BSBMGT516 Unit Assessment PDF

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Questions: Question 1: Explain how the following systems and procedures can support effective continuous improvement: a. Six sigmas b. Kaizen Write 50-100 words for each. a. emphasize employee involvement and teamwork; measuring and systematizing processes; and reducing variation, defects and cycle times. It's basically about collecting information about day-to-day operations, and having an ongoing process for improving how things are done. This can be applied to all aspects of your work activity, from small initiatives to organisation-wide processes b.

B. Capital Investments - By concentrating on smaller, incremental adjustments, the company doesn't classically need to surface with significant capital resources to carry out the changes. Engaged Workplace - By supporting employees to contribute to the improvement ideas, and so they become increasingly engaged. Long-term Improvement - Each minor improvement made builds on previous improvements, generating a snowball effect type of improvement strategy.

Question 2: Explain in your own words, how can continuous improvement systems and processes relate to the following business systems and requirements: a. Knowledge management b. Quality and Performance management c. Sustainability Write your answer in 200-250 words. a. Knowledge management – organisation realise that without the collection, analysis, and comparison of information taken from their processes, production and plant, they lose their competitive edge. The major issue is how much information do you need, and at what point does it become a liability and unusable rather than a tool for improvement. The information that is relevant here for you is the value of a knowledge management system incorporating modern information technologies such as the internet, intranets, browsers, data warehouses, data filters and software to sort, systemise, and disperse information world-wide almost instantly to all managers. Effective communication is not the only advantage of knowledge management systems. A well-chosen and appropriately installed knowledge management system can be set up to send the information available to only those who need it. The problem of information overloads is solved. An effective knowledge management system will acquire, organise, and communicate information so that employees can make more effective and productive use of their time and work. b. Quality management is a process in business that requires participation from everyone. Quality management can only be effective if everyone participates and contributes ideas for the overall improvement of a business. After all, often it is not just management who know how to make improvements.

c. Sustainability is centred around meeting the requirements of society while ensuring that enough of the environment is maintained to meet future needs. It recognised as a system which connects people, earth and the economy. Your organisation may implement a sustainability policy. A sustainability policy is a document which outlines the organisation’s commitment and approaches toward all the areas of sustainability. The policy may include provisions encouraging employees to use public transport (where feasible), or perhaps it may underline that the organisation is to do its best to recycle resources.

Question 3: Answer the following: a. Why should you encourage employees/team members to be involved in decision making? Write your answer in 150-200 words. b. Explain, how can you use the following methods to let employees help you make decisions: i. Suggestion Box ii. Employee Surveys Write your answer in 200-250 words. a. Involving employees in decision making can be beneficial for your business and employees. When you let employees help with decisions, it shows that you trust them. Even if you only let employees give input to assist you in making the final decision, you still show that you value their opinions. Asking employees for their opinions can give you different perspectives to make better decisions. While you have an overarching idea of your business, your employees are in the day-to-day trenches. Employees often work more closely with customers, so they know what buyers need and request. Employees can also come up with revenue-generating and cost-saving ideas. Letting employees make decisions frees you up for work in other areas. For example, if employees have a say over how displays are set up, you might have more time for your accounting tasks checklist. b. Suggestion Box - Gathering good ideas is the first step to making good decisions. Create a system for employees to give you their suggestions. This might be a physical suggestion box. Or, you might have a digital alternative, such as a designated email or online form. If you do have a suggestion box, make sure you regularly check it. Don’t let it go unopened for long periods of time. Create a routine of checking it. This helps you make timely decisions. When employees give you suggestions, respond to them. Tell them how you will use their ideas. If the idea isn’t right at the time, make a note of it. Tell the employee that you appreciate their idea and explain why you aren’t using it. Be careful about rejecting all employee ideas. If employees notice that you never act on their ideas, they may quit submitting them. c. Employee Surveys - Regularly survey employees to get their feedback. You might use a paper or electronic survey. The surveys can help you learn their opinions, ideas, and level of satisfaction. When determining how to do a performance review, make sure you include a short employee survey. After you give employees feedback, ask them to give you feedback. Their responses can help you make decisions that will help your business and their positions improve. Once you receive the feedback, use the results to take steps to improve your business. Look for common complaints and ideas. You can pull employees who had ideas or felt strongly about something and ask them for more details. Find out what changes they would make to improve your business. Question 4: Explain in your words, the process improvement engagement and communication strategies. Write your answer in 300-350 words. It is crucial that the processes an organisation uses to identify the need for improvements are

communicated clearly to staff and other stakeholders, so everyone knows what they are doing and what is expected of them. Continuous improvement practices vary among organisations depending on the goals and culture of the business. Continuous improvement can be applied to any activity and should follow the following four steps. Step 1 Encourage the team to consider ways to improve. Questions to ask: • Is there a better way this activity could be done? • How can we do it more efficiently? • Are there any wasteful or redundant elements to this activity? • Is the activity achieving what we want it to? • What would we have to do to improve the process? • How can we ensure the change will be successful and improve performance? Step 2 Plan to implement the change. Questions to ask: • What do we need to do to introduce the change? • What resources do we need? • How can we ensure everyone views the change positively? • How will we measure the effect of the change? Step 3 Review and monitor changes. Question to ask: • Is the change improving performance? Step 4 Implement changes to improve performance. Question to ask: • How can we support the team when introducing change? Improvements may range from small changes, such as requiring staff to sign in when they arrive at work, to large-scale improvements, such as an organisational restructure to improve production and reduce costs. When an improvement has been identified, whether it is to systems and processes, products or services, it must be clearly defined and articulated to all stakeholders regardless of the size of the improvement. For example, a simple change of moving a photocopier to improve the health and safety of operators can be discussed at a staff meeting and followed up with an email and a notice on an information board. A more substantial improvement such as the introduction of a new customer management software program will require discussions, opportunities for staff to ask questions and training prior to its implementation. The most important part when implementing modifications or improved processes is making sure that everyone understands the change, why it is being introduced and the role they play in implementation. This must be supported by accompanying documentation; for example, new standard operating procedures will have to be written; a new policy may have to be developed; implementation procedures will have to be prepared and disseminated.

Question 5: Explain the principles that apply to Continuous improvement. Write your answer in 100150 words. 1. Focus on the Customer Whatever your processes and products are, you will be making changes and trying to improve to meet your customers’ needs. For continuous improvement efforts, these customers are often the next process in line in your workflow. 2. Use Workers’ Ideas - Continuous improvement does not come from top management, leadership teams, or outside consultants. Instead, it comes from the workers who deal with processes daily and know their operations well.

3. Ensure Leadership Support - While worker ideas are the primary content for CI, leadership support is also essential. Leaders won’t necessarily generate improvement ideas and mandate tasks, but they do have many responsibilities for CI. 4. Drive Incremental Change - For continuous improvement, incremental change is delivered in small amounts on a frequent basis. 5. Utilize Fact-Based, Measurable Methods and Monitoring - Continuous improvement is not just trying hard or giving 110%. When you make continuous improvement changes, you need to measure where you started and where you have arrived to show that you really have made an improvement. 6. Set Goals, Incorporate Feedback, and Deliver Reinforcement - Organizations generally have annual or long-term goals for overall results; to some extent, annual compensation ties to the achievement of those goals. 7. Incorporate Teamwork - Although individuals can (and do) have continuous improvement successes, the team environment is ideal for maximum CI achievements.

Question 6: How can you make sure that the continuous improvement meets sustainability requirements? Write your answer in 250-300 words. The organisation needs to determine what areas the policy will cover, it may cover green purchasing choices, everyday work practices, engaging environmentally friendly contractors and suppliers, and including environmental reports alongside financial and annual reports. It is essential when developing a policy, that it reflects the organisation’s dedication to sustainability, or any relevant issues being addressed, and that it is an important part of the business plan and is perceived as a business opportunity. The policy should include a “sustainability statement” which states the main objective, how the objective will be achieved, who will be held responsible for it and the commitment of higher management. Sustainability reporting Sustainability reporting involves organisations and companies accounting for the economic, environmental, and social impacts that demonstrate their environmental performance. It is usually presented in a triple bottom line report or social or ecological impact report. Sustainability reporting in Australia is voluntary and may include: • Corporate Codes of Conduct • National and International Standards • The Global Reporting Initiative • Australian guidelines and regulations • Sustainability reporting nationally and internationally. It is highly advised that you read about these issues in Australia’s Parliamentary Library under Sustainability reporting.

Question 7: Explain the role of coaching and mentoring in facilitating continuous improvement. Write your answer 150-200 words. In some cases the role of the coach is to simply answer the employee's questions. This relationship helps all workers to understand their roles and responsibilities and to perform their duties at the required, or even higher level.

Mentoring is provided by supervisors, workers and managers with a longer association in the organisation and with whom the worker feels comfortable to discuss issues and problems. The worker is able to draw on and learn from the mentor’s knowledge and previous experiences. Mentors are not necessarily the employees’ direct supervisor or manager. An effective supervisor will set up these relationships wherever and with whoever they will work. Mentors meet with the worker formally or informally to discuss problems or difficulties and the worker's progress and plans to help achieve the employee's goals. Often mentoring is a voluntary and informal process. Some organisations, however, consider this process works best in a more formal arrangement.

Question 8: Explain in 200-250 words, the formal coaching method i.e. “GROW coaching model”. The GROW Model is a coaching framework used in conversations, meetings and everyday leadership to unlock potential and possibilities. GROW was created by our co-founder Sir John Whitmore and colleagues in the late 1980s. It has since become the world’s most popular coaching model for problem solving, goal setting and performance improvement. GROW is more than a coaching model loved by the coaching community. It is also a top leadership tool that works across all disciplines and cultures. With its four deceptively simple steps, GROW has proved successful all over the world. It forms the backbone of coaching in many organizations and universities globally, due to the outstanding results. It helps people to achieve success personally or as part of a team. As the GROW Model image above shows, the name is an acronym for the four key steps in GROW coaching: G-oals, R-eality, O-ptions and W-ill. With a few powerful coaching questions, a leader or coach can quickly raise awareness and responsibility in each area.

Question 9: What does Knowledge Management System mean? What is a knowledge management system comprised of? Write your answer in 50-100 words. The primary goal of a Knowledge Management System (KMS) is to support business productivity and share information, specifically new knowledge, and expertise. The collecting of information does not necessarily mean that people comprehend the information. Individuals from the organisation need to have the competence to adapt information into something meaningful that is understood by the entire organisation.

Question 10: Explain in 100-150 words, the PDCA cycle model of continuous improvement. PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is an iterative, four-stage approach for continually improving processes, products or services, and for resolving problems. It involves systematically testing possible solutions, assessing the results, and implementing the ones that have shown to work. It is based on the scientific method of problem-solving and was popularized by Dr W. Edwards Deming, who is considered by many to be the father of modern quality control. The PDCA Cycle provides a simple and effective approach for solving problems and managing change. It enables businesses to develop hypotheses about what needs to change, test these hypotheses in a continuous feedback loop, and gain valuable learning and knowledge. It promotes testing improvements on a small scale before updating company-wide procedures and work methods. The PDCA cycle consists of four components: Plan, Do, Check, Act.

Question 11: Answer the following: a. How can you use PDCA cycle to monitor continuous improvement strategies and systems? Write your answer in 50 -70 words. b. Document four (4) steps of monitoring process. c. Mention three (3) requirements that the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’ should generally conform to, to be useful in context of performance management. Write your answer in 100 -150 words. a. PDCA as a regular improvement cycle. This cycle is in lockstep with the regular processes and the classic planning & control cycles. This PDCA cycle is distinguished by: norms and targets, monitoring, using data and steering, changing, and improving using KPIs and other indicators. Corrections are implemented directly in the existing line organization. Using existing resources and methods, the organization can be lifted to a higher level, and you can more easily achieve the targeted performance. b. Plan – Identify the problem, collect relevant data, and understand the problem's root cause, develop hypotheses about what the issues may be, and decide which one to test. Do – Develop and implement a solution; decide upon a measurement to gauge its effectiveness, test the potential solution, and measure the results. Check – Confirm the results through before-and-after data comparison. Study the result, measure effectiveness, and decide whether the hypothesis is supported or not. Act – Document the results, inform others about process changes, and make recommendations for the future PDCA cycles. If the solution was successful, implement it. If not, tackle the next problem and repeat the PDCA cycle again. c. The PDCA cycle consists of four steps: Plan, Do, Check, Act(ualize). Key performance indicators link these steps together, creating a process of continuous improvement. Deming’s PDCA cycle is still the foundation of achieving success using management information, KPIs, and data analytics. But to do this, a learning system has to be organized and enabled using data. Research has shown that the crucial PDCA steps for achieving better business results are: Set benchmarks and targets for KPIs, evaluate and adjust them regularly (plan, act). Consistently use data and information for analysis and action (plan, do). Use data and information in a goal-oriented way to improve and innovate (do). Study the numbers, discuss them, and talk about positive and negative performances (check).

Question 12: Answer the following: a. How should you communicate the adjusted continuous improvement strategies with the internal stakeholders? Write your answer in 50-100 words. b. Prepare a list of any three (3) formal and informal methods of communicating with stakeholders. a. You need to inform your team about any new monitoring strategies you plan to introduce as well as any changes that have been identified to operations. All communication should be clear, with the new strategy or procedure clearly articulated and including any new responsibilities, tasks or training staff members need to be involved with. b. Team meetings Individual one-on-one meetings Communication via the extranet Information disseminated in newsletters, on notice boards, via email.

Question 13: Answer the following: a. Prepare a list of any five (5) processes that can be used to ensure that team members are informed of outcomes of continuous improvement effort. b. Why is it necessary to inform the outcomes of continuous improvement to the team members and how can this contribute to further improvements? Write your answer in 50100 words. a. The process of informing team members about improvements can involve simply relaying information, or it can be an on-going process where team members participate by asking questions, debriefing after the implementation of change, reviewing information and then applying knowledge. b. t is important to ensure that team members are fully informed of savings, productivity or service improvements that are made as a result of continuous improvement efforts. The results of the team’s ability to achieve their key performance indicators (KPIs) should also be shared with team members on a regular basis.

Question 14: Answer the following: a. Prepare a list of five (5) guidelines to determine effective Key Performance Indictors (KPI’s). b. How do you develop a performance plan? What should be included in the performance plan? Write your answer in 50-100 words. a. Revenue per client/member (RPC) Average Class Attendance (ACA) Client Retention Rate (CRR) Profit Margin (PM) Average Daily Attendance (ADA) b. Creating a performance plan helps in ensu...