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:

undertake complex problem identification

establish appropriate methodologies, including establishing team responsibilities, to achieve root cause identification

prioritise solutions

recommend solutions and implementation procedures within the organisation and the value stream

evaluate implementation of solutions

standardise solutions.

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:

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

researching and collating information from a variety of sources, including non-obvious sources

analysing and planning in highly varied and/or highly specialised contexts

quantitative and qualitative data interpretation and application skills

communicating effectively (both receiving and sending communications)

applying problem solving methodology, including:

cross-functional problem solving team

cross-functional nominal group (virtual team)

consulting and or brainstorming with members from outside the organisation on some basis

input from other members of the value stream

the use of known/proprietary problem solving approaches or some synthesis of methods

own or commissioned research either in whole or in part

prioritising possible solutions on benefit/cost basis and value to the customer

selecting solution and checking efficacy, including checking:

the solution breaks the causal tree

other causes are not able to cause the problem

benefit/cost ratio is acceptable

solution can be implemented

permanence of solution

standardising solutions by:

checking that implemented solution solves the problem

solution can be applied to all relevant standards within the organisation, including:

standard operating procedures/work instructions

actual work practice

maintenance manuals and similar

product and/or process specifications

Required knowledge

Required knowledge includes:

organisational goals, products and processes

sources of data (actual and possible) within the organisation and the value stream

understanding of the techniques and methodologies of formal problem solving

data required for problem solving and alternative/proxy data sources

benefit/cost analysis

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

Complex problem

A complex problem may be described as one which has several of the following characteristics:

requires going into the value stream for data/information

is wider than just applying to a single job

applies to less common solutions or problems

requires a higher level of knowledge and skill (which may or may not be possessed directly by the person solving the problem), such as:

significant specialist knowledge

significant specialist skill

more theory/understanding of technology or process

data is not easily available and may need particular strategies to obtain, such as:

overcoming resistance from people including employees, customers or suppliers

extracting data not regularly reported from SCADA or similar systems

the problem and/or proposed solutions require reporting or authorisations from a Board or external authorities, such as licensing or regulatory bodies

Problem recognition

The problem recognition may include:

an obvious and current complex problem

an intractable problem which has been known about and ‘lived with’ for some time

a complex problem which has not been previously recognised

The problem may, or may not be capable of complete definition at the start of the problem solving process (so requiring an iterative process)

Group

Problem will be such that it is beyond the scope of an individual to solve and so a group is required. The group may be:

real (i.e. physical or face to face)

nominal (i.e. never meets and may not know who each other is)

or any combination in between