Best Practices 6

Best Practice 6: Focus Special Attention on Conceptual Knowledge and Skills

Conceptual knowledge must be mastered to competently perform high-valued conceptual tasks such as:

Decision Making
Process Troubleshooting
Process Optimization

Traditional Approach

Using the traditional approach, Operators mastered conceptual knowledge from practical experience as they learned from operational events which occurred from time-to-time, often very infrequently. Mastery of conceptual knowledge under these conditions required many years while on the job, and the level of mastery depended upon the number and frequency of events each Operator experienced. For complex systems, mastery traditionally required over 10 years of on-the-job learning.

Conceptual knowledge is not typically found in traditional Operating Manuals and conceptual skills are not typically addressed in traditional training programs.

VPS Approach

The VPS approach is designed to decrease a new Operator's time-to-competency from ten years (or more) to less than three years.

Use of VPS Approach Results in Decreased Time-to-Competency

As illustrated in the graphic above, our approach is two-fold:

Reduce Volume of Conceptual Knowledge with Procedures
- Convert some conceptual tasks to procedural tasks using advanced procedure writing approaches.
- Simplify conceptual tasks with procedures that guide the Operator through a structured analysis and/or decision-making process.
- Apply advanced graphic techniques to simplify the layout of complex procedures that require conceptual decision-making. (Example: See Introduction to Procedure Outline Diagrams)
Address Purely Conceptual Tasks with Improved Documentation and Training Exercises
- Create a clear vision of the specific analysis processes to be performed.
- Create an exercise strategy that challenges the trainee's ability to perform the analysis.
- Design documentation to support successful accomplishment of the exercises.
- Develop a training strategy to guide the trainee up a well-defined Learning Curve.
- On a regular basis, provide new exercises to continually challenge trainee capabilities until they reach full competency.

You can learn more on this topic by contacting us for the following VPS References:

"Introduction to Procedure Outline Diagrams"

Visual Performance Solutions, Inc. | 1173 Idylewild Drive Annapolis, MD 21409 | (410) 793-5300