| Skill | What it means | Level needed |
|---|
| Works safely in and around production: wears the required PPE, recognizes machine, chemical and lifting hazards on the floor, follows lockout/tagout and hazard communication rules, and keeps the inspection area clean and orderly. | |
| Does the arithmetic the job runs on: fractions and decimals, unit conversions including inch to metric, percentages, significant digits and rounding, and the geometry the job's own prints or specs call for, so a raw reading becomes the number the spec uses and can be judged against its tolerance. | |
| Looks the product over against the written workmanship standard, approved sample or proof for the job, catches the defects this plant's own processes leave, and manages fatigue and distraction so the tenth one gets the same look as the first. | |
| Knows how the product in front of them was made, process step by process step through this plant, and what defects each of those steps typically leaves behind. | |
| Knows which check applies at which point in the flow, from incoming material through first run and in process to final release and checks made at a supplier, and works to the inspection or control plan written for that stage. | |
| Pulls a sample that fairly represents the lot or batch, following the sampling plan or procedure written for that job, how much to take, from where, and what result accepts or rejects it, and knows when the plan calls for checking every piece or batch instead. | |
| Picks an instrument fine enough for the tolerance being checked, about a tenth of it or better, allows for temperature and the conditions on the floor, and cleans, handles and stores it so it holds its accuracy. | |
| Checks the calibration sticker and due date before using any gage, pulls and quarantines anything out of calibration, and understands traceability and what has to happen to product that was measured with a bad gage. | |
| Understands that two people checking the same item should get the same answer, knows what bias, repeatability and reproducibility mean, and can take a turn as one of the checkers in a study someone else runs. | |
| Calculates mean, range and standard deviation, plots and reads X-bar and R, I-MR and attribute control charts, tells control limits from specification limits, and stops and escalates when the chart shows a run, a trend or an out-of-control point. | |
| Runs the routine tests this plant does on its own product, follows the written test method, gets a reading that repeats, and recognizes when a result or a test has to go to an outside lab. | |
| Tags, segregates and writes up material that does not meet spec, grades the defect as critical, major or minor, tells the operator and supervisor in a way that gets the problem fixed rather than argued, and routes the report to the material review board for disposition. | |
| Fills out the inspection report completely and legibly, records as-found dimensions rather than just pass or fail, stamps acceptance only for characteristics actually checked, and corrects an entry the right way with a single line-out, initial and date. | |
| Keeps lot, heat, serial and date-code identity attached to material all the way through inspection, applies FIFO, shelf-life and age control, and checks certificates of compliance and analysis against what the job actually requires. | |
| Knows what the quality system requires of them day to day: where the controlled procedure and its current revision live, what goes into the approval or release package the customer requires, and what an internal auditor will ask to see. | |
| Takes part in containing a quality problem and finding its cause using 5 Whys, a fishbone diagram or an 8D, and supports the fix through error-proofing and 5S at the inspection station. | |
| Checks the shift's CCP monitoring logs and cook or pasteurization recording charts before product ships, confirming every required reading is present, within its critical limit, timed and initialed, flags any gap or out-of-limit entry to QA, and hands the completed check to the designated reviewer for sign-off. | |
| Inspects cleaned lines before start-up by checking product-contact surfaces by sight, feel and smell, running ATP swabs at the listed points, and testing sanitizer strength with titration strips, and holds the line for a re-clean when anything fails. | |
| Verifies the plant's thermometers, scales and pH meters against certified references on the posted schedule - ice-point checks, test weights, standard buffers - logs each result, and tags out and reports any instrument that fails. | |
| Pulls finished packages at the stated frequency, weighs them on a bench scale using the recorded tare weight, compares net contents against the declared weight and the plant's control limits, and puts the run on hold when the sample fails. | |
| Verifies an allergen changeover before the next run starts: confirms the allergen clean was completed, documented and signed by the crew that ran it, checks that the staged film, labels and rework match the product about to run, runs the QC-owned verification swab where the program assigns one, and signs the line clear. | |
| Runs the QC side of receiving beyond the dock check: matches certificate-of-analysis values against the lot number and the spec's limits, verifies tanker seal numbers against the shipping papers, runs the required screening tests - drug-residue tests on milk before unloading - and collects aseptic samples for the lab. | |
| Collects environmental monitoring swabs and sponges from the zones and sites on the sampling plan using aseptic technique, labels and logs every sample, keeps them cold, and gets them to the lab with the chain-of-custody paperwork complete. | |
| Runs the bench methods that sit beyond the line's check sheet - simple titrations for acidity or salt, density by hydrometer, moisture or water activity - following the written method and recording each result against the spec range, and maintains the buffers and standard solutions the line's own pH and Brix meters are verified against. | |
| Checks the taste, aroma, appearance and texture of product against the gold-standard sample at the stated frequency, describes plainly what is off, and pulls product for QA review when it does not match. | |
| Places suspect product on hold with tags and a hold-log entry, keeps the held inventory counted and reconciled so nothing ships, pulls batch and coding records when a trace exercise or mock recall is run, and releases product only on documented QA sign-off. | |
Oregon publishes ten employability skills, the same statewide. Tick the three that matter most for this job.
Optional. This is where a skill list becomes hireable: what you look for, in your words.
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