IMPQI222 – Plan organisational change and improvement in food operations

Overview 

This standard is about the skills and knowledge needed for you to plan change or a programme of change to support your organisation's drive to improve food operations. This is important to increasing productivity and success of manufacture, processing and supply within the food supply chain. Good planning is important where the implementation of change, improvement, new practice, targets and a performance driven culture creates challenges to individuals and the dynamic of teams.

You will need to show and understand how you take into account all the necessary information from documentation and colleagues to support your plans for improvement. You will need to know what the strategy, objectives and timelines are for improvement in your workplace, and understand the concerns of colleagues in achieving the improvement strategy. You will need to comply with your company policy for planning change and take responsibility for your actions. It involves developing plans to make the change that is needed, taking note of barriers, risks and the need to put appropriate monitoring and communication systems in place.

This standard is for you if you plan change and improvement working in food or drink operations including manufacturing, processing, packing or supply chain activities. You may have responsibilities for aspects of organisational improvement in a team leadership or management role.

Performance criteria

You must be able to:

Confirm the scope of your plans for organisational change

  1. identify and confirm the improvement strategy, objectives and timescales with the relevant personnel
  2. consult with colleagues to agree the implementation issues and challenges for change
  3. agree the scope for planning organisational change with the relevant personnel

Develop plans for organisational change

  1. identify the procedures, systems, structure and roles that might need to be changed, and assess the gap between their current and required future state
  2. identify and assess barriers to the potential organisational change
  3. develop plans that set out the organisational change in accordance with improvement plans
  4. assess the risks and benefits associated with the plans and develop contingency arrangements in accordance with procedures
  5. include short-term 'wins' as well as longer-term deliverables in the development of plans for organisational change

Develop plans to support the implementation of organisational change

  1. develop outline plans for monitoring and assessing progress in accordance with the plans for organisational change
  2. develop a communication plan for the change process that allows personnel to give feedback
  3. identify potential training and support needs and plan how to meet these in accordance with procedures

Obtain and provide planning feedback

  1. seek feedback on the value of your planning for organisational change from the relevant personnel
  2. check current compliance levels and targets in accordance with procedures
  3. provide feedback on your planning to the relevant personnel

Knowledge and understanding

You need to know and understand

  1. the main models and methods for managing change effectively, and their strengths and weaknesses
  2. effective planning techniques
  3. theory and application of the change/performance curve
  4. theory and understanding of teams, including an understanding of teambuilding techniques and how to apply them
  5. how to assess the risks and benefits associated with planned organisational change
  6. the importance of contingency planning and how to do so effectively
  7. how to make critical decisions
  8. the internal and resource barriers to change, and the techniques that deal with these
  9. stakeholder and line management expectations and how they influence the process
  10. the organisation's improvement vision, strategy, objectives, the reasons for improvement, the risks and expected benefits
  11. business and operational critical activities and interdependencies
  12. those factors that need to be changed, and the associated priorities and reasons
  13. the formal and informal communication channels used
  14. what consultation arrangements are best suited to implement improvement
  15. your organisations current position in the sector compared with its main competitors, relevant to the improvement programme
  16. the range of information sources available to support the improvement programme

Keywords: Food operations; Manufacturing; Excellence; Improvement; Organisational development; Change; Plan