8600-325 Understanding How to Manage the Efficient Use of Materials and Equipment

Unit Overview

8600-325 Understanding how to manage the efficient use of materials and equipment is a unit within the ILM Level 3 module that helps leaders to understand approaches used to ensure that the materials and equipment of the organisations are efficiently used. Leaders have the responsibility of maintaining and using efficiently material and equipment within their care. In organisations, materials and equipment are assigned to groups that need them, and it is the duty of the leader within the teams and the first-line managers responsible for several teams to ensure that these materials and equipment are efficiently used to achieve the tasks and accomplished organisational goals and objectives.

8600-325 Understanding how to manage the efficient use of materials and equipment is a unit; therefore, that contributes to building the responsibility of the leaders in relation to these responsibilities and being sure that these materials are sued to contribute to the accomplishment of desired tasks. Within the unit, first-line managers are helped to effectively keep stocks and conduct risk assessments of equipment security to ensure that they contribute to achieving organisational goals by effectively minimising misuse and waste in relation to materials.

This unit has the purpose of building and developing an understanding of the role that practising or potential first-line managers pursuing the unit should play in facilitating the efficient use of materials and equipment under their care within the organisation. The unit is taught in 7 hours of guided learning and contributes 2 credit values towards the completion of ILM Level 3 module.

Suitability of the Unit

Different teams within the organisation require different equipment and materials that they use to accomplish the tasks and responsibilities that are assigned to them and ensure that they successfully achieve the set goals and objectives. As such, 8600-325 Understanding how to manage the efficient use of materials and equipment is a unit that is important in improving the knowledge and skills of leaders who deal with the teams directly by ensuring that information is provided to them on the significance and techniques of facilitating efficient use of materials and tools in the organisation.

The unit is designed to cater for different elements, including stock keeping, handling of security of materials and equipment, and minimising waste within the organisation to ensure that there is the optimisation of performance within the teams based on the materials and equipment that they are assigned. The unit is designed to meet the learning needs of first-line managers but is also highly relevant for team leaders and junior managers within the organisation who are responsible for overseeing the activities of project teams.

This ensures that these leaders are able to oversee effective use of the materials and equipment under their care and ensure that there is no misuse or excessive wastage of materials which could compromise the performance of the teams and hence reflect on the productivity of the organisation in general.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

Describe the 

• process of determining stock requirements in the workplace

• Show understanding of the consequences of failing to maintain optimum stocks within the workplace

• Identify various principles and procedures for stock control within the workplace or in their areas of responsibility

• Explain the procedures set up within the organisation to record the receipt and issue of supplies

• Describe the significance of maintaining stock records to ensure efficient operations and quality standards within the workplace

• Explain the significance of using equipment effectively and efficiently

• Describe the process of monitoring and controlling the use of equipment and materials within the workplace

• Show understanding of the importance of having a scheduled maintenance program for equipment within the workplace

• Develop a compilation of a simple maintenance programmer for equipment within the workplace

• Conduct a risk assessment on equipment security and explain how risks could be mitigated

• Identify the main forms of waste experienced within their organisation

• Develop effective techniques and methods of measuring and monitoring waste within the organisation.

• develop an action plan that can be implemented in minimising the waste in their areas of responsibility and the organisation in general

Key Learning Areas

8600-325 Understanding how to manage the efficient use of materials and equipment helps the learners to understand the principles revolving around effective use of materials and equipment. In achieving this goal, the unit covers learning areas that may include:

Stock Control

This area of learning helps the learners to understand the significance and methods of determining stock requirements within the organisation. It helps to understand principles that are associated with optimum stocks hence ensuring that the learners are able to understand the concept of stock control and management.

Additionally, learners are introduced to store and stock control procedures, including recording receipts and issues of supplies and maintenance of records to facilitate quality standards. This area helps tenure that the practising or potential leaders understand their role in managing the handling and improvement of material and equipment within the organisation.

Handling Equipment

This area of learning focuses on the use of equipment and materials to achieve organisational goals and objectives. The learners are taught the implications of equipment usage, including the acquisition and operation costs, of the organisation.

They are also taught about marginal costs and their use within the organisation. In his area, the learners are introduced to principles of capacity planning and the methods that can be sued to create scheduled maintenance within the organisation to facilitate the effective utilisation of materials and equipment. Lastly, the learners are taken through security issues that could affect the use of materials and equipment and the process of developing risk assessment on such security issues.

Waste 

In this area of learning, the learners are taught to identify areas of potential waste and inefficiency that may arise due to misuse, extravagance, shrinkage, rework or other causes. They are guided in developing skills on techniques and methods that they can use to monitor and measure the waste as well as critical principles of waste management that help them to develop action plans that are relevant in minimising waste.

Evaluation

On completing this unit, the learners are put through an evaluation process. Written assessment is used to determine the mastery of the concepts that have been taught within the unit in terms of theory and practice. Simulated exercises could also be used to examine the ability to use the content in practical settings.