Cut tile, stone, or other masonry materials
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 | 8 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 8 occupations that perform it.
- Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw.
- Shape, trim, face and cut marble or stone preparatory to setting, using power saws, cutting equipment, and hand tools.
- Cut and shape tile to fit around obstacles and into odd spaces and corners, using hand and power cutting tools.
- Operate machines that clean or cut expansion joints in concrete or asphalt and that rout out cracks in pavement.
- Cut fixture or border tiles to size, using keyhole saws, and insert them into surrounding frameworks.
- Cut materials to specified sizes for installation, using power saws or tile cutters.
- Cut paving stones to size and for edges, using a splitter and a masonry saw.
- Cut slabs of stone into sheets that will be used for floors or counters.
- Smooth, polish, and bevel surfaces, using hand tools and power tools.
- Cut, surface, polish, and install marble and granite or install pre-cast terrazzo, granite or marble units.
- Scribe and cut edges of tile to fit walls where wall molding is not specified.
- Cut grooves along outlines, using chisels.
- Repair cracked or chipped areas of stone or marble, using blowtorch and mastic, and remove rough or defective spots from concrete, using power grinder or chisel and hammer.
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
8 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 “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.