Load materials into production equipment.
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 | 40 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Performing General Physical Activities (4.A.3.a.1) |
What could do this work.
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.
Who does this work.
40 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders
- Bakers
- Biofuels Processing Technicians
- Biomass Plant Technicians
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators
- Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Food Batchmakers
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Helpers--Production Workers
- Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
- Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
- Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Pourers and Casters, Metal
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers
- Printing Press Operators
- Recycling and Reclamation Workers
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Sewing Machine Operators
- Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders
- Stone Cutters and Carvers, Manufacturing
- Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders
- Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Tire Builders
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
Work that goes with it.
O*NET groups these under “Load products, materials, or equipment for transportation or further processing”. 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.