MSS402002A Sustain process improvements

Release: 1

MSS402002A Sustain process improvements

Modification History

New unit, superseding MSACMS201A Sustain process improvements - Not equivalent

Unit Descriptor

This unit of competency covers the skills and knowledge required to prevent process improvements in their own work from slipping back to former practices or digressing to less efficient practices.

Application of the Unit

This unit applies to organisations implementing competitive systems and practices and continuous improvement. It covers the skills needed to ensure that process improvements are sustained and opportunities taken to suggest further improvements.

Improvement initiatives can be made by any of a number of methods and by teams or individuals. The unit assumes that desired levels of performance or quality are known to employees.

The unit can be applied to all areas of an organisation, including production, maintenance, logistics and office functions.

This unit requires the application of skills associated with problem solving, initiative and enterprise and self-management in order to understand implement and monitor improvement practices. It also requires the ability to identify and address personal skill gaps in order to manage own ability to implement change.

Licensing/Regulatory Information

Not applicable.

Pre-Requisites

Not applicable.

Employability Skills Information

This unit contains employability skills.

Elements and Performance Criteria Pre-Content

Elements describe the essential outcomes of a unit of competency.	Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element. Where bold italicised text is used, further information is detailed in the required skills and knowledge section and the range statement. Assessment of performance is to be consistent with the evidence guide.

Elements and Performance Criteria

1	Examine previous improvements	1.1	Identify impact of previous process improvements to equipment, operations, services or products in own work area
1.2	Identify improvements where objectives have not been met

2	Implement corrective actions	2.1	Identify corrective actions that can be taken by self on process improvements that have not met objectives
2.2	Obtain any required approvals
2.3	Identify any additional, personal skill gaps and seek skill development
2.4	Adopt improved processes

3	Check changes	3.1	Identify claimed improvements
3.2	Identify methods of observing and measuring claimed improvements in own work area
3.3	Check if claimed improvements are occurring and report problems in accordance with procedures

4	Check for further improvements	4.1	Look for areas of possible further improvement
4.2	Discuss further improvements with peers and supervisors
4.3	Take action to implement improvements in accordance with procedures

Required Skills and Knowledge

This section describes the skills and knowledge required for this unit.
Required skills
Required skills include: communicating with others to clarify scope and stage of implementation of competitive systems and practices and contribute suggestions for further improvements in implementation visualising normal operational procedures in terms of flow and contribution to customer outcomes planning own tasks to support competitive systems and practices implementation implementing competitive systems and practices in own work area according to instructions identifying waste (muda) monitoring competitive systems and practices performance indicators in own work and work area
Required knowledge
Required knowledge includes: internal and external customers and the value they derive from own work area operations suppliers to own work area, their capabilities and contribution to customer benefit waste (muda) relevant competitive systems and practices for own job and how to apply and monitor the outcomes factors impacting on product, operations and waste, particularly those wholly or partially under their control (and how to control them)

Evidence Guide

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.
Overview of assessment	A person being assessed against this unit will be able to demonstrate their willing adoption of new equipment, processes, procedures and practices as well as their expertise at implementing them and making critical reviews of their performance in line with their level of competence and authority.
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: implement and monitor process improvements in own work area against objectives contribute suggestions for further improvement/s apply procedures for seeking approvals and reporting non-conformances.
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.

Range Statement

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 industry sector
Customers	Customers may be: internal or external customers and should be sufficiently close to the individual’s work as to be easily identifiable final customers used as the basis for the identification of value and waste The individual does not need to interface directly with the external customer, but should be provided with sufficient information to enable them to identify customer benefits and customer features
Suppliers	Suppliers may be: internal or external suppliers and should be sufficiently close to the individual’s work as to be easily identifiable The operator does not need to interface directly with external suppliers, but should be provided with sufficient information to enable them to identify supplier contribution to their own work and to customer benefit
Measuring improvements	Measuring improvements may include: personally taking measurements arranging for measurements to be taken/made by appropriate personnel
Procedures	Procedures may include: work instructions standard operating procedures formulas/recipe batch sheets temporary instructions and similar instructions provided for the smooth running of the plant good operating practice as may be defined by industry codes of practice (e.g. good manufacturing practice (GMP) and responsible care) and government regulations Procedures may be: written, verbal, computer-based or in some other format
Improvements	Improvements include: techniques for preventing mistakes by designing the operations process, equipment and tools so that an operation literally cannot be performed incorrectly (e.g. baka-yoke) techniques that generate warning signals were a mistake is about to be performed (poka-yoke)

Unit Sector(s)

Unit sector	Competitive systems and practices

Custom Content Section

Not applicable.