Elements and Performance Criteria

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
Customer features/benefits
Customer features/benefits include:
characteristics of the product or service which add value to the customer, this value may be assessed in financial or features terms
The customer may be:
internal or external
Performance
Performance may include:
the rate of output of the plant compared to the rate required to meet demand
takt, where takt time is the allowable time to produce one product at the rate and quality customers are demanding it (this is NOT the same as cycle time, which is the normal time to complete an operation on a product - which should be less than or equal to takt time)
Customer-related targets
Customer-related targets include:
internally set financial and operational targets that contribute to meeting customer features/benefits
Contributing and non-contributing cost components
Contributing costs include:
costs that make a direct contribution to customer features/benefits. These costs continue to need to be incurred (although they may be minimised) in order to gain the customer feature/benefit
Non-contributing costs include:
other costs that do not contribute to customer features/benefits. These may be costs that must be maintained, such as regulatory compliance and occupational health and safety (OHS) costs and other costs which are not required and do not contribute to customer features and so should be eliminated if possible (this is also defined in terms of waste - see below)
Waste

Waste (also known as muda in the Toyota Production System and its derivatives) includes:
any activity which does not contribute to customer or organisation benefit/features in the product
Categories of waste include:
excess production and early production
delays
movement and transport
poor process design
inventory
inefficient performance of a process
making defective items
Waste for this unit may include activities which do not yield any benefit to the organisation or any benefit to the organisations customers

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:
identify customer benefit from own and team’s work
express cost factors (financial and other factors) in specific terms (e.g. cost per item, process and task), and not just in a general manner
identify and express costs factors in simple financial terms
contribute suggestions for improvement to minimise waste and overall costs.
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.