This unit of competency covers the skills and knowledge required to deal with internal value stream members in order to improve the overall effectiveness of the value stream, so delivering greater value to the customer. This unit applies to improvement practices which an individual might use within their own team or work area to other teams or work areas within the value stream and covers areas where value stream issues impact on the overall ability of the organisation to continue to improve and offer better value to the customers.

This unit applies to team leaders or people in equivalent positions who have contact with internal value stream members outside their own team and who are already familiar with competitive systems and practices, formal problem solving and root cause analysis (RCA), leading change, and reducing costs.

The unit applies to ‘gate-to-gate’ value streams. Changes do not include an engineering review of a major capital expenditure or similar review.

This unit may also be applied to service organisations applying competitive systems and practices principles.

No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

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 to facilitate one (1) or more improvements which have not delivered intended benefits or have possibly been restricted (stalled improvements), or two (2) or more improvements which have not as yet been subjected to restriction (fresh) and to:

identify opportunity for improvement

identify restrictions to the implementation of the improvement and determine possible solutions

develop a consensus approach to implementing the improvement and obtain approvals

measure and communicate change and review its implementation

standardise any improvements made.

Must provide evidence that demonstrates sufficient knowledge to interact with relevant personnel and be able to facilitate stalled improvement projects or one likely to be stalled, including knowledge of:

negotiation, influence and persuasion techniques

the causes of restriction/obstruction by people and methods of dealing with it

‘selling’/’pitching’ improvement projects

the manipulation of data and the interpretation of information

methods of determining benefits from and costs of change.

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 is best done from a report and/or folio of evidence drawn from:

a single project which provides sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria

multiple smaller projects which together provide sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria.

A third-party report, or similar, may be needed to testify to the work done by the individual, particularly when the project has been done as part of a project team.

Assessment should use a real situation where improvements have been stalled or are likely to be stalled in an operational workplace.

Knowledge evidence may be collected concurrently with performance evidence 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.

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.

Not applicable

Competitive systems and practices