Direct operational or production activities
Little of this can be handed to software today.
The reporting and paperwork around management automate well. Directing, developing and evaluating people does not, and people do not accept it when it is attempted on them.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Managing, training and developing people |
| Jobs that do it | 25 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Enterprise platforms |
| O*NET activity | Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates (4.A.4.b.4) |
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.
- Develop or enforce procedures for normal operation of manufacturing systems.
- Stop production if serious product defects are present.
- Direct and coordinate the activities of employees engaged in the production or processing of goods, such as inspectors, machine setters, or fabricators.
- Direct welders to build up low spots or short pieces with weld.
- Supervise assemblers and train employees on job procedures.
- Direct or coordinate bakery deliveries.
- Supervise other butchers or meat cutters.
- Give directions to other workers who are assisting in the batchmaking process.
- Direct and train other workers to change rolls, operate mill equipment, remove coils and cobbles, and band and load material.
- Direct work crews in the cleaning and repair of furnace walls and flooring.
- Give directions to other workers regarding machine set-up and use.
- Control workflow scheduling or job tracking, using computer database software.
- Load articles into washers or dry-cleaning machines, or direct other workers to perform loading.
- Authorize actions to correct identified operational inefficiencies or hazards so that operating efficiency is maximized and potential environmental issues are minimized.
- Direct personnel engaged in controlling or operating distribution equipment or machinery, such as instructing control room operators to start boilers or generators.
- Supervise the work of assistant stationary engineers, turbine operators, boiler tenders, or air conditioning and refrigeration operators and mechanics.
- Direct and coordinate plant workers engaged in routine operations and maintenance activities.
- Direct workers engaged in operating machinery that regulates the flow of materials and products.
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.
Buy nothing. The reporting and paperwork around management run on whatever you already use for documents, and the part that is actually managing people does not automate at any price.
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.
Enterprise platforms
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
25 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Bakers
- Biofuels Processing Technicians
- Butchers and Meat Cutters
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Chemical Plant and System Operators
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Dental Laboratory Technicians
- First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
- Food Batchmakers
- Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders
- Gas Plant Operators
- Industrial Production Managers
- Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers
- Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
- Nuclear Power Reactor Operators
- Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers
- Power Distributors and Dispatchers
- Printing Press Operators
- Quality Control Systems Managers
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Team Assemblers
- Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Direct organizational operations, activities, or procedures”. 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.