Inspect finished products to locate flaws
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 | 10 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials (4.A.1.b.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 10 occupations that perform it.
- Inspect final compositions to ensure completeness and accuracy.
- Inspect electronic equipment, instruments, products, or systems to ensure conformance to specifications, safety standards, or applicable codes or regulations.
- Recommend resolution of identified deviations from established product or process standards.
- Create checklists for review or inspection of completed solar installation projects.
- Inspect parts for surface defects.
- Inspect or test parts to determine nature or cause of defects or malfunctions.
- Verify part dimensions or clearances using precision measuring instruments to ensure conformance to specifications.
- Visually examine materials, structures, or components for signs of corrosion, metal fatigue, cracks, or other flaws, using tools and equipment such as endoscopes, closed-circuit television systems, and fiber optics.
- Inspect lens blanks to detect flaws, verify smoothness of surface, and ensure thickness of coating on lenses.
- Examine completed work to detect defects and verify conformance to work orders, and adjust machinery as necessary to correct production problems.
- Verify part dimensions or clearances to ensure conformance to specifications, using precision measuring instruments.
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
10 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Automotive Engineering Technicians
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians
- Cartographers and Photogrammetrists
- Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians
- Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
- Non-Destructive Testing Specialists
- Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Solar Energy Systems Engineers
- Validation Engineers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Inspect completed work or finished products”. 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.