Determine types of equipment, tools, or materials needed for jobs
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
Software can pull the data, run the comparison and write up what it found. The accuracy depends almost entirely on whether it is wired into the real system of record rather than a stale copy, which is the problem the tools and auth layer exists to solve.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Analysis and evaluation work |
| Jobs that do it | 8 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Builders, Tools and auth |
| O*NET activity | Making Decisions and Solving Problems (4.A.2.b.1) |
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.
- Evaluate remote sensing project requirements to determine the types of equipment or computer software necessary to meet project requirements, such as specific image types or output resolutions.
- Designate cables available for use.
- Determine feasibility of using standardized equipment or develop specifications for equipment required to perform additional functions.
- Inspect installation sites and study work orders, building plans, and installation manuals to determine materials requirements and installation procedures.
- Select appropriate tools, safety equipment, and parts, according to job requirements.
- Evaluate technical specifications to identify equipment or systems best suited for intended use and possible purchase, based on specifications, user needs, or technical requirements.
- Select gear, such as cables, pulleys, and winches, according to load weights and sizes, facilities, and work schedules.
- Identify equipment options, such as compressors, and make appropriate selections.
- Determine whether emergency or auxiliary systems will be needed to keep properties heated or cooled in extreme weather conditions.
- Determine the type of geothermal loop system most suitable to a specific property and its heating and cooling needs.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for analysis and evaluation work, and what it costs.
Start in the assistant with an export of the real data, because the accuracy problem here is a stale copy rather than a weak model. Make, at $9 a month, is the cheapest way to put the pull on a schedule once the analysis is worth repeating.
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.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
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.
- Automotive Glass Installers and Repairers
- Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment
- Geothermal Technicians
- Medical Equipment Repairers
- Remote Sensing Technicians
- Riggers
- Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers
- Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Determine resource needs of projects or operations”. 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.