Adjust flow of electricity to tools or production equipment
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 6 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 6 occupations that perform it.
- Measure and adjust voltages to specified values to determine operational accuracy of instruments.
- Regulate supplies of fuel and air, or control flow of electric current and water coolant to heat furnaces and adjust temperatures.
- Set dials and timing controls to regulate electrical current, gas flow pressure, heating or cooling cycles, or shut-off.
- Adjust dials to regulate flow of current and voltage supplied to terminals to control plating processes.
- Adjust controls and/or valves on equipment to provide power, and to regulate and set operations of system or industrial processes.
- Set, adjust, and readjust computerized or mechanical equipment controls to regulate power level, temperature, vacuum, and rotation speed of furnace, according to crystal growing specifications.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
6 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers
- Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
- Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.