt time process mapping problem solving run charts standard procedures current reality tree Competitive systems and practices should be interpreted so as to take into account: the stage of implementation of competitive systems and practices the size of the enterprise the work organisation, culture, regulatory environment and the industry sector |
Office | Office may include: a physical location or a remote or virtual location where information/administrative/transaction/service based functions are conducted An office typically produces information and/or services as deliverables to internal or external customers and stores records in hard copy or electronically |
Breakthrough improvement | A breakthrough improvement is one that delivers a better ratio of value-add to non-value add from the customer perspective. It is characterised by: using a formal process being a discrete targeted activity that is achieved in a relatively short timeframe delivering significant level of improvement |
Monitoring mechanisms | Monitoring mechanisms may include: scheduled audits regular monitoring and/or reporting activities communications, such as standing items for team meetings tracking and visual display of performance measures |
Waste | Waste (also known as muda in the Toyota Production System and its derivatives) includes: errors in documents or data transport of documents doing unnecessary work waiting for the next process step process of getting approvals unnecessary motions backlog in work queues under utilised employees too many signature/approval levels unclear job descriptions obsolete databases/files/folders collecting unnecessary data interruptions that do not add value purchase orders not matching quotation full or bulk printouts when partial printout would do printing out when electronic files could serve the purpose holding unnecessary stock of office supplies generating reports that are not read other activities which do not yield any benefit to the organisation or any benefit to the organisations customers |
Sectors
Unit sector | Competitive systems and practices |
Employability Skills
This unit contains employability skills.
Licensing Information
Not applicable.