Cut industrial materials in preparation for fabrication or processing
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 | 25 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 25 occupations that perform it.
- Cut, trim, file, bend, or smooth parts to ensure proper fit and clearance.
- Cut, strip, and bend wire leads at ends of coils, using pliers and wire scrapers.
- Lay out and drill, ream, tap, or cut parts for assembly.
- Cut, shape, and form metal parts, using lathes, power saws, snips, power brakes and shears, files, and mallets.
- Cut spouts, runner holes, and sprue holes into molds.
- Cut, shape, and trim blanks or blocks to specified lengths or shapes, using power saws, power shears, rules, and hand tools.
- Grind, cut, buff, or bend edges of workpieces to be joined to ensure snug fit, using power grinders and hand tools.
- Cut binder boards to specified dimensions, using board shears, hand cutters, or cutting machines.
- Draw and cut patterns according to specifications.
- Open cabinet doors to cut multifilament threadlines away from guides, using scissors.
- Cut timber to the right size, and shape and trim parts of joints to ensure a snug fit, using hand tools, such as planes, chisels, or wood files.
- Cut grooves, bevels, or miters, saw curved or irregular designs, and sever or shape metals, according to specifications or work orders.
- Cut, bend, or shape metal for applications in hydroelectric plants, using equipment such as hydraulic benders or pipe threaders.
- Cut, shape, and trim materials, such as textiles, food, glass, stone, and metal, using knives, scissors, and other hand tools, portable power tools, or bench-mounted tools.
- Cut stock manually to prepare for machine cutting, using tools such as knives, cleavers, handsaws, or hammers and chisels.
- Measure, mix, cut, shape, soften, and join materials and ingredients, such as powder, cornmeal, or rubber to prepare them for machine processing.
- Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
- Scribe or separate wafers into dice.
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
25 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
- Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters
- Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers
- Etchers and Engravers
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Foundry Mold and Coremakers
- Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers
- Hydroelectric Plant Technicians
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Model Makers, Metal and Plastic
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers
- Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Sewers, Hand
- Stone Cutters and Carvers, Manufacturing
- Tire Builders
- Tool and Die Makers
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Cut materials”. 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.