Business Improvement Specialist Apprenticeship


Level: 5 / Duration: 15-18 mths

Business Improvement Specialists typically report to Business Improvement Leaders who develop the improvement strategy and governance processes, and who provide technical guidance on advanced analysis. Business Improvement Specialists manage (directly and/or matrix) Business Improvement Practitioners who lead smaller improvement projects aligned to the improvement strategy. A typical ratio of Business Improvement Specialists to Business Improvement Practitioners in an organisation could be 1:10.

In comparison with the work of a Business Improvement Practitioner, Business Improvement Specialists draw on their advanced knowledge and skills in applying Improvement principles and tools across a range of programmes/projects/areas to build the capability of others. They also swiftly visualise processes, problems and opportunities and use both graphical and statistical analysis to deliver improvements.

Assessment

The EPA assessment period will last a maximum of 12 weeks

A portfolio of evidence of their best work.

Please note: The portfolio of evidence must also include evidence relating to the preparation and delivery of a training session with Level 4 learning outcomes linked to one or two improvement topics.

  • It must cover a subject selected from the following list: Project Management, Change Management, Process Mapping and Analysis, Lean Principles and Tools, Measurement System Analysis, Data Collection Planning, Graphical Analysis, Process Capability, Root Cause Analysis, Designed Experiments, Statistical Process Control
  • The training materials must be prepared by the apprentice (i.e. they must not deliver published training material prepared by someone else and this requirement will be authenticated by a signed statement provided by the apprentice’s employer)
  • It must be delivered to a group of Level 4 delegates in their normal working environment and last 35-40 minutes in duration
  • A continuous video recording of the session must be included in the portfolio of evidence
  • Training materials may include for example PowerPoint presentation, lesson plan, training notes, photographs of white boards, handouts, flipcharts
  • All training materials and records of delegate feedback must be included in the portfolio of evidence
4 hour examination, based on 8 mini case studies

The exam will cover topics where there is a series of right/wrong answers.
It must require the apprentice to work with sets of data in Excel, Minitab or an alternative software package, apply tools and draw conclusions.
Subjects covered in the exam will be Sampling, Measurement System Analysis, Capability Analysis, Transformation, Hypothesis Testing, Correlation/Regression, Statistical Process Control, and one other.
A Professional Discussion with an external End Point Assessor underpinned by their portfolio of evidence

Please note: a technical expert from the apprentice’s employer must be present in the EPA

Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours

We can provide you with a full list of the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours which your apprentice will be taught and assessed on but as an overview, your apprentice will learn the following:

    • Business and economic risks

    • Government regulation or trading conditions

    • Personality types

    • Team development stages

    • Motivational techniques

    • Situational leadership

    • Learning styles and coaching & mentoring models

    • Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

    • Multi-element business case

    • Financial plan

    • Benefits realisation plan

    • Risk management plan

    • Project plan

    • Change management methods

    • Impact/readiness

    • Influencing strategies

    • Practical Problem Solving

    • Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control

    • 8-Disciplines of Decision Making

    • Identify-Define-Optimise-Verify

    • Policy deployment principles

    • Lean culture, principles of Lean Thinking and Lean tools including origins and cultural aspects critical to successful application within an organisation.

    • Identification & prioritisation

    • Creativity tools e.g. theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), Pugh matrix

    • Voice of the customer and techniques for reliable data collection

    • Quality Function Deployment principles

    • How to build a House of Quality

    • Process mapping & analysis

    • Activity network diagrams

    • Design structure matrix

    • Process modelling

    • Key function diagrams and analysis

    • Statistics & measures: Probability distributions, Confidence intervals, Central limit theorem

    • Test data for stability and normality and strategies for dealing with non-stable or non-normal data

    • Measurement system analysis

    • Repeatability & Reproducibility analysis

    • Process capability: Data transformation, life data analysis and prediction

    • Root cause analysis: Matrix plots, multi-vari charts, hypothesis testing principles and methods, correlation and regression principles and methods

    • Experimentation: Principles of full and fractitional designed experiments including replicates, repeats, randomisation, blocking and centre points, resolution and confounding

    • Planning and analysis using residuals, main effects & interaction plots, hierarchy of terms, Response Surface Method, Split plots, Analysis of variance (ANOVA), approaches for model optimisation

    • Benchmarking

    • Failure mode avoidance: System state flow, boundary diagram, interface analysis tables, fault tree analysis, robustness checklist, tolerance design and analysis

    • Principles and links between Failure Modes and Effects analysis for concepts, designs, processes.

    • Sustainability & control: Control and reaction plans. Prevention controls

    • Drive for results

    • Team-working

    • Professionalism

    • Process Thinking

    • Continuous development

    • Safe working

OR

complete the form below