Align equipment or machinery
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 | 14 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 14 occupations that perform it.
- Align, adjust, or calibrate equipment according to specifications.
- Install and align repaired or replacement parts for subsequent riveting or welding, using clamps and wrenches.
- Align vehicles' front ends.
- Align front ends and suspension systems.
- Assemble gear systems, and align frames and gears.
- Align car sides for installation of car ends and crossties, using width gauges, turnbuckles, and wrenches.
- Set starter locks and align and repair steering or throttle controls, using gauges, screwdrivers, or wrenches.
- Align wheels.
- Align machines or equipment, using hoists, jacks, hand tools, squares, rules, micrometers, lasers, or plumb bobs.
- Replace or straighten damaged poles.
- Align pads and keys on reed or wind instruments.
- Align and balance new equipment after installation.
- Align, level, and anchor machinery.
- Align and secure pattern film on reference tables of optical programmers, and observe enlarger scope views of printed circuit boards.
- Align wheels, axles, frames, torsion bars, and steering mechanisms of automobiles, using special alignment equipment and wheel-balancing machines.
- Signal crane operator to lower basic assembly units to bedplate, and align unit to centerline.
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
14 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians
- Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics
- Bicycle Repairers
- Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers
- Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers
- Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers
- Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
- Millwrights
- Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines
- Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians
- Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners
- Rail Car Repairers
- Riggers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Position materials or components for assembly”. 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.