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Elements and Performance Criteria

1. Identify the system constraint and throughput
   • Identify goals and objectives of the organisation
   • Identify systems, processes and products to be examined
   • Determine throughput of steps within the system
   • Identify the capacity constrained process
   • Determine optimum throughput of capacity constrained process (drum)
   • Determine maximum system throughput based on the capacity constrained process

Required Skills

Required skills

Required skills include identifying steps and processes in current operations system identifying current performance against key performance indicators KPIs determining where performance especially suboptimal performance relates to unique factors or is a manifestation of other symptomscircumstances manipulating data communicating with relevant people and asking leading questions developing strategic plans for change including identification of what to change goal of change how to make the change how to measure the change resources required for change timeline

Required knowledge

Required knowledge includes theory of constraints including the five focusing steps types of constraints including capacity policy human resources HR market or supplier constraints drumbufferrope or chokerelease methodology of reducing lead time through the organisation the goals and objectives of the organisation internal and external constraints throughput inventory and operating expenses identifying KPIs which create conflict and affect constraint performance exploiting a constraint which includes working through breaks on split shift systems or the strategic use of overtime subordinating which includes giving a constraint preference during breakdowns and supply concepts of weakest link drum including difference between cost approach and throughput approach duration in production applications this is often known as material release buffer or inventory to protect the weakest linkconstraint release timing of buffer rope organisation processes products and internal and external customers

Evidence Required

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 capacity constrained process implement drumbufferrope strategy analyse causes of constrained capacity and develop a response strategy
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 controlmanagement reports from supervisorsmanagers case studies and scenarios to assess responses to contingencies minutes of meetings and other records relevant to determining and dealing with the core conflict
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 studiesscenarios particularly for assessment of contingencies improvement scenarios and so on targeted questioning reports from supervisors peers and colleagues thirdparty 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

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Range Statement

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
Constraint	A constraint is anything in the organisation that prevents or makes it harder for the organisation to achieve improved performance. Constraints may be: internal or external to the organisation physical (equipment or material-based) process-based (inefficient or wrong processes/policies/logistics) people-based (poor training, communication) market based (lack of demand)
Capacity constrained process	A key assumption in this unit and in the theory of constraints is that improved performance is limited by one (or at most a few) capacity constrained process
Internal constraint	Internal constraints exist where customers demand more than the organisation can deliver (e.g. product, performance and/or quality)
External constraint	External constraints exist where the organisation is producing more (product or services) than are wanted by customers
Drum-buffer-rope	Drum-buffer-rope (choke/release) is a system to avoid flooding the system with inventory. Raw materials are released at a rate to which the constraint can cope (i.e. to a rhythm set by the drum). A buffer is placed in front of the constraint and strictly managed to protect capacity loss
Non-productive time	Non-productive time may include: quality losses downtime other availability losses

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