The initial stage of the program was taken up with developing and customizing an assessment tool that could be used in the warehouse to assess individuals without taking them off the job for a long period of time. This was undertaken in conjunction with the Distribution Centre Training Officer, Ian McClymont and using expertise from other areas of the warehouse to fill gaps in our technical knowledge.

A checklist was drawn up that could be used while directly observing an employee doing their job, with the addition of some questioning and case study excercises, to ensure all performance criteria were covered for the majority of employees. Further customisation was undertaken as we went along to cover those employees with a slightly different range of skills. The program was conducted as the second round of Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL) funding for Statewide Independent Wholesalers Limited following the release of the Transport and Distribution Training Package in 1998.

Following information meetings in March 1999, with both day and afternoon shift workers, expressions of interest were called for from those workers interested in participating in the program.

TDT E5 Carry out Workplace Calculations

The evidence used for the majority of assessees is :

Point 1 - The demonstration exercise for a multiple pick

Point 2  - as above

Point 3  - as above

Looking at the demonstration exercise for a multiple pick we can see that this involves not just the calculation of subtracting 12 from 15 but also reading and writing skills. The amount and information regarding product must be read from the label and the number 3 written correctly onto the ‘scratch’ label.

To find out about job performance an employee can refer to the table shown which is displayed near the shipping office where orders are collected and scanned. It details their ‘pick rate’ which should be about 110 cartons per hour with allowances made for the type of order picked. We would ask each person to explain to us how the average would be worked out to go into the Average for Period column. Again, as well as the numeracy skills involved reading is also used.

Click to view larger size

The 3^rd point refers to cycle counts, which are done regularly in the warehouse as a form of stocktaking. Each employee on the cycle count would have a number of pick slots to count. This would be a lengthy task if cartons were counted individually at each slot. The majority of employees determines the number of cartons in a layer and then multiplies this by the number of layers adding or subtracting extra or missing cartons to determine the correct amount. The number of cartons in a layer can be counted or read from the Pallet Receiving label. Reading, writing and numeracy again involved in this activity.

Mapping this unit of competence to the NRS might look like this:

Unit of Competence	NRS Level and Indicators of Competence required	Aspects of Communication
Carry out Workplace Calculations	Reading Indicator 2.2 Writing Indicator 2.4 Numeracy Indicators  2.9                                 2.10                                 2.12	Procedural Communication Systems Communication

A Certificate II unit such as Pick and Process Orders also uses a range of skills. The assessment checklist is shown below but has been modified for publication here by adding activities that are covered in other parts of the assessment when being conducted in a holistic way.

Unit of Competence A12 Pick and Process Orders