This project requires you to complete a range of activities relevant to managing continuous improvement and innovation for at least one organisation or work area within an organisation (e.g. a department of a company).

Selecting a business to work with

Vocational education and training is all about gaining and developing practical skills that are industry relevant and that can help you to succeed in your chosen career.

You will be collecting evidence for this unit in a Project Portfolio. The steps you need to take are outlined below. Before you begin, complete page 4 of your Project Portfolio.

The first part of this assessment task requires you to review existing systems and processes, as well as performance within your chosen organisation or work area in order to identify changes required. You are therefore required to:

· Analyse performance, including variances from plans and areas for improvement

· Identify and analyse trends as applicable to the organisation, as well as opportunities

· Identify team members who can assist with continuous improvement and innovation

· Identify optimum ways of working with the team to achieve objectives relevant to continuous improvement and innovation. This should also address potential learning opportunities that the team would benefit from.

· Identify strategies that could be used to monitor and evaluate ongoing performance and sustainability of key systems and processes.

Based on your work above, you are also to develop a continuous improvement and innovation plan that includes objectives, timelines, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and communication plans. Your plan should also address impacts and contingencies arising from the plan.

In the next activity step, you are to present your work to your team. This will allow you to seek advice on opportunities for improvement, at the same time as mentoring/coaching your team members on ways of working that contribute to continuous improvement and how to be innovative.

Develop a presentation following the guidelines in your Portfolio. Make sure your presentation has a logical structure and is in language that your team can understand. Your presentation will last for approximately 15 minutes, and you will need to ensure you provide the opportunity for others (fellow students) to provide feedback.

Work on Section 1 of your Portfolio. If you are completing this assessment based on the case study organisation, your assessor will then advise you of the date and time of your presentation, as well as the students who will be participating as team members. Your presentation should be for approximately 15 minutes.

Provide your presentation to your team.

Your assessor will be looking to see that you can:

· Communicate the information required

· Discuss continuous improvement needs and opportunities

· Explore a range of approaches

· Use language that your audience can understand

· Use effective communication skills to build rapport and encourage participation

· Use coaching and mentoring skills to assist team members to contribute to continuous improvement and innovation.

Make notes on the feedback provided so that you can update your plan in the next activity.

i

If you are completing this in your RTO, the meeting can either be viewed in person by your assessor or you may like to video record the session for your assessor to watch later. Your assessor can provide you with more details at this step. Make sure you follow the instructions above and meet the timeframes allocated.

After the presentation and using the feedback from your team, update your continuous improvement and innovation plan.

Finalise Section 1 of your Project Portfolio.

In this final activity you are to monitor and evaluate continuous improvement and innovation. If you are completing this for the case study organisation, use the information in your Simulation Pack.

Work on Section 2 of your Project.

Make sure you have completed all sections of your Project Portfolio, answered all questions, provided enough detail as indicated and proofread for spelling and grammar as necessary.

Submit to your assessor for marking.

i

Assessment information

Information about how you should complete this assessment can be found in Appendix A of the
Business Works Student User Guide.
Refer to the appendix for information on:

· where this task should be completed

· how your assessment should be submitted.

Note: You must complete and submit an assessment cover sheet with your work. A template is provided in Appendix B of the Student User Guide.

The business or work area

Provide an overview of the business or work area, including:

·
Products and services provided

·
Key objectives

·
Key operational processes

·
Supply chain

·
Key positions

·
Strategies that are currently in place to monitor and evaluate performance and sustainability of key systems and processes

Current performance

Analyse the business’ current performance against its overall plans and report on:

How is the business performing overall?

How is the business performing in terms of its plans? Describe variations between plans and performance.

What areas stand out for you that could be improved in relation to supply chains and overall systems? Describe these areas.

If you are completing this for the case study organisation, review the Strategic Plan and the Performance Report supplied. If you are completing this for the case study organisation, access relevant plans and performance reports.

Trends and opportunities

Describe current trends impacting the business. Make sure you look at competitors and ways of working that could inform improvements the business could make.

What opportunities do you believe your review of trends presents for the business? Describe at least three.

Based on your review of these trends, what do you believe the business could improve in terms of its supply chain and systems? Describe the gaps that indicate that improvements are required.

What costs and benefits and risks do the opportunities you have identified present?

The team

Who in the team do you believe is instrumental to ensuring continuous improvement and innovation. Give your rationale for this.

Describe best practice ways of working that teams can use to achieve continuous improvement and to be innovative, Give at least four examples.

What learning opportunities exist for the team to improve their skills and knowledge in relation to continuous improvement and innovation. Describe at least two.

Knowledge management

Describe the system that will be put in place to capture learnings from continuous improvement and innovation.

Objectives of the plan

Describe the objectives of your continuous improvement and innovation plan.

Key actions

Describe key actions to achieve continuous improvement and innovation. Include at least six.

Impact

Describe the impact the changes will have on the organisation or work area and the consequences. Describe actions that will be taken to manage this.

Communications

Describe how the continuous improvement and innovation plan will be communicated.

Timeframes

Outline the timeframes for achieving the plan.

Rewards

Outline the rewards that will be put in place for staff for achievements in relation to continuous improvement, innovation and learning.

Key performance indicators

Outline key performance indicators that will be used to measure outcomes. List at least four.

Contingencies

Describe the contingencies that will be put in place to manage non-performance. List at least two.

Presentation

Document the title of your presentation here. Your presentation must address the work you have completed in this Section of your Portfolio to present to the team.

Your presentation should clearly demonstrate the expectations you have for your team in terms of continuous improvement and innovation, as well as objectives and outcomes required.

It should clearly outline the costs and benefits of innovation based on the work you have completed so far.

File attached

Feedback

Outline the feedback provided by your team.

Describe the amendments you have made to your Plan based on the feedback. Provide your updated Plan here.

Attach:

Continuous Improvement and Innovation Presentation

☐

Updated Continuous Improvement and Innovation Plan

☐

Continuous improvement or innovation failure

Based on the information you have reviewed, describe the failure and analyse and report on the causes.

Describe the challenges and opportunities presented.

Continuous improvement systems

Based on the information you have reviewed, provide an evaluation of how well you believe continuous improvement systems are working.

If you are completing this for the case study organisation, review the staff survey results on change management.

Costs and benefits of innovation

Based on all the work that you have completed, discuss the costs and benefits of innovation and improvements here. Include at least two costs and two benefits.