BSBMGT516 Facilitate Continuous Improvement

Estimated Time

40 Minutes

Objective

To provide you with an opportunity to develop strategies to ensure that team members are actively encouraged and supported to participate in decision-making processes, assume responsibility and exercise initiative as appropriate.

Activity

Two members of the management team have resigned. Due to a crash in the financial markets, consumer spending has decreased. To cut costs, senior management will only replace one manager. Instead, your job will be spread to include two more teams. Up until this stage, you have always used the participative decision making process. Time constraints and pressure has given you no choice but to introduce consensus decision making to your teams.

1. How do you think teams should be trained? Why have you chosen this approach? Do not limit yourself to those methods found in the learner guide.
2. Do you believe that, once a coach is allocated, your responsibility for the decisions of the team is released? Why?
3. Should you give your team support? Why? Why not? Give at least three examples and the impact that they make to the team.

Estimated Time

40 Minutes

Objective

To provide you with an opportunity to establish systems to ensure that the organisation’s continuous improvement processes are communicated to stakeholders, and develop effective mentoring and coaching processes to ensure that individuals and teams are able to implement and support the organisation's continuous improvement processes.

Activity

Helena Estradia has been asked to check the communication system in the administrative department. Several new processes have been introduced to the department to improve and eliminate processing steps to ensure that customer’s orders were shipped faster. Part of the process required all orders to be emailed to the picking department and for the same email to automatically be generated to the customer.

The picking department needed to pick and ship the order within 24 hours. A second email should automatically be generated once the order was finalised and shipped to the customer. All emails should have been processed by the administrative department.

1. Draw a flow chart for the procedure outlined above. What steps seem to be missing? Use the flow chart to identify the gaps in the communication process?
2. Several customers complained that they did not receive the emails. What information should you gather to ensure that the customers receive emails that confirm processing and shipment?
3. There seems to be a general confusion about this process. Your team is not sure about the process. As a coach, explain how you would implement and support continuous improvement of this process? Include in your answer what an effective coach is, the type of coaching and the skills you would use? Explain each answer that you have given.

Estimated Time

40 Minutes

Objective

To provide you with the chance to ensure that change and improvement processes meet sustainability requirements and ensure that insights and experiences from business activities are captured and accessible through knowledge management systems.

Activity

Your organisation wishes to expand its share of the market. You have noticed that your competitors have started using sustainability as part of their marketing.

1. Use your knowledge of an organisation to make recommendations on the following areas, to improve sales using sustainability requirements. You would also like to use knowledge management systems to continuously improve your organisation's operations. Make recommendations on how you could do this for each goal.

2. Why have you made the recommendations in the table above? Discuss briefly.
3. What steps would you put in place to ensure that your new initiative meets the sustainability requirements? How would you transfer the knowledge in the continuous improvement process?

Estimated Time

30 Minutes

Objective

To provide you with an opportunity to monitor and adjust performance strategies.

Activity

Individually or in pairs, complete the following:

1. Using Activities 1.2 and 1.3, identify what strategies you could use to turn the negative customer interactions, into positive interactions. Do you believe that if you respond quickly to the negative feedback, you will be in a position to obtain new opportunities? Explain your answer.
2. What operational progress indicator(s) could you use to measure the customer's satisfaction? What would you measure?
3. Using Activities 1.2 and 1.3 and the seven step problem solving process, recommend the strategies that you would use to adjust and communicate these to the stakeholders.

Estimated Time

30 Minutes

Objective

To provide you with an opportunity to establish processes to ensure that team members are informed of outcomes of continuous improvement efforts.

Activity

Individually or in pairs, complete the following:

1. Helena’s organisation has decided to implement the changes that have been recommended in Activities 1.2, 1.3, 2.1 and 2.2. Using Kotter’s eight-step change model, explain how you would implement the change process.
2. Draw a flow chart to demonstrate how you would communicate any changes that have been recommended.

Estimated Time

30 Minutes

Objective

To provide you with an opportunity to ensure processes include recording of work team performance to assist in identifying further opportunities for improvement and consider areas identified for further improvement when undertaking future planning.

Activity

Individually or in pairs, complete the following:

1. Based on all of the Activities, except for Activity 1.1, list and briefly explain the documentation that would need to be maintained to assist the team in identifying further opportunities for improvement.
2. What documentation would you recommend the organisation maintain for this case? Why?
3. What areas would you recommend for further improvement, to ensure that quality is maintained in future planning?

Estimated Time

1 Hour

Objective

To provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the foundation skills, knowledge evidence and performance evidence.

Activity

Complete the following individually and attach your completed work to your workbook.

The answers to the following questions will enable you to demonstrate your knowledge of:

• Reading
• Writing
• Oral Communication
• Navigate the world of work
• Interact with others
• Get the work done

Answer each question in as much detail as possible, considering your organisational requirements for each one.

1. What things might continuous improvement processes involve?
2. Create a mind map to outline knowledge management systems.
3. How can you do the following:

• Increase efficiencies
• Mitigate risk
• Meet new challenges
• Monitor business activities
• Process information faster?

• Annotated performance plans
• Recommendations for improvement
• Quantitative data such as production figures
• Records and reports

Explain.

Estimated Time

1 - 2 Hours

Objective

To provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the entire unit.

Activity

This is a major activity – your instructor will let you know whether you will complete it during class or in your own time.

Attach your completed answers to the workbook.

You must individually, answer the following questions in full to show your competency of each element:

1. Lead continuous improvement systems and processes
2. Monitor and adjust performance strategies
3. Manage opportunities for further improvement

Individually or in pairs, complete the following and present it as a portfolio:

Choose a process or performance criteria that needs to be addressed in your organisation. The process must consider a sustainability issue, continuous improvement and the recommendation of how you would transfer knowledge using a Knowledge Management System (KMS) to your team.

1. Briefly explain and describe what strategies you would use to encourage and support your team to participate in the decision-making process, including assuming responsibilities. Why would they assume responsibility for these areas?
2. How would you communicate with your team? Why?
3. Set goals and identify how you would address any gaps in performance.
4. Complete at least one outline of a proposed performance plan:

• Identify the desired performance levels of the teams
• Identify the performance levels to be achieved
• Provide a measure of progress for the desired performance levels

• The Change Management Model
• Communication plan for continuous improvement
• Maintaining records.

Make any recommendations that you feel are important to this process.