Application
This unit of competency covers the skills and knowledge required to facilitate changes to office processes to prevent errors and regression to pre-improvement levels of practices and move the office towards a culture of zero defects.
The unit applies to a person who needs to maximise the value of office processes to the customer through mistake proofing. The person facilitates changes to the process that will prevent errors, reduce their frequency or minimise their impact on the value to the customer. They also assist in embedding the changes into everyday practice and workplace culture. The person will typically be a technical expert, team leader or be in a role where they have sufficient technical understanding of processes in their own work and that of others to be able to mistake proof the process in their area. The unit can apply to a whole or part of an office.
This approach may be used in conjunction with process mapping and/or value stream mapping to identify office-related process steps and specific areas of waste in a process.
Office processes 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.
This unit has a strong emphasis on understanding value from the customer’s perspective, analysis of errors to identify causes and planning, prioritising and facilitation skills.
No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.
Elements and Performance Criteria
Elements describe the essential outcomes. | Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element. | ||
1 | Prepare for mistake proofing | 1.1 | Engage management and team/work group to gain support for implementing mistake proofing. |
1.2 | Provide information to others about the impact of errors and the concept of mistake proofing in an office environment. | ||
1.3 | Where required, liaise with stakeholders to identify the steps in the office processes and the points where errors occur. | ||
2 | Analyse processes | 2.1 | Identify sources of variability/non-conformance against specifications and/or procedures. |
2.2 | Analyse the conditions under which errors occur. | ||
2.3 | Identify the root cause of errors. | ||
3 | Identify options for mistake proofing | 3.1 | Establish and prioritise mistake proofing options. |
3.2 | Develop implementation plans for the selected mistake proofing activities and facilitate allocation of resources. | ||
4 | Facilitate the implementation of mistake proofing | 4.1 | Liaise with other office employees and other people to implement the selected mistake proofing activities into relevant systems and/or practices. |
4.2 | Test and validate the mistake proofing activities. | ||
4.3 | Identify causes for areas of poor performance in the mistake proofing and identify any additional changes to address them. | ||
5 | Embed mistake proofing | 5.1 | Establish mechanisms to ensure new systems and/or practices are communicated to relevant personnel. |
5.2 | Motivate others in the office to apply the new systems and/or practices. | ||
5.3 | Ensure the new systems and/or practices are reflected in relevant procedures. | ||
Evidence of Performance
Evidence required to demonstrate competence in this unit must be relevant to and satisfy the requirements of the elements and performance criteria and include the ability, for two (2) or more errors, to:
identify, analyse and evaluate information from a variety of sources to identify errors and options for mistake proofing
facilitate implementation of mistake proofing activities that reduce waste
facilitate sustaining the mistake proofing activities.
Evidence of Knowledge
Must provide evidence that demonstrates knowledge relevant to their job role sufficient to fulfil their job role independently, including:
principles, purpose and methods of mistake proofing
root cause analysis techniques, such as:
5 Whys
Pareto analysis
fishbone diagrams
office deliverables in own workplace and processes used to achieve them
contribution of office processes to the value stream
methods of identifying and evaluating options
work health and safety (WHS) requirements relevant to the target work areas
principles of change management.
Assessment Conditions
The unit should be assessed holistically and the judgement of competence shall be based on a holistic assessment of the evidence.
The collection of performance evidence:
should occur over a range of situations which include typical disruptions to normal, smooth operation of the workplace
will typically include a supervisor/third-party report focussing on consistent performance and problem recognition and solving. A supervisor/third-party report must be prepared by someone who has a direct, relevant, current relationship with the person being assessed and who is in a position to form a judgement on workplace performance relevant to the unit of competency
must include identified errors and mistake proofing in own workplace
will typically include the use of appropriate tools, equipment and safety gear requiring demonstration of preparation, operation, completion and responding to problems.
Assessment should occur in operational workplace situations.
Knowledge evidence may be collected concurrently with performance evidence (provided a record is kept) or through an independent process such as workbooks, written assessments or interviews (provided a record is kept).
Assessment processes and techniques must be appropriate to the language, literacy and numeracy requirements of the work being performed and the needs of the candidate.
Conditions for assessment must include access to all tools, equipment, materials and documentation required, including relevant workplace procedures, product and manufacturing specifications associated with this unit.
Foundation skills are integral to competent performance of the unit and should not be assessed separately.
Assessors must satisfy the assessor competency requirements that are in place at the time of the assessment as set by the VET regulator.
The assessor must demonstrate both technical competency and currency.
Technical competence can be demonstrated through:
relevant VET or other qualification/Statement of Attainment AND/OR
relevant workplace experience
Currency can be demonstrated through:
performing the competency being assessed as part of current employment OR
having consulted with an organisation providing relevant environmental monitoring, management or technology services about performing the competency being assessed within the last twelve months.
Foundation Skills
This section describes those required skills (language, literacy and numeracy) that are essential to performance.
Foundation skills essential to performance are explicit in the performance criteria of this unit of competency.
Range Statement
This field allows for different work environments and conditions that may affect performance. Essential operating conditions that may be present (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) are included. | |
Competitive systems and practices include one or more of: | lean operations agile operations preventative and predictive maintenance approaches statistical process control systems, including six sigma and three sigma Just in Time (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 overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) takt time process mapping problem solving run charts standard procedures current reality tree. |
Mistake proofing activities include one or more of: | physical barriers that prevent errors (e.g. automatic shutoff guide rails, equipment, leads and supplies that can only be used the correct way, and secure areas) ‘virtual’ barriers built into information technology (IT) and data systems (e.g. required fields, data validation rules, centrally managed templates and workflows, and password protected files) visual or physical reminders of the correct action or sequence (e.g. colour coding, visual procedures and dividers) visual or auditory alerts about incorrect action reducing data errors through simplified forms or moving to electronic data capture standardised workflows and templates for documentation. |
Options for mistake proofing require consideration of one or more of: | feasibility cost capacity to reduce muda (waste). |
Criteria that support value to the customer require consideration of one or more of: | ease and cost of implementation capacity to prevent errors the impact to the customer from the errors. |
Sectors
Not applicable
Competency Field
Competitive systems and practices