Assemble equipment or components
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 | 9 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 9 occupations that perform it.
- Assemble and modify existing pieces of equipment to meet special needs.
- Construct and maintain test facilities for aircraft parts and systems, according to specifications.
- Assemble electrical systems or prototypes, using hand tools or measuring instruments.
- Align, fit, or assemble component parts, using hand or power tools, fixtures, templates, or microscopes.
- Attach wires between controllers.
- Assemble components, using techniques such as interference fitting, solvent bonding, adhesive bonding, heat sealing, or ultrasonic welding.
- Assemble or disassemble complex mechanical systems.
- Design, build, or modify fixtures used to assemble parts.
- Assemble, typeset, scan, and produce digital camera-ready art or film negatives and printer's proofs.
- Assemble, test, or maintain circuitry or electronic components, according to engineering instructions, technical manuals, or knowledge of electronics, using hand or power tools.
- Fabricate or assemble mechanical, electrical, or electronic components or assemblies.
- Align, fit, or assemble components, using hand tools, power tools, fixtures, templates, or microscopes.
- Construct and evaluate electrical components for consumer electronics applications such as fuel cells for consumer electronic devices, power saving devices for computers or televisions, or energy efficient power chargers.
- Build or assemble robotic devices or systems.
- Make repairs to robots or peripheral equipment, such as replacement of defective circuit boards, sensors, controllers, encoders, or servomotors.
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
9 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians
- Computer Hardware Engineers
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians
- Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Nanotechnology Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Photonics Technicians
- Robotics Technicians
- Special Effects Artists and Animators
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Assemble equipment or components”. 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.