Plant Academy:

DACUM Quality in Plant Operations

As a manager or developer of occupational training programs, you need to know exactly what happens at the work site. A process called DACUM can make that connection for you.

In July of this year the Plant Operations Division and the Plant Academy at the University of Michigan embarked on a major project to identify and document all job competencies in Plant Operations (DACUM Project). DACUM is used for:

• Developing performance based training (systematic curriculum and instructional development)
• Creating functional job descriptions
• Conducting training needs assessment
• Developing individual training plans (ITPs) for each employee

DACUM (day kum) an abbreviation for Developing A CUrriculuM, is an innovative approach to job/occupational analysis. It has proven to be a very effective method of quickly determining, at relatively low cost, the tasks that must be performed by persons employed in a given job or occupation area.

The basic premise behind DACUM is simple: · If you want to train workers to do a specific job well, ask those who have done it successfully, how they did it.

• Expert workers are better able than anyone else to describe effectively the tasks successful workers perform.
• Successful tasks performance is directly related to the knowledge, skills, attributes and tools that workers must possess to perform the tasks correctly.
• DACUM involves men and women with reputations for being the “top performers” at their jobs

These men and women become the ‘Panel of Experts’ who collectively and cooperatively describe the occupation. They work on a short-term committee assignment with a qualified DACUM facilitator to identify precisely what they do in the language of their occupation. This means we get the straight story from the people on the job, the ones who know. In turn, administrators, instructors, and curriculum developers get information that is otherwise hard to come by.

When the DACUM process is completed the result is a job competency profile – a graphic description of the important duties, tasks, skills and attributes required of successful workers in the occupation, developed by expert workers from that occupation.

Ninety-one job competency profiles were completed and went through a verification review process for their accuracy by the panel of expert workers, unit employees and department directors and managers of Plant Operations.

The strength of the DACUM is its versatility. No matter what the area under consideration, the process seems to yield results, gain enthusiasts and enables the organization to improve the quality of its employee training and on the job performance.

For information about DACUM development and other services offered by The Plant Academy contact, Leslie. H. Smith, Plant Academy, The University of Michigan, 1111 Kipke Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2001. Phone: 734-936-7398, Leslie Smith (get address) (54.234.42.16)