Build production molds
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 | 7 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 7 occupations that perform it.
- Inspect, clean, and assemble molds before beginning work.
- Devise and construct tools, dies, molds, jigs, and fixtures, or modify existing tools and equipment.
- Position cores into lower sections of molds, and reassemble molds for pouring.
- Construct wooden models, patterns, templates, full scale mock-ups, and molds for parts of products and production tools.
- Construct wooden models, templates, full scale mock-ups, jigs, or molds for shaping parts of products.
- Construct preliminary models of wax, metal, clay, or plaster, and form sample castings in molds.
- Assemble, insert, and adjust wires, tubes, cores, fittings, rods, or patterns into molds, using hand tools and depth gauges.
- Form and assemble slab cores around patterns, and position wire in mold sections to reinforce molds, using hand tools and glue.
- Design and fabricate molds, models, and machine accessories, and modify hand tools used to cast metal and jewelry pieces.
- Construct or form molds for use in casting clay or plaster objects, using plaster, fiberglass, rubber, casting machines, patterns, or flasks.
- Tend machines that bond cope and drag together to form completed shell molds.
- Rotate sweep boards around spindles to make symmetrical molds for convex impressions.
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
7 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Assemble products or work aids”. 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.