The unit covers individuals in office leadership positions and others in an office of competitive systems and practices implementation who need to set up new or improve existing systems that enable the office work to flow in response to customer demand signals. This is often known as a customer pull system. Such a system responds to a cue that the work is required at the next stage of the process. Ultimately it is a customer’s demand for the deliverable that draws the work along the process via a series of cues.
This unit assumes that one or more processes in the office have been mapped. See MSS403007A Map an office value stream and MSS403033A Map an operational 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 demand and value from the perspective of internal and external customers, planning and change management.
Not applicable.
1 | Facilitate the pull system | 1.1 | Review current systems to identify customers and demand signals that trigger the flow of work |
1.2 | Determine if and how current office systems respond to identified demand signals | ||
1.3 | Identify where demand signals either do not exist or are not built into processes | ||
1.4 | Facilitate the adoption of appropriate demand signals for processes currently not responding to customer pull |
2 | Level the flow of work | 2.1 | Identify where optimal flow of work is not being achieved within the pull system |
2.2 | Identify variations and barriers that prevent the optimal flow of work | ||
2.3 | Establish routines and/or systems to promote the consistent flow of work at the optimal rate | ||
2.4 | Establish mechanisms to remove or minimise variations and barriers to flow | ||
2.5 | Establish mechanisms to manage the impact of variations and barriers that can not be removed |
3 | Allocate resources to balance work flow | 3.1 | Establish mechanisms that indicate when variations in flow of work require more or fewer resources |
3.2 | Develop routines and/or systems to re-balance flow through the allocation of resources to meet variations |
4 | Evaluate improvements | 4.1 | Review the changes to the pull and levelling systems |
4.2 | Identify causes for areas of poor performance | ||
4.3 | Implement further improvements to address areas of poor performance | ||
4.4 | Monitor the systems to identify further improvements |
5 | Embed improvements | 5.1 | Establish mechanisms to ensure new systems and/or practices are communicated to relevant personnel |
5.2 | Motivate team to apply the new systems and/or practices | ||
5.3 | Ensure the new systems and/or practices are reflected in relevant procedures |
Required skills |
Required skills include: gathering and analysing data on customer demand, customer demand cues, and signals and variations in flow of work communicating complex information to others solving problems to root cause identifying solutions to barriers to flow facilitating the team to implement and sustain new routines and/or systems |
Required knowledge |
Required knowledge includes: methods of calculating rates of demand and flow of work (e.g. takt and pitch) application to office work of demand signals, such as kanban and electronic demand signal systems techniques for achieving a smooth and consistent flow of work, such as: levelling the flow of work balancing the allocation of resources balancing the allocation of work Just in Time (JIT) Heijunka boxes visual displays |
The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package. | |
Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit | A person who demonstrates competency in this unit must be able to provide evidence of the ability to: interpret office processes in terms of customer demand and flow of work establish and/or optimise office related levelled pull systems motivate others to implement, sustain and improve office related levelled pull systems. |
Context of and specific resources for assessment | Assessment of performance must be undertaken in a workplace using or implementing one or more competitive systems and practices. Access may be required to: workplace procedures and plans relevant to work area specifications and documentation relating to planned, currently being implemented, or implemented changes to work processes and procedures relevant to the assessee documentation and information in relation to production, waste, overheads and hazard control/management reports from supervisors/managers case studies and scenarios to assess responses to contingencies. |
Method of assessment | A holistic approach should be taken to the assessment. Competence in this unit may be assessed by using a combination of the following to generate evidence: demonstration in the workplace workplace projects suitable simulation case studies/scenarios (particularly for assessment of contingencies, improvement scenarios, and so on) targeted questioning reports from supervisors, peers and colleagues (third-party reports) portfolio of evidence. In all cases it is expected that practical assessment will be combined with targeted questioning to assess underpinning knowledge. Where applicable, reasonable adjustment must be made to work environments and training situations to accommodate ethnicity, age, gender, demographics and disability. |
Guidance information for assessment | Assessment processes and techniques must be culturally appropriate and appropriate to the oracy, language and literacy capacity of the candidate and the work being performed. |
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 |
Pull system | A pull system controls the flow of work by doing what is required by the customer (downstream step) only when/as it is required. Typically implemented through a system of signals to trigger the activity. Signals may include: visual cues or signs kanban cards/tickets computer alerts or computer-based workflows Pull systems assist in decisions, such as: what to work on and when to work on it how to minimise overproduction where to allocate resources how to meet service standards (e.g. response time) |
Identified demand | Indentified demand is based on: identifying a process and its internal and external customers gathering data on rate and amount of demand |
Variations and barriers | Variations and barriers may include: unnecessary movement of work due to physical layout of office incorrect or incomplete procedures lack of training or cross-skilling inadequate or inappropriate equipment slow or inappropriate communication systems levels of authority and delegation incomplete information required to complete task interruptions complex and/or unusual situations bottlenecks peaks and troughs in demand |
Routines and/or systems to level the flow | Routines to level the flow are defined systems and/or work practices that assist in: minimising bottlenecks responding to peaks managing interruptions, non-standard or complex issues coordinating other tasks/work responsibilities They may include: Heijunka boxes types and location of signals triggers, such as minimum and maximum queue limits and items that are replaced at particular dates sequencing (e.g. fly in/fly out (FIFO) and due dates safety resources buffer resources back-up systems, such as maintaining critical hard copy documentation visual tracking displays |
Optimal flow of work | Optimal work is not only work undertaken in minimum time, but also work which keeps all persons/work stations equally busy (not necessarily on the same job). It can be supported by activities, such as: calculating takt time and pitch or similar levelling the flow allocating resources allocating and scheduling work cross-skilling |
Takt time | Takt time is the time required to complete one job cycle if the customer’s time and volume expectations are to be met, i.e. the available time divided by the number of units required, and may include, but is not limited to): time per piece where applied to piece work time per tonne or litre when applied to bulk product time per work item when applied to an office or service environment deadlines required to meet delivery dates when applied to project work |
Pitch | Pitch is the takt time averaged over a defined period and with available resources giving the rate of flow required to meet customer demand |
Standardised work practices | Standardised work practices include: defined procedures for how and when tasks are performed and prioritised |
Unit sector | Competitive systems and practices |
This unit contains employability skills.
Not applicable.