College of Production Technology

Production Operator NQF 2

Production Operator NQF 2

The Production Operator NQF 2 skills programme introduces learners to the essential knowledge and practical skills required to function effectively within a manufacturing and production environment. It focuses on core competencies such as workplace safety, basic production processes, quality awareness, and teamwork, enabling employees to support daily operations with confidence. This programme is designed to strengthen entry-level capability, improve productivity, and create a foundation for further development within the manufacturing sector.

Communication Skills

  • Use a range of reading and/or viewing strategies to make meaning of texts.
  • Identify the main ideas in different text types.
  • Read/view and respond to texts for a variety of purposes.
  • Identify and discuss how language structures and features may influence a reader/audience.
  • Use a variety of speaking and listening/signing strategies to maintain communication.
  • Adapt speech/signing to accommodate socio-cultural sensitivities without losing own intention.
  • Use knowledge of language structures and conventions to shape or decode meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary or constructions.
  • Organise and present information in a focused and coherent manner.
  • Identify and explain how speakers/signers influence audiences.
  • Write/sign for a specific audience, purpose and context.
  • Use grammatical structures and writing/signing conventions to produce coherent and cohesive texts for specific contexts.
  • Adapt language to suit context.
  • Draft and edit own writing/signing.
  • Find and use available learning resources.
  • Use learning strategies
  • Manage occupational learning materials.
  • Plan and gather relevant information for a given context and purpose.
  • Function in a team.
  • Reflect on how characteristics of the workplace and occupational context affect learning.

 

Numeric Skills

  • Convert flexibly between and within various representations of functions.
  • Compare, analyse and describe the behaviour of patterns and functions.
  • Represent situations mathematically in order to interpret and solve problems.
  • Use and analyse computational tools and strategies, and make estimates and approximations.
  • Demonstrate understanding of numbers and relationships among numbers and number systems.
  • Estimate, measure and calculate physical quantities to solve problems in practical situations.
  • Explore transformations of two-dimensional geometric figures.

 

Operate a production Process

  • The Operations Function
  • The transformation model
  • Prepare for start up
  • Safety
  • Machine/Equipment/Process Safety
  • Tools and Equipment
  • Materials
    • Material Quality
    • Risk of using contaminated materials
  • Ensuring Quality
    • The conditions that lead to poor quality
    • Quality testing
    • Identification and traceability
  • The manufacturing process
    • The production schedule
    • Know the planning process
    • Being able to select materials
    • Planning activities to meet production requirements
  • Load machine / process for start – up
    • Start-up machinery
    • Check machinery while in operation
    • Record monitoring data on shift
  • Start-up
    • Start-up procedures
    • Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)
  • Setting up for optimal performance
  • Monitor the manufacturing process
    • Visual inspections
    • Sampling
    • Machine indicators
    • Printouts and reports
  • Operating manufacturing equipment / processes
  • Adjust the manufacturing process
    • The importance of using the correct tools when adjusting
    • Checking data after the adjustments
    • Adjusting machinery according to SOP’s
    • Process parameters
    • Impact the adjustments will have one the product
  • Reporting and documentation
  • The shutdown procedure
    • Procedure for shutdown
    • The need for cleaning the machine
    • The importance of following the correct shutdown procedure
    • Lockout procedures
    • Removing and cleaning tooling
  • Waste
    • The impact of waste
  • Teamwork
    • Understanding the work team
    • Types of teams
    • How to be a team member
    • Understand and explain individual and team performance
    • Teams and different cultures
    • Meetings
Name of Module Production Operator (52)
Unit Standards covered

119463 –  Access and use information from texts (5)

119454 – Maintain and adapt oral/signed communication (5)

119456 – Write/present for a defined context (5)

119460 – Use language and communication in occupational learning programmes (5)

9007 – Work with a range of patterns and functions and solve problems (5)

7480 – Demonstrate understanding of rational and irrational numbers and number systems (3)

12444 – Measure, estimate and calculate physical quantities and explore, describe and represent geometrical relationships in 2-dimensions in different life or workplace contexts (3)

244338 – Operate a production Process (15)

265000 – Complete post production and finishing operations (6)
NQF Level 2
Duration 17
Approval Number MERSETA / SP 0947/15-17

 

 

From these Unit Standards the Skills Programme will consist of three (3) modules, namely:

Communication Skills 119460, 119456, 119454, 119463 5 Days
Numeric Skills 12444, 9007, 7480 5 Days
Operate a Production Process 265000, 244338 7 Days