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Do not manually edit this table. Title BSBMGT516C Facilitate continuous improvement – Part 1 Keywords Continuous improvement, quality, customer, surveys, analysis, total quality management, Deming Description This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to lead and manage continuous improvement systems and processes. Particular emphasis is on the development of systems and the analysis of information to monitor and adjust performance strategies, and to manage opportunities for further improvements. Author Susan Brown Organisation Swinburne University of Technology Lead continuous improvement systems and processes

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Do not manually edit this table.

Title BSBMGT516C Facilitate continuous improvement – Part 1

Keywords Continuous improvement, quality, customer, surveys, analysis, total quality management, Deming

Description This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to lead and manage continuous improvement systems and processes. Particular emphasis is on the development of systems and the analysis of information to monitor and adjust performance strategies, and to manage opportunities for further improvements.

Author Susan BrownOrganisation Swinburne University of Technology

Lead continuous improvement systems and processes

In order to lead a team to undertake continuous improvement in a workplace it is important to have strategies that ensure that all team embers are actively encouraged to participate in the decision making processes of their role, assume responsibility for their work and exercise initiative when completing tasks.

Mentoring and coaching allow you to ensure that individuals and teams in the workplace are able to implement and support your organisation’s continuous improvement processes.

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Workplace systems should be in place to ensure that your organisation’s continuous improvement processes are communicated to all concerned.

In this learner guide, you will learn to:

develop strategies to ensure that team members are actively encouraged and supported to participate in decision-making processes

establish systems to ensure the organisation’s continuous improvement processes are communicated to all stakeholders

develop effective mentoring and coaching processes to ensure that individuals and teams are able to support the organisation’s continuous improvement processes.

As you work through this learning guide you will find a number of activities designed to reinforce your learning. It is recommended that you complete these activities as they are opportunities to practice the skills and apply the knowledge needed to complete the assessments tasks for this unit.

Total quality management philosophy Total quality management (TQM) incorporates the concepts of product quality, process control, quality assurance and quality improvement. As a result it is the control of all transformation processes of an organisation to better satisfy customer needs in the most economical way.

TQM is based on internal control, which is embedded in each unit of the work system, both technology and people. Pushing problem-solving and decision-making down the organisation allows people who do the work to both measure and take corrective action in order to deliver a product or service that meets the needs of their customers.

Total Involving everyone and all activities in the organisation

Quality Meeting customer needs

Management Quality can and must be managed

TQM A process for managing quality – it must be a continuous way of life and a philosophy of perpetual improvement in everything we do

TQM is the foundation for activities that include: meeting customer requirements/needs reducing development cycle times

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just-in-time or demand flow manufacturing improvement teams reducing product and service costs improving administrative systems training.

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for additional information:Total Quality Management Introduction to TQM

Readings

Review the following document and web pages for additional information on the History of TQM and the researchers who developed and expanded the concepts of total quality management.

See also the information relating to TQM in the workplace

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a process originally developed by Motorola to systematically improve processes by minimizing variation. The term "Six Sigma" refers to the ability of a highly capable process to produce output within specification.

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In particular, processes that operate with six sigma quality produce at defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). A defect is defined as nonconformity of a product or service to its specifications.

The key concepts supporting Six Sigma are: Continuous effort to reduce variation in process outputs is key to

business success. All processes can be defined, measured, analysed, improved and

controlled (DMAIC) Succeeding at achieving sustained quality improvement requires

commitment from the entire organization, particularly from top-level management.

Six Sigma is a registered trademark of Motorola, Inc.

LEAN SIX SIGMA is a business improvement methodology which combines tools from both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.

Lean manufacturing focuses on speed. Six Sigma focuses on quality.

By combining the two, the result is better quality faster.

Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that maximizes shareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in safety, customer satisfaction (quality), delivery, cost reduction, process speed, and invested capital.

The combination of Lean and Six Sigma improvement methods is required because:

Lean cannot bring a process under statistical control Six Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or

reduce invested capital Both enable the reduction of the cost of complexity

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for additional information on the concept of Six Sigma

ISO Quality Standards

The ISO 9000 family addresses "Quality management". This means what the organisation does to fulfil:

The customer's quality requirements, and

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Applicable regulatory requirements, while aiming to Enhance customer satisfaction, and Achieve continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of

these objectives

The ISO 9000 section provides a concise overview of ISO's best known management system standards and their impact on the world.

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for additional information on the concept of ISO Quality Standards

See also Quality Management Principles

Activity 1.1

Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:

You are required to identify a small to medium organisation that you are familar with. If you are not working select an organisation that you would like to work for or are interested in.

Develop a breif report for the senior management team explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the continuous improvement approaches identified in your reading.

You are required to make a recommendation to the leadership team on the approach that you believe will be most appropriate for the identified organisation to adopt to ensure that the business develops a continuous improvement culture.

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Strategies for involving team members in decision-making processes

The world of work has changed in recent times. In the past, workers were controlled and directed by managers, without opportunities to influence the outcomes of their work. ‘Leave your brains at the gate because they’re not needed in this job’ captured the attitude of many in operational roles.

Continuous improvement tools and techniques belonged to the realm of management. Now workers are trained to do their own problem solving, and the focus is on the problem itself rather than the worker as the problem.

This approach encourages the exchange of ideas for improvement, which feeds a virtuous circle of increased job satisfaction, leading to increased motivation, productivity and ultimately, satisfied customers.

Video

Watch the following video for an example of total quality management at work at Toyota

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Common problem-solving tools for team members

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A range of common TQM tools used to provide objective and systematic ways of identifying and resolving problems, improving systems and processes and building quality into them are listed in the table below.

Tools to help resolve problems and implement solutions

Analyse and resolve the problem Implement a solution

Histograms Scatter diagrams Control charts Process capability charts

The PDCA cycle Force field analysis Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis

The following you tube video from the Virtualstrategist explains the SWOT analysis process

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Activity 1.2

Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:

Using the organisation you identified in activity 1.1

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Use two of the problem solving tools identified to analyse and resolve potential problems that might be encountered when trying to implement a continuous improvement process into the organisation.

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for information relating to problem solving in an organisation.

Stop & Think

Complete the how good are your problem solving skills quiz when you have completed the review of the web pages identified in the previous section.

Review the following information to gain a clear understanding of total quality management

Decision making tools

Successful continuous improvement requires real information and data, not guess work or estimates. Too often, hunches and gut feel address symptoms of a problem or opportunity to improve, but donot address the real causes.

Tools to help with analysis and decision-making

Identify the problem and decide which to address first or next

Analyse the real causes of the problem

Check sheets Circling Pie charts and flow charts Control charts Brainstorming Nominal group technique

Pareto charts Is/is not comparisons Run charts Stratification charts Checkerboard analysis Cause-and-effect diagrams

The following four-step decision-making process shows how some of the most accessible of the tools can be used sequentially to involve your team in identifying and solving problems, and developing plans to implement the

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solution.

Each of the following tools/techniques can be applied to the problem to assist in developing effective decisions.

Brainstorming Nominal group technique Cause and effect diagrams Force field analysis

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a method of quickly generating many ideas about problems, causes of problems, solutions or anything else. It can be done alone or in groups. Group brainstorming can be done by asking the group to call their ideas as soon as they come to mind. A scribe records the ideas on a whiteboard or butcher’s paper. An alternative approach for less engaged groups is for each person to take a turn to volunteer one idea, and when an individual’s ideas pool is exhausted, he or she calls ‘pass’, until everyone has passed. Rules for brainstorming include:

suspend judgement – don’t worry if ideas are good, bad or absurd – sometimes what seems silly can lead to real insight to a problem; try not to constrain thinking.

get as many ideas out as possible – they will be sorted and ranked later.

write them down – good ideas can easily be lost if not recorded.

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make sure everyone has a say.

Web Search.

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Nominal group technique

Nominal group technique is a technique for making sure everyone in the team has the opportunity to contribute. It gives each team member equal say in deciding which problems to work on, and in what order. This increases interest and commitment. Nominal group technique also clarifies the interests and intentions of the group. It involves:

Brainstorming problems that need to be resolved.

Specifying each problem clearly so all understand it.

Assigning a letter to each problem

Voting by each team member to identify which is most important, using a ranking scale from one to whatever the number of problems identified is. The most significant problem gets the highest number.

Counting the votes to determine which problem gets addressed first.

Web search

Review the following web pages for additional information related to nominal group technique

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Cause-and-effect diagrams

Cause-and-effect diagrams are also known as fishbone diagrams. They are used to help analyse problems and find their true cause. Diagramming a problem allows you to see it from all angles and identify its most important elements.

To make a fishbone diagram: 1. Write the problem at the head of the fish.

2. Decide the possible types of causes, of the problem and show them as major bones off the central spine of the fish.

3. Look deeper into each possible cause by asking ‘why’ five times. For example, asking why five times into the problem of ‘We need more training for our people’ might lead to the following answers:

1. Why? They aren’t doing what we want with the new system. 2. Why? They don’t know what to do. 3. Why? No one’s told them, and nothing’s written down. 4. Why? I didn’t include user documentation or online help in the

system specifications. 5. Why? We thought it would reduce the project cost

After reaching the end of the why chain, the solution for preventing this in future projects becomes fairly clear.

The folloing you tube video explains how to use the cause and effect or fishbone diagram.

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Web search

Review the following web pages for additional information related to cause and effect diagrams

Force field analysis

Force-field analysis is borrowed from physics. It’s a useful way to reduce the risks in decision-making and implement decisions in a way that will optimise success. It involves:

1. defining both the current and the desired situation clearly.

2. identifying the driving and resisting forces that hold the team back from reaching its goals.

3. deciding which are the most important or significant driving and resisting forces – nominal group technique can help here.

4. planning how you will make the best use of the most important driving forces in the implementation of your decision, and how you will minimise or even remove the significant resisting forces to maximise your chances of success.

The following you tube video explains the use of force field analysis to assist in managing change in an organisation.

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type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Readings Read the information relating to decision making. When you have completed the reading you should complete the how good are your decision making skills quiz.

Read the following web pages for information regarding decision making tools and techniques

Activity 1.3

Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:

Using the organisation you identified in activity 1.1

Use two of the decision making tools identified to determine how the organisation can successfully implement a continuous improvement process into the organisation.

You should post your examples of the two decision making tools to the wiki page available in the BB iLearn shell for this unit.

You are required to comment on the posts of two of your peers.

The role of leaders in implementing continuous improvement initiatives

The first thing to change when implementing continuous improvement is the behaviour of the organisation’s leaders. For many organisations, implementing continuous improvement involves changing the organisational culture – the accepted way of getting things done and making sense of the world. This is a formidable challenge for any leader.

Continuous improvement risks being seen by employees as just another management fad. Therefore, it’s essential that all levels of management endorse, support and role model continuous improvement.

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Leaders must help to provide an environment that encourages success and tolerates taking risks. There is a level of organisational maturity required, where leaders are willing to hand some responsibility to workers, and where the causes of problems are examined, rather than blaming individuals.

Leaders must:

empower employees to engage in continuous improvement – this means allowing them to take more risks, learn more skills and knowledge, grow and develop, take responsibility for their work, be creative and make decisions. (bank p. 69)

ensure quality is incorporated in the organisation’s vision, mission and values.

ensure responsibilities and authorities are defined and communicated within the organisation.

• make the time and resources available for all employees to be involved in quality – this includes providing development for the entire workforce in the use of quality systems and tools.

• provide incentives that recognise the efforts involved in achieving quality outcomes, and reward achievement effectively.

• role-model continuous improvement.

This is far easier said than done.

Readings Take the test to determine how good your leadership skills are and then read the information relating to leadership when you have completed the reading

Read the following web pages for information regarding leadership tools and techniques

Activity 1.4

Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:

You are required to develop a job aid to assist managers

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with leading continuous improvement in the workplace.

Your job aid should be a step by step process flow with decision points. An example of a process flow diagram with decision points is available here

Communicating continuous improvement processes

Communicate, communicate, communicate

In the following section of the learner guide you will learn to:

• explain the critical importance of effective communication when implementing a continuous improvement initiative

• describe common systems used to ensure that your organisation’s continuous improvement processes are communicated to all stakeholders

• consider the requirements for establishing systems to communicate continuous improvement initiatives.

Communication is a critical deliverable of any continuous improvement project, and should be an important part of any project plan. The successful facilitation of a continuous improvement initiative requires credible communication systems throughout the organisation.

Communication systems should not be limited to internal use – they must extend to suppliers and customers. For example, if a team was about to collect data from a working production line, team members should notify all supervisors and operators in advance and tell them exactly why, how and when data will be collected.

Similarly, a team studying how employees in an office use their time must be able to allay any concerns that their goal is not to identify lazy people. Effective communication is cited as a critical success factor by organisations involved in continuous improvement.

Effective communication has a two-way flow – it involves sending appropriately crafted and timed messages to the right audience through the right media, and receiving (and acting on) feedback from the audience.

Communicating continuous improvement requires you to identify:

what to communicate

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how to communicate

when to communicate

tools and techniques for communication

Each of these factors is explored in the following section.

Stop & Think

Review the following web pages for additional information on communication and continuous improvement in the workplace

What, how and when to communicate

What, how and when to communicate – strategies and requirements for establishing systems to communicate continuous improvement initiatives

What to communicate

The choice of the information to be communicated cannot be made without considering the project's tools and techniques for gathering the information and vice versa. Project communications are not a key deliverable of the continuous improvement initiative, but they should be treated as a project deliverable.

Start with your project plan: does the project charter contain any requirements for information? If it does, the information and its target audience ought to be included in your Communications Management Plan.

After identifying all the needs already expressed in the project documentation to date, you need to identify requirements from the various groups of stakeholders. This identification should be done in the context of what is feasible for the project to deliver.

Be prepared to meet with your process owner or project sponsor to identify their requirements. Be specific as to presentation: should performance be shown as a bar graph with a rolling six-week tally? Should it be shown as a line graph with the benchmark line of 1.0 and a rolling six-month tally? You may even want to mock up some sample reports to let them choose the format.

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A project dashboard is a popular instrument for communicating project progress to sponsors and other senior executives. The dashboard is meant to show the status of your project at a glance and may consist of the project's performance measures. You may also want to include such things as:

• the top five risks

• the top five outstanding issues

• metrics on change (number of change requests, number accepted, number of rejected, total costs)

• quality (number of tests, number passed, number failed, outstanding bug reports). You should try to keep your dashboard to a handful of slides and provide supporting detail in text, or Excel format as backup.

Repeat the requirements gathering exercise with each group of stakeholders, weighing their need for information with the project's ability to gather and communicate it. Share as much of the information reported to the other groups with the project team (the people actually doing the work of the project), as is possible.

Your organisation may have policies or guidelines around what can and cannot be shared outside executive offices; share as much information with the team as possible without violating these policies. You'll find sharing positive reports will boost morale, while sharing negative reports will stop the rumours that will further erode morale.

Be prepared to capture and report information by stakeholder group, department, or sub-project. The individual groups on your team will want the ability to view their progress in isolation from the rest of the team.

Make sure that you break the work down so that tasks performed by individual groups or departments are identifiable. This will enable you to report performance group-by-group or department-bydepartment and still tally up totals to report for the entire project.

The information you plan to communicate will drive your activities throughout the project. Your plans should include the metrics that must be gathered in order to support the information you plan to communicate. You will need to identify who is responsible for providing the information and where the information is to be stored and reported.

There are two questions you need to ask yourself before you submit a

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report:

1. How do I get this information? (i.e. what measures do I need to capture and where will they come from)

2. Where will I store the measures? A failure to answer both questions will mean that either you have to alter your plan to task someone to gather the metric, identify a tool to capture and retrieve the metric, or drop the requirement.

Finally, don't forget individual accomplishments and rewards when reporting project progress. There's nothing like a good news story to keep team morale high and the celebration of a team member's accomplishment is something most sponsors enjoy hearing about.

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for information related to communication and communication skills

How to communicate

There are many different means of communication available: face to face, email, intranet, internet, regular mail, phone, video conferences etc. etc. These can be categorised into two groups:

• ‘push’ communications, requiring you to you to push the information onto the recipient

• ‘pull’ communications, requiring the recipient to actively retrieve the information from a central source.

Websites and centralised repositories are examples of pull communications, while email and meetings are examples of push communications.

Preference for either push or pull communications is often a personal preference. Some people deal with information best when it's presented to them and some prefer to retrieve it at their own convenience. Be prepared for conflicting requirements from individuals in your stakeholder groups. You may have to make the final decision on which method to use if there are conflicting requests.

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If you determine that the project must have a new tool, such as a website, to satisfy a stakeholder requirement, you'll need to justify the cost with a business case. State the benefits to the project in business terms that justify the costs. You can also include benefits that supersede your project. For example a website or tool such as Lotus Notes could benefit all projects your organisation performs, and may even provide a benefit to operations.

The following video is an interview with a communication expert on how to communicate with employees

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When to communicate

Your communication schedule will be driven by the needs of your audience and the availability of the information to be communicated. For example, you could report on any measures managed by a MS Project

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plan file daily. Alternatively, you can't report on the results of your project milestone approval meeting until the meeting has occurred.

There is also no reason that a report communicated to one stakeholder group biweekly, can't be communicated to another group every week. Consider the logistics and costs as well – if you choose to use a mass meeting to communicate to all stakeholders, don't schedule the meeting to occur weekly. You won’t be popular!

Calculate the cost of your communications – when planning a meeting that involves you or another team member communicating information to an audience, count the audience, multiply that number by the number of hours the meeting lasts and multiply that number by the loaded labour rate for that group. Avoid spending large amounts on frequent communications.

Other meetings, such as status review meetings with project teams must be done more often to avoid the continuous improvement project going off the rails.

When the project is on track, weekly status review meetings are sufficient. When your project encounters problems, you might want to increase the frequency to better control the work. In extreme cases such as a project rescue, you may need to hold them daily.

Tools and techniques

Tools and techniques include tools you'll use to convey the information, tools you'll use to gather the information, and tools you'll use to store and retrieve the information. Conveyance tools include:

• email

• websites

• webcasts

• conference calls

• video conferencing

• public directories

• small group presentations

• mass meetings.

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What you're communicating, how you need to communicate it, and your communication budget will determine which of these tools you'll use.

Lastly, remember that the accuracy of the information you communicate about the project will have a profound effect, either positive or negative, on your reputation. You need to do your utmost to ensure the information you communicate is accurate.

Be open and honest with your communications – tell your audience where the information comes from, how it was compiled, and how old it is. Be forthcoming with any information that could impact on the accuracy of your reports and let your audience form their own opinions of the accuracy and value of your communications.

[Adapted from Nielsen, D. (2008) ‘Project Communications: How to Keep Your Team Engaged and Informed’ in The Project Management Hut. 13 November 2008.]

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for information about communication tools and techniques. See also the following web pages for additional information related to effective communications and the following discussion on tips for better communication in the workplace

Activity 1.5

Complete the following activity to reinforce your learning:

Using the information from earlier activities and the information about the organisation you selected you are now required to develop a commuication plan to enable you to communicate the continuous improvement process you have recommended to your team members.

Your communication plan must include: What you will communicate How you will communicate and When you will commuticate

An example of a communication plan template is available here.

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Using effective coaching and mentoring to support the team

The difference between coaching and mentoring

Coaching addresses two specific goals:

1. to solve problems 2. to improve performance.

Mentoring is less goal-oriented and focuses on supporting ongoing learning and development. Mentoring involves the establishment of a relationship between a person requiring development and an experienced individual in a program that can be formal or informal. The mentor’s broad focus on the person, their career and support for individual growth contrasts with the coach’s job-focused and performance oriented approach.

The table below outlines the key differences between coaching and mentoring.

Mentoring Coaching

Focus Broad: the education and development of an individual

Specific: solving problems and/or improving performance

Role Facilitated by an experienced role model with general or unspecified outcomes.

Facilitated by a workplace leader or expert with a specific agenda and outcomes

Relationship Often self-selecting Part of the leader’s job

Source of influence Perceived value of the mentor’s experience

Position and/or expertise

Personal returns Personal development Problems solved, improved performance

Environment Can encompass development not

Work-task related

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necessarily restricted to the workplace

A mentor is like a sounding board, they can give advice they often are less directive. The context does not have specific performance objectives, but broader goals.

Contrastingly, a coach is trying to direct a person to a measurable end result, and while the person may choose how to get there, the coach is assessing and monitoring the progress and giving advice for effectiveness and efficiency.

Essentially, mentoring is biased in the learner’s favour. Coaching is impartial, focused on improvement in behaviour.

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for information about coaching and mentoring.

When to use mentoring and coaching

Coaching is appropriate for addressing problems or improving performance by addressing a specific skill and/or knowledge deficiency. It’s the appropriate response to a problem that needs immediate attention.

Mentoring is appropriate for longer-term goals, and is particularly valuable for developing people’s potential for future roles. It can include everything done to support a protégé’s orientation and professional development. It’s arguable that coaching is one of the sets of strategies which mentors must learn and effectively use to increase their protégés' skills and success.

However, you need to be sure that any gap in performance or problem is really due to a skill deficiency, and not a problem with a work system. For example, a call centre that demands sales consultants complete a high number of calls per hour may be wasting its time trying to coach them in better customer service.

The goals of better customer service and high call volume could be incompatible. Spending time and resources on coaching perpetuates the problem, while avoiding the real issue.

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Actions required to develop effective mentoring and coaching processes to support continuous improvement

The coaching model shown in the diagram below illustrates the relationship between the three key activities involved in coaching:

1. Plan: involving needs analysis to clarify the problem or opportunity for improvement, whether it is a skill and/or knowledge deficiency, and if so, what actions should be planned to address the issue. The measures of success must be specific, measurable and achievable. The coaching action plan documents the actions that will be taken to achieve the measures of success. It’s important that both coach and learner reach agreement on the issue to be addressed, the measures and the action plan.

2. Implement: the action plan is implemented by the coach and the learner.

3. Monitor: Like any continuous improvement initiative, the coaching process must have inbuilt mechanisms to evaluate progress and modify strategic intentions and desired outcomes where necessary. The process must be able to track the learner’s progress towards the measures of success is regularly monitored, and feedback provided to either recognise achievement and reinforce the desired behaviour, or further coaching provided if the measures are not yet achieved.

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Source: http://www.aimqld.com.au/coaching/model.htm

In any coaching activity, the following fundamental events of instruction should occur.

1. The coach and learner agree to the expected outcome of the coaching process.

2. The coach demonstrates or arranges demonstration of the required performance.

3. The learner has the opportunity to practice the performance. 4. The coach provides feedback on the practice.5. The learner has the opportunity to incorporate the feedback in

further practice. 6. The learner attempts the performance on the job. 7. The coach provides feedback. 8. Arrangements for the next coaching session are agreed to.

These events are scalable – they can occur in minutes, for learning a minor skill, or over weeks, if the skill is complex.

Mentoring can follow a similar process to coaching, but is less focused on specific goals and skills coaching, and may be conducted very informally.

Mentoring strategies will often involve reflection on real workplace issues,

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where the mentor’s role is principally listening, helping to clarify issues, and providing advice only when requested.

Mentors do not necessarily have to provide solutions – a good mentor is skilled at asking questions to surface assumptions and issues in the protégé’s thinking, and in doing so, allow the protégé to find his or her own solutions. The mentor-protégé role requires considerable trust and respect. As such, mentoring relationships can be encouraged.

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for information about coaching and mentoring.

Training, coaching and mentoring

Training Training refers to the skill building and staff development that is required for a continuous improvement process. New competencies are necessary if employees are to identify and solve problems as a team. If any of these elements are missing, the change process will break down.

Therefore, as employees engage in continuous improvement, they need to acquire additional skills or be cross-trained to perform new or expanded roles and jobs. For example, members of a team may require some training in problem-solving, statistics and data collection techniques to analyse work-related processes, or exposure to group dynamics so that they can run more effective meetings.

The importance of training cannot be underestimated. If training strategies, methods and materials are not congruent with the target audience, negative outcomes are inevitable.

Therefore, if an organisation is to derive the benefits from work redesign, all employees must be properly and thoroughly trained. For example, an organisation may have used consultants to provide the employee training required to support the continuous improvement system.

Later, the training programs could be internalised by developing trainers from among the previous graduates.

Coaching and mentoring

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TQM is built around the idea that individuals can always improve their work by learning new techniques and applying them within the workplace. As people gain experience in a job they will see ways of doing it better, cutting costs and saving time. As a coach and mentor your can encourage staff to come forward with such ideas, which in turn will improve performance and raise morale.

Some of the ways of doing this are through: • regular ideas meetings where people can make constructive

suggestions in a stress-free environment • one-on-one meetings or coaching sessions where ideas can be

further developed. By modelling commitment to TQM, managers who are able to coach and mentor can have a profound and long-lasting effect on their team’s willingness to embrace TQM and make it part of their organisational culture.

Web Search.

Review the following web pages for the complete guidelines to developing your training plan

A thorough review of this material will assist you in developing your training plan

Activity 1.6

Complete the follwoing activity to reinforce your learning:

You are required to develop a training plan to demonstrate how you will train your team members to ensure a continuous improvement culture is implemented into the workplace.

Develop a checklist for a manager to use when designing a coaching program for the team to reinforce training in continuous improvement

Summary

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TQM incorporates the concepts of product quality, process control, quality assurance and quality improvement.

TQM is the foundation for activities that include:

• meeting customer requirements (needs) • reducing development cycle times • just-in-time or demand flow manufacturing • improvement teams • reducing product and service costs • improving administrative systems training.

Self-check questions What concepts does TQM incorporate? TQM is the foundation for what activities? What are Deming’s fourteen points? What are Juran’s ten steps? What are Crosby’s fourteen steps? What is the simplest way of rationalising TQM? 7 To successfully

implement TQM what are the eight key elements?

Assessment Task

Assessment 2

You are required to commence the first assessment for this unit.

Details of the assessment task can be found in the Assessment tab in BB iLearn.

Select Asessment 2 and follow the instructions provided in the word document.

This assessment task is worth 35 marks.

The assessment task must be submitted through the Assessment tab in BB iLearn. You must also submit your assessment task in either Microsoft Word or PDF format.

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