Adjust temperature controls of ovens or other heating 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 | 26 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 26 occupations that perform it.
- Place corpses into crematory machines to reduce remains to bone fragments using flame, heat, or alkaline hydrolysis.
- Observe color of products being baked, and adjust oven temperatures, humidity, or conveyor speeds accordingly.
- Set temperature and time controls, light ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and start equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps.
- Observe gauges and thermometers to determine if the mixing chamber temperature is within specified limits, and turn valves to control the temperature.
- Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps.
- Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion.
- Observe air and temperature gauges or metal color and fluidity, and turn fuel valves or adjust controls to maintain required temperatures.
- Read temperature gauges and observe color changes, adjusting furnace flames, torches, or electrical heating units as necessary to melt metal to specifications.
- Turn valves and dials of machines to regulate pressure, temperature, and speed and feed rates, and to set cycle times.
- Set pyrometer controls of heat-treating furnaces and feed or place parts, tools, or assemblies into furnaces to harden.
- Adjust controls to maintain temperatures and heating times, using thermal instruments and charts, dials and gauges of furnaces, and color of stock in furnaces to make setting determinations.
- Activate and adjust machine controls to regulate temperature and pressure of rollers, ironing shoes, or plates, according to specifications.
- Adjust equipment controls to maintain specified heat, tension, and speed.
- Adjust controls to regulate temperature, pressure, feed, or flow of liquids or gases and times of prescribed reactions, according to knowledge of equipment and processes.
- Set up or adjust machine controls to regulate conditions such as material flow, temperature, or pressure.
- Adjust machine components to regulate speeds, pressures, and temperatures, and amounts, dimensions, and flow of materials or ingredients.
- Press and adjust controls to activate, set, and regulate equipment according to specifications.
- Regulate machine flow, speed, or temperature.
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
26 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders
- Bakers
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Crematory Operators
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
- Food Batchmakers
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders
- Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers
- Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Pourers and Casters, Metal
- Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders
- Tool and Die Makers
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.