Collect samples of materials or products for testing
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 | 18 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 18 occupations that perform it.
- Collect product samples and prepare them for laboratory analysis or testing.
- Take product samples during or after processing for laboratory analyses.
- Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.
- Draw smelted metal samples from furnaces or kettles for analysis, and calculate types and amounts of materials needed to ensure that materials meet specifications.
- Collect samples, or signal workers to sample metal for analysis.
- Collect and inspect random samples during print runs to identify any necessary adjustments.
- Collect oil, water, or electrolyte samples for laboratory analysis.
- Collect and test water and sewage samples, using test equipment and color analysis standards.
- Draw samples of products and conduct quality control tests to monitor processing and to ensure that standards are met.
- Collect product samples by turning bleeder valves, or by lowering containers into tanks to obtain oil samples.
- Collect biofuels samples and perform routine laboratory tests or analyses to assess biofuels quality.
- Draw samples of products at specified stages so that analyses can be performed.
- Collect samples of materials or products for laboratory analysis.
- Collect samples of materials or products for laboratory testing.
- Collect or select samples for testing or for use as models.
- Draw samples for laboratory analysis, or test solutions for conformance to specifications, such as acidity or specific gravity.
- Sample and test product characteristics such as specific gravity, acidity, and sugar content, using hydrometers, pH meters, or refractometers.
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
18 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Biofuels Processing Technicians
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Chemical Plant and System Operators
- Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
- Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers
- Pourers and Casters, Metal
- Power Plant Operators
- Printing Press Operators
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators
- Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Collect samples of products or materials”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Collect samples for analysis or testing | 7 |
| Collect samples of raw materials or finished products | 4 |
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.