This unit focuses on the principles and tools associated with contemporary Lean Thinking and practice. Lean Thinking or ‘lean’ is a systematic method of continuous improvement through minimising waste without sacrificing productivity, creating more value for customers. It has been identified and applied by many organisations as a key strategy to organise human and production activities to deliver more benefits to the organisation and the customer. It does this by eliminating waste, creating knowledge, respecting people, building in quality, visualising practices, and managing workflow. Activities and assessment tasks in this unit will focus on identifying and analysing lean tools, applying them in practice, and assessing their contribution to continuous improvement and excellence in an organisation.

In conjunction with the discipline theory, this unit introduces learning through practice by exposing you to authentic learning experiences. These experiences are placed at the centre of learning and assessment, so you have the opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours necessary to respond to industry, community and/or global needs.

You will be introduced to:

• a range of methods, tools, techniques and approaches to practice
• principles and perspectives such as values, ethics, empathy and leadership in real world scenarios
• reflection and deliberative thinking as a means of developing knowledge, skills, attitudes and aspirations
• ways of understanding problems and developing solutions through active inquiry.