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:

determine priority operations or areas for benchmarking

undertake benchmarking

implement (or initiate and follow through on the implementation of) the actions which flow from the benchmarking

examine the outcomes and identify improvements.

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 language and literacy capacity of the candidate and the work being performed.

Required skills

Required skills include:

undertaking self-directed problem solving and decision-making

communicating across all levels in an organisation

determining operations or area to be benchmarked by:

previous benchmarking

identification by other studies or processes of area of need

informal conversations with customers, employees or suppliers

exploratory research techniques such as focus groups

in-depth marketing research, quantitative research, surveys, questionnaires, engineering analysis, process mapping, quality control variance reports, or financial ratio analysis

interpreting data and qualitative information gained from benchmarking

cooperating and working with others, both internally and externally to the work group

analysing and planning

communicating effectively (both receiving and sending communications)

solving problems to root cause

prioritising benchmarking needs and data in relation to organisation goals, objectives and strategies

Required knowledge

Required knowledge includes:

the organisation’s performance data and/or processes subject to the benchmarking to a level needed to identify appropriate applications for benchmarking and apply the benchmarking results to it

benchmarking protocols

benchmarking code of practice

legal and ethical issues involved in benchmarking

different approaches to benchmarking and their applications

performance versus process benchmarking

criterion referenced versus qualitative versus quantitative benchmarking and the applications of each

group processes

own organisation’s intellectual property and stance on confidentiality

benchmarking partners’ attitudes to confidentiality

application of benchmarking to continuous improvement and the concept of continually improving best practice

distinction between measurable data and useful information

validity of benchmarking measures, data and information

measures of data quality and methods of improving the quality of benchmarking information

application of benchmarking data and information to Balanced Scorecard approaches

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 Systems Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Materials Resource Planning (MRP) and proprietary systems

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

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

Sources of benchmarking data

Sources of benchmarking data may include:

other relevant areas within the same organisation

external organisations in a similar market/with similar processes

external organisations recognised as a leader in the process/activity under study

benchmarking consultancies offering access to relevant data/information/organisations