PLATFORM

USER GUIDE
Copyright
Please note that this document is updated regularly. The appearance of the interface might differ slightly from the
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Copyright © 2020 Competitive Capabilities International (Pty) Ltd, in terms of Section 21(1) (d) of the Copyright Act.
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Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1
TRACC Overview............................................................................................................................... 1
TRACC Platform Overview ............................................................................................................... 4
Structural Entities (SEs) and Licensed Entities (LEs) ........................................................................ 6
Access and Navigate ........................................................................................................ 7
Supported browsers .......................................................................................................................... 7
Login ................................................................................................................................................... 7
Navigation ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Dashboard ........................................................................................................................... 8
Tasks ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Completing In Progress Tasks ........................................................................................................... 9
Assess BestPractices .......................................................................................................... 11
The Assessor – overview.................................................................................................................. 11
Recommended TRACCs ................................................................................................................ 11
Assessment maturity types ............................................................................................................. 12
Assessor navigation......................................................................................................................... 13
Plan Implementation ........................................................................................................ 15
Plan navigation ................................................................................................................................ 15
Assigning Plan actions .................................................................................................................... 18
 Introduction
This manual is a guide to using TRACC Platform to implement TRACC successfully.

TRACC Overview

What is TRACC?
Competitive Capabilities International (CCi) has extensive experience in best practices consulting to
leading companies across the globe. Building on this experience, we have packaged our proven
methodology into a series of best practice components. These components provide step-by-step
guidelines to assist your organisation in implementing best practices and enhancing its competitive
capability through continuous integrative improvement.

TRACC allows your organisation to:

• assess the stage of maturity for each best practice, measured according to a set of criteria
• compile an implementation plan to reach the next stage
• consider the issues that need important policy decisions and identify potential obstacles
• implement best practices using a step-by-step methodology that delivers tangible results
• train workplace teams to ensure an understanding of the best practices
• train experts and specialists in specific techniques
• monitor progress by means of statistical reports

Why use TRACC?

Following a programme of continuous integrative improvement will yield clear and tangible benefits to an
organisation, in both the short term and the long term. The most direct benefits are increased efficiency
and performance, as well as reduced waste and environmental impact.

The TRACC system is a particularly effective programme for implementing continuous integrative
improvement. Here are some of the reasons:

User friendly
TRACC consists of structured, step-by-step implementation components supported by training that is transferred to
the organisation's own resources.

Reliable
TRACC is based on a solid foundation of research, experience, and tried and tested methodologies.

Empowering
TRACC enables organisations to take ownership of their processes and deliver early and sustained results.

Measurable
TRACC allows you to measure progress towards best practices at any time during implementation.

Sustainable
TRACC is not merely a quick fix – it is designed to assist organisations to build and sustain world class capability in
the long term.

Inclusive
TRACC takes critical change management issues into account, such as stakeholder support, obstacles to
implementation, sensitisation to change and a clear strategic framework.

TRACC Platform v8.0

Platform User Guide 1
TRACC components, stages and themes
TRACC components are available for a variety of solutions, including:

Improvement Strategy and Enablement Best Practices:

• Value Chain Alignment
• Human Capital
• Leading and Managing Change

Innovate Best Practice:

• Portfolio and Lifecycle Management

Planning Best Practices:

• Demand Planning
• Supply Planning
• Sales and Operations Planning
• Integrated Business Planning

Sourcing Best Practice:

• Procurement

Make (Operations) Best Practices:

• Operations Alignment
• Stable Operations
• Environment, Health and Safety
• Visual Management
• Focused Improvement
• Teamwork
• 5S
• User-driven Maintenance
• Asset Care
• Set-Up Time Reduction
• Quality
• Administrative Excellence
• Environmental Sustainability

Deliver Best Practices:

• Transportation Management
• Warehouse Management

Service Best Practices:

• Transactional Excellence
• Customer Service Excellence (currently in development)

Each TRACC comprises of several themes. The themes represent aspects of the thinking underlying the best
practices, or ways in which they are applied. All the themes in each TRACC are implemented concurrently.

For example, the Teamwork TRACC includes the following themes:

• Strategy
• Team Targets
• Team Effectiveness and Dynamics
• Leadership
• Performance Management
• Meetings
• Training and Development
• Responsibilities and Decision-making

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Platform User Guide 2
The implementation of each TRACC has been divided into five stages of maturity, broadly following the structure
below. This enables the organisation to pursue the road to excellence in manageable stages, rather than being
overwhelmed by it.

• Stage 1: No Best Practice

• Stage 2: Introduction, Awareness, Stabilisation
• Stage 3: Workplace Ownership
• Stage 4: Sophistication and Technology
• Stage 5: World Class

These five stages apply to each theme within the TRACC. When you assess the best practice maturity of an area
in your organisation, the maturity score is expressed as a number between 1 and 5. This score refers to the five
stages – it indicates how far the organisational area has advanced from Stage 1 towards Stage 5.

Implementation structures
The personnel involved in implementing TRACC can be categorised into groups according to their roles and
responsibilities. These groups are called implementation structures. The following standard implementation
structures are found in a typical TRACC implementation:
• Executive Leadership Committee (ELC) – Senior management concerned with strategy and policy
• Site Steering Committee (SSC) – Site-level management concerned with implementation planning
• Implementation Task Force (ITF) – Personnel concerned with detailed implementation activities

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Platform User Guide 3
TRACC Platform Overview

TRACC Platform is developed by CCi to provide a user-friendly tool for monitoring, assessing and planning
TRACC implementation throughout an organisation. It uses an area tree structure to represent the departmental
and geographical hierarchy of the organisation. In each area, it enables you to assess the current maturity of all
the TRACCs to which your organisation is subscribed. You can track progress over time and develop a detailed
plan for carrying the best practice implementation forward.

The application includes reporting tools that you can use to gain insight into the status of TRACC progress in the
organisation and the effect of this progress on actual performance.

Additionally, TRACC Platform functions as a knowledge management system for the TRACC content and for the
organisation's in-house best practice documentation.

How TRACC Platform works

The implementation teams regularly use the Assessor to assess the best practice maturity of their organisational
area. This assessment is typically done by a multilevel, multidisciplinary panel from the area.

Based on these maturity assessments, the Planner generates a plan of suggested Stop 'n Thinks (STs) and
Implementation Actions (IAs) required to progress to the next stage of maturity. A consolidated plan is
generated for all TRACCs assessed.

The next step is execution – by clicking on the specific action to execute, users access detailed advice that is
supplied as individual knowledge objects from the TRACC content. The team needs to discuss these guidelines
and decide how they will implement them. TRACC Platform also refers the team to training modules and a
variety of transactional tools to assist them during the implementation process.

When they complete plan activities or answer 'Yes' to assessment criteria, the implementation team can upload
documentary evidence of the progress in their area. These Portfolio of Evidence (PoE) documents are available
only within their area.

Best Practice Leaders (BPLs) can configure the TRACC material by adding comments, files, images and URLs.
These documents provide a supplementary knowledge base that all registered site users can view. They can
also configure assessment criteria and assign implementation structures to suit the organisation's requirements.

TRACC Platform V8 – New features and updates

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Process overview
The following steps describe a typical procedure for implementing TRACC using TRACC Platform:

Creating an assessment – The implementation team for each area creates an initial assessment for each TRACC.

Conducting assessments – Members of the implementation team answer a series of assessment criteria for each TRACC to
assess their current maturity profile.

Verifying assessments and creating a plan of recommended actions – The Implementation Lead verifies the latest maturity
for each practice which is then used to automatically create a plan of recommended actions.

Editing the plan – The implementation team members edit the plan by specifying details such as start dates, target dates
and responsible persons.

Completing assigned tasks – During the TRACC implementation process, users accept tasks, then add comments, files,
images and web links to the plan activities as evidence of completion.

TRACC Platform V8 – Process Overview

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Platform User Guide 5
Structural Entities (SEs) and Licensed Entities (LEs)

The entities model has been introduced to simplify the way TRACC subscriptions are accessed across organisational areas
and to provide the basis for more meaningful reports. If an area is marked as an entity, any TRACC subscriptions that the
area has will be accessible, and those TRACCs can be implemented in that area using the Assessor and Planner functions
in TRACC Platform.

SEs are usually areas at a higher level of the area tree. These areas will have access to TRACCs, but any child areas below
the SE level will not necessarily inherit that access. These could be areas such as regions and business units that implement
TRACCs like Value Chain Alignment, Human Capital and Leading and Managing Change (for example, the North
America region or a product business unit).

LEs are areas such as sites where TRACCs are implemented across the LE structure. In these areas, you can create
assessments and plans for the TRACCs that have been subscribed at all levels within the LE, for example, the Detroit
Factory area and all its lines, or the Supply Planning function and all its departments.

Once the area's status has been set, the colour bar for an area will indicate whether it is an undesignated area (|), an SE
(|), an LE (|) or an area that belongs to an LE (|).

Access to TRACCs is inherited down from an LE to all its child areas. An SE’s access to TRACCs only applies to that area and
has no effect on the areas below it in the area tree.

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Platform User Guide 6
Access and Navigate
In order to ensure that you can access and use TRACC Platform optimally, we recommend that you use a supported
browser, and set the TRACC Platform as a trusted site.

Supported browsers
We recommend that you access TRACC Platform in an up-to-date internet browser, such as Microsoft® Edge, Google
Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or OSX Safari.

Login
The TRACC Platform is accessible through the URL – https://platform.traccsolution.com

Activate your account and log in

Once your account has been created by your administrator, you will receive a welcome email with a link to activate your
account.

Click the link in the welcome email and the TRACC Platform login screen will open in your default browser.

Note: Where a Single Sign-on system has been integrated with your internal authentication system, you may not receive a
welcome email or log into the TRACC Portal in the same manner. In such cases, please speak to your TRACC
administrator.

Once your account is activated, fill in your preferred password for the TRACC Platform and confirm it. The TRACC
Platform will open.

Navigation

The main user interface

The seven tabs at the left of the screen give you access to TRACC Platform's main functionality areas:

• Dashboard - access your personal dashboard of tasks and the implementation progress for your area.

• Tasks - accept and complete your task assignments with direct access to TRACC resources and standards
established by your Best Practice Leaders.

• Assess - review and update the assessments for the selected area.

• Plan - use the implementation plan to schedule tasks for the implementation team.

• Documents - use the document library to search for TRACC resources and evidence uploaded by other users.

• Reader - access the integrated TRACC Reader

• Reports - view the Maturity and Plan Progress reports in the Reporting module.

Note: These tabs will automatically hide on smaller screens such as those on mobile phones or tablets. You can show
or hide these tabs by clicking the burger ( ) icon.

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The Area Tree
The Area Tree drop-down is located on the top-left of the screen.

The areas in the tree structure represent the areas of your organisation where TRACCs are being implemented (e.g.
regions, departments, sites, plants, warehouses or production lines). You use it to select the organisational area where
you’re implementing TRACC. For example, if you are a member of the implementation team for a production line, you
will select this production line when conducting assessments and viewing plans.

By default, the Area Tree pane displays only those areas that are assigned to you by your TRACC administrator. You can
navigate to your chosen area or use the search field to locate an area by name. The last three areas you have
accessed will be available in the Recently Viewed Areas list – click on one of those areas to navigate directly to it.

Dashboard
The Platform will open at your personal dashboard.

This dashboard includes the:

• Assigned Tasks card – you can accept these through the dashboard or via the Tasks page

• In Progress Tasks card – use this to access your accepted tasks or mark them as complete

• Maturity progress card – this displays the latest maturity for assessments in the selected area

• Plan progress card – this displays a summary of completed, in progress and overdue actions for the selected area
over time

• Recent Activity card – this indicates the three most recently uploaded documents (including resources or standards)
for the selected area

• Recently Added Evidence card – this indicates the three most recently added evidence documents for the
selected area

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Tasks
The Task page displays the:

• Assigned Tasks card – you can accept or decline tasks here

• In Progress Tasks card – use this to access your accepted tasks and complete them

• Completed Tasks card – this displays the tasks you have completed
Click the action item code in a task card to open the TRACC manual.

Completing In Progress Tasks

Step 1

Expand any of the tasks cards to view the details card for the associated action, as well as its process steps and the
related assessment criteria.

When you’ve expanded a task card, the details card will let you review the details for the action item:

• Summary paragraph of the action

• Action item status

• Assignee and dates for the action item

• Process steps, showing which of those are assigned to you

• Related assessment criteria

• Any comments and evidence that has been submitted for the action item

• Resources you can download to help with completing the task

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Step 2
Once you have completed the assigned work, add any relevant comments and upload evidence in support of the task
completion. You can take a photo as evidence if needed.

Step 3
Mark the completed process steps (tasks) assigned to you as Done.

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Assess Best Practices
The Assessor – overview
One of the key features of TRACC is the ability to assess an organisation's maturity or competence in a specific TRACC
best practice.

Five stages of competence are defined for each best practice and the core elements are defined as themes. The
assessment criteria are grouped under these themes, enabling the organisation to evaluate their maturity per theme and
to identify specific areas on which to focus.

The assessment criteria are in the form of statements. If the statement is true for the area under consideration, the answer
should be 'Yes'. If there are any doubts or if more work needs to be done, the answer must be 'No'.

It is essential to provide evidence in support of criteria answers, such as recording the discussions that have taken place
during the assessment process and proving that the necessary practices are in place. This will provide context and
guidance for future re-assessments and contribute to the organisation's knowledge sharing and compiling of internal best
practices.

Some criteria may not be applicable if the area has already progressed beyond the stage being assessed and has
moved on to the next stage. In such cases, you can answer 'Yes' to the assessment criteria.

Note: There are no criteria for Stage 1. If you have not yet reached Stage 2, it is assumed that you are still at Stage 1.

Based on the criteria that are answered 'No' or left blank in each stage, the Planner will generate a list of
recommended actions that need to be implemented to move the area to reach the next stage of best practice
maturity.

Recommended TRACCs
The recommended TRACCs are preconfigured to ensure that the correct practices are assessed and implemented
in the correct areas. These are listed at the top of the Assess page. Depending on your role, you can add other
TRACCs to assess. Click the Assess button to continue assessing or to start an assessment for the first time.

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Assessment maturity types
TRACC Platform uses four ways of measuring assessment maturity, displayed in the maturity graph for each practice:

⚫ Ad-hoc responses

⚫ Verified responses

⚫ Indicative maturity

⚫ Target maturity

Ad-hoc responses
All responses for an assessment will be recorded as ‘ad-hoc’ (unofficial) responses until they are verified. Ad-hoc
maturity will not contribute to the Assessment Maturity report.

Verified responses
When there is agreement that the latest responses for an assessment are accurate, the Implementation Lead can
submit the responses as Verified. This will record the verified maturity and update the plan accordingly.

Indicative maturity
An ‘indicative’ maturity is calculated based off the TRACC action items that have been completed since your last
verified assessment, letting everyone in the team easily track maturity improvement in between formal assessments.

Target maturity
In order to set a target maturity for comparison, assessment criteria can be answered with the desired end state in mind.
These assessments can be converted to the target assessment type to indicate that they are future state assessments,
and not a real reflection of current maturity.

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Assessor navigation

The Area Tree (A)

Use the Area Tree to select the area you wish to assess.

The Navigator (B)

The Navigator is located alongside the criteria in the Assessment Criteria. It facilitates quick access to assessment
stages and themes.

In the Navigator, you can choose to assess an area theme by theme, or stage by stage. You could assess all themes for
Stage 2 and then proceed to all themes for Stage 3. Alternatively, you could assess Stage 2 to Stage 5 for 'Theme 1: Vision
and Strategy', then proceed to assess Stage 2 to Stage 5 for 'Theme 2: Sort'.

The most effective approach is to assess one theme at a time. This allows you to focus on a specific topic and decide on
your current maturity across the different stages before focusing on the next theme.

The Criteria view filters (C)

Choose whether to display reworded criteria (client wording) only or along with the original TRACC wording, display
the verified status of assessment answers and reveal or hide the latest answers.

The Criteria responses (D)

Record the answers to the criteria here. Be sure to review the associated actions if you need clarity on the intent
behind the criterion you’re answering. Any criteria that are not answered as 'Yes' or 'No' are regarded as a 'No' when the
plans are generated. We recommend that you tick the 'No' checkbox rather than leaving it blank.

The Verify button (E)

Click Verify to submit the assessment responses as verified and update your plan. Only Implementation Leads can
submit assessments as verified.

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The TRACC Progress Chart

The TRACC Progress Chart can be displayed by clicking the View Progress Chart button to the right of the Navigator.
It depicts the maturity profile for the Assessment. The themes of the TRACC are arranged vertically and the stages
horizontally. Each green bar represents the assessed area's best practice maturity for the corresponding stage and
theme.

Access further information for criteria

Expand the criteria to find out more information about the associated Stop 'n Think or Implementation Action (A),
related criteria for the action (B) TRACC and Client Resources (C) or to capture comments and upload evidence(D).

Note: Your site needs to be subscribed to TRACC actions to have access to the manuals.

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Plan Implementation
Once an assessment has been conducted and verified, the activity plan is updated. This will update the list of
recommended actions that need to be carried out.

There are two action item types:

⚫ Stop 'n Thinks (STs) – policy decisions that the management team needs to make or potential obstacles to consider.

⚫ Implementation Actions (IAs) – best practice activities that will be implemented in the workplace.

The codes for each action item, such as '2ST3: Temporary Employees' and '2IA1: Decide on Team Structure', are
interpreted as follows:
⚫ '2' is the stage to which the action is linked

⚫ 'ST' refers to 'Stop 'n Think'; 'IA' refers to 'Implementation Action'

⚫ '3' or '1' indicates the sequence for the Stop 'n Think or Implementation Action

Each activity is further broken down into process steps, assigned to individuals as tasks. These process steps identify what
you need to do in order to implement an activity and help you track progress.

Plan navigation

By default, all TRACCs you've assessed and verified will be included in the plan. At the top of the Planner you can
select which TRACCs to toggle on or off in your view.

Filter TRACC action items

Use the plan filter to show Required actions – these are actions where at least one associated criterion is not answered as
‘Yes’ and this is the default plan view. You can also filter by Verified Complete & Non-Applicable actions. Alternatively,
you can display all actions. You can filter actions further by entering a Responsible person or selecting Start Date, Target
Date and Completion Date periods. The more filters you apply, the more you will narrow down the list of plan actions.

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TRACC action item grouping
Depending on how you’ve filtered your plan view, actions will be grouped by the following categories:

Recommended Next Actions

• at least one associated criterion is not verified as ‘Yes’ and

• no-one has yet been assigned to complete any of the process step tasks

Assigned Tasks Actions

• at least one associated criterion is not verified as ‘Yes’ and

• people are assigned to complete any of the process step tasks and

• not everyone has accepted their assigned tasks

In Progress Actions
• at least one associated criterion is not verified as ‘Yes’ and

• people are assigned to complete any of the process step tasks and

• people have accepted their assigned tasks

Completed Actions
• at least one associated criterion is not verified as ‘Yes’ and

• all assigned process steps tasks are complete – the action is therefore 100% complete

Non-applicable Actions
• these are actions that have been marked as non-applicable in the plan

Planned and Verified Complete Actions

• all associated criteria are answered as ‘Yes’ and verified

• the action item is planned, but not yet 100% complete

Verified Complete Actions

• all associated criteria are answered as ‘Yes’ and verified

• all assigned process steps tasks are complete – the action is therefore 100% complete

TRACC action item details

Click the action item code in an action card to open the related TRACC manual.

Expand any of the action cards to view the action item details card.

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When you’ve expanded an action card, the details card will let you review the details for the action item.

The Action item code (A)

Click the action item code to open the related TRACC manual

The Details tab (B)

Use this tab to view the:

• Percentage progress through the related process steps

• Summary paragraph of the action

• Action item status (as per the TRACC action item grouping)

• Assignee and dates for the action item

• Process steps, showing which of those are assigned to people as tasks

• Related assessment criteria

• Any comments and evidence that has been submitted for the action item

The Resources tab (C)

Use this tab to view the resources you can download to help with completing the action. This includes:

• documents uploaded by your best practice leaders (standards and best practices)

• TRACC resources (templates, case studies and training material)

Note: TRACC training material will only be accessible to those users who have been granted access by administrators
using the TRACC Client Admin Console.

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Assigning Plan actions
The implementation team can schedule and assign action items and their process steps. The process steps
assignments will appear as tasks in everyone’s list of assigned tasks. When people complete their tasks and submit
evidence, the implementation team can monitor what has been completed in the plan.

Step 1

At the top of the Details tab, assign the person who will take accountability for completing the action, then select
the overall Start Date and Target Date.

Note: You will only be able to assign action items and process steps to users that have access to the TRACC Platform.
If you do not see the intended user, please contact your TRACC Administrator for assistance.

Step 2

All process steps will then be assigned to the action item assignee, with the same Start Date and Target Date
applied. You can adjust the assignee and the Start Date and Target Date for individual process steps where
required.

Note: The action item Start Date and Target Date will automatically adjust if any process step assignments fall outside
the overall time period specified for the action.

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Platform User Guide 18