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Functions

Production function

Production takes inputs through a transformation process to make outputs, and quality control checks that those outputs are fit to leave.

CAPS

Grade 11 · Business Studies · Functions

Business Studies answers in business language, applied to the scenario.

  • The papers

    Paper 1 is business environments and business ventures. Paper 2 is business roles and business operations. Each paper is 150 marks.

  • A 40-mark essay

    Introduction 2 marks: say what the essay will deal with. Body: facts from the scenario, each with an explanation of the impact or the solution. Conclusion 2 marks: a decision, not a new fact. Insight is 4 marks for layout, analysis, synthesis and originality.

  • How a marker reads it

    A common mix-up is calling the finished desk an input, when inputs are what you start with and outputs are what you end with.

Quotes from a scenario must be used, not copied as decoration. A definition with no link to the business in the question stays in the low marks.

Worked theory

Worked theory. A furniture workshop in Durban buys saligna planks, screws and varnish, and employs three carpenters. Transformation is cutting, assembling and sanding school desks. The output should be a steady desk with four equal legs. One desk leaves with a front leg 2 cm short, and the school sends it back. Quality control had been a glance, not a measurement, so a bad output reached the buyer. A mark on the bench for each leg would have kept that desk in the workshop.

More worked examples

  • Soweto kota queue

    A kota shop in Soweto uses bread, chips, polony and atchar as inputs. Transformation is frying the chips and filling the loaf, and the output should be a hot kota sold for R25. On a busy Friday the chips sit and cool before the bread is filled. A quality rule would say fill only when the chips leave the fryer. Cold kotas come back, and the inputs are wasted because the check never happened.

  • Paarl jam lids

    A home kitchen in Paarl cooks apricots, sugar and lemon into jam. The fruit and the pots are inputs, boiling and bottling are the transformation, and a sealed jar is the output. One batch has lids that were not tightened, and the jam ferments on a shop shelf. Pressing each lid after cooling is the quality check that was skipped. Jars that should have sold at R40 come back instead.

In ordinary words

Inputs are materials, labour, machines and money. Transformation is the work that changes them, such as cutting, cooking or assembling. Outputs are the finished goods or services. Quality control compares the output with a standard before the customer sees it, so a fault caught inside can be fixed or scrapped, while a fault that leaves becomes a return, a complaint or an unsafe product.

In South Africa

On a Durban workshop floor, saligna offcuts lie next to a desk that rocks because one leg is short.

Part 1 / 4

What it is

Production takes inputs through a transformation process to make outputs, and quality control checks that those outputs are fit to leave.

More worked examples

Board walkthroughs on this topic. Open one, copy the working, then try the next.

Example 1 / 20

A factory makes 1 200 units with 8 workers in 5 days. Calculate productivity per worker per day.

How we got there

Read this like a teacher at the board. We go slowly, name every number, and say why we take each step.

Explain in another language · 11

1. What is the question asking?

Read the question twice. Circle the unknown. Underline every number and unit. The paper is asking: A factory makes 1 200 units with 8 workers in 5 days. Calculate productivity per worker per day.

Before any working — hunt first

Given

Numbers and units already in the sentence: 1 · 200 units · 8 workers · 5 days. Copy each one into a column. A name without a number is not given.

Missing

After you copy the given, the letter that still has no number is missing. The paper is pointing at: productivity per worker per day. Circle that word — that is the missing variable.

Find

We are required to find: productivity per worker per day. Write that as a symbol on the left, with a question mark, before you touch a formula.

Calculate

What we need to calculate: Output(workers × days). Then substitute the given, one line at a time, to get productivity per worker per day.

In other words — as if you have never seen this before

If you have never seen this before: Output(workers × days). We will name a method in words, write the formula with no numbers, then substitute one line at a time.

2. What do we already know?

1 200 units; 8 workers; 5 days.

3. Which method — and why this one?

Output(workers × days).

4. Step-by-step working

  1. 01 / 08

    Step A — Read the question twice

    Slow down. Circle the word that names the unknown. Underline every number and its unit. Do not grab a formula yet — first decide what the paper is actually asking.

    Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.

  2. 02 / 08

    Step A2 — Hunt: Given, Missing, Find, Calculate

    Given: Numbers and units already in the sentence: 1 · 200 units · 8 workers · 5 days. Copy each one into a column. A name without a number is not given. Missing: After you copy the given, the letter that still has no number is missing. The paper is pointing at: productivity per worker per day. Circle that word — that is the missing variable. Find: We are required to find: productivity per worker per day. Write that as a symbol on the left, with a question mark, before you touch a formula. Calculate: What we need to calculate: Output(workers × days). Then substitute the given, one line at a time, to get productivity per worker per day.

    Why this step: Do not name the letters yet. First hunt: what already has a number (Given), what has no number (Missing), the word the paper wants (Find), and which formula still contains the missing letter (Calculate).

  3. 03 / 08

    Step B — Write the given in a column

    1 200 units; 8 workers; 5 days.

    Why this step: A column with units stops you mixing cm with m, or minutes with seconds. Markers can also see you started correctly.

  4. 04 / 08

    Step C — Name the method in words

    Output(workers × days).

    Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.

  5. 05 / 08

    Divide

    1 200(8 × 5)=30 units.

    Why this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.

  6. 06 / 08

    Step G — Sense-check the size

    Ask: is this the kind of number a Grade 10–12 paper would want? A speed of 3 000 ms for a learner walking, or a probability bigger than 1, means a unit or algebra slip. Estimate first: round the numbers and do the sum in your head.

    Why this step: Markers write ‘unrealistic’ in the margin when the method is right but the size is wild. A 10-second head check often finds a missing 10² or a unit that never changed.

  7. 07 / 08

    Step F — Box the answer with its unit

    30 units per worker per day.

    Why this step: A number without a unit is half a mark on a Physics paper, and a marker can miss a Maths answer that is buried in working.

  8. 08 / 08

    Step H — What the marker is looking for

    On an NSC memo you usually earn: (1) a method mark for naming the right formula or idea in words, (2) an accuracy mark for substituting the given numbers with units, (3) an accuracy mark for the boxed answer with its unit. Write those three lines even if you are unsure of the arithmetic — blank pages score zero.

    Why this step: First-timers chase the final number and leave the method blank. The memo still pays out for the idea and the substitution even when the last line is wrong.

5. The answer

30 units per worker per day.

Copy onto your answer sheet — in this order

Answer: 30 units per worker per day.

6. Check it like a marker

Measure improvements over time.

7. A trap first-timers fall into

First-timers often grab the first formula they remember, mix units (cm with m, minutes with seconds), or drop a minus sign. Write the formula in words first: “this equals that, because…”

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