Which jobs involve maintain inventories of materials, equipment, or products?

61 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity, including Adapted Physical Education Specialists, Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians, Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary, Audio and Video Technicians, Bailiffs.

What kind of work is this?

It is scheduling, planning and resource control. O*NET files it under the work activity "Monitoring and Controlling Resources" (element 4.A.4.c.3).

Maintain inventories of materials, equipment, or products

Part of the output can be produced by software today.

An agent can propose the plan, chase the replies and keep the record current. To actually change anything it needs write access to a calendar or work system, and a person still owns the tradeoffs when two plans collide.

Key facts about this work activity
How automatable	Partly automatable
Kind of work	Scheduling, planning and resource control
Jobs that do it	61 occupations
Tool categories that apply	Tools and auth, Builders
O*NET activity	Monitoring and Controlling Resources (4.A.4.c.3)

What this looks like on the job

Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 61 occupations that perform it.

Authorize release of fuel cell parts, components, or subsystems for production.
Maintain inventories of robotic production supplies, such as sensors or cables.
Monitor inventory levels and order supplies as necessary.
Purchase and maintain equipment to support research projects.
Select, order, and maintain materials and supplies for teaching and research, such as textbooks, chemicals, and laboratory equipment.
Acquire, maintain, and repair laboratory equipment and tools.
Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
Select, store, order, issue, inventory, and maintain classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
Control the inventory or distribution of classroom equipment, materials, or supplies.
Maintain inventory of instructional equipment, materials, or aids.
Restock teaching materials or supplies.
Establish specifications for reproductions and oversee their manufacture or select items from commercially available replica sources.
Keep up-to-date records of circulation and materials, maintain inventory, and correct cataloging errors.
Claim missing issues of periodicals and journals.
Requisition and stock teaching materials and supplies.
Purchase new or used clothing and accessory items as needed to complete designs.
Order and purchase flowers and supplies from wholesalers and growers.
Select or design, and purchase furnishings, art work, and accessories.

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 scheduling, planning and resource control, and what it costs.

Our pickFrom $9/mo · nothing else needed

MakeStart hereVisual scenario builder over 3,000-plus apps, materially cheaper than Zapier at volume.From $9/mo

Scheduling is a connector problem rather than an intelligence one, and $9 a month of Make covers both the calendar and the chasing. An agent platform priced per seat adds nothing you would notice here.

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.

Tools and auth

Free tier

Free tier

Custom

Free tier

Builders

Free self-host

From $29.99/mo

From $19.99/mo

From $29/mo

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.

Propose times and chase repliesAgent proposes meeting times, sends follow-ups, and confirms bookings while you focus on the actual meetings.Operations · 8 steps Chase unpaid invoicesYour aged debtors report becomes a queue of drafted emails you approve once, then the agent sends and follows up on schedule.Money · 8 steps

Who does this work

61 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.

Showing 60 of 61.

Work that goes with it

O*NET groups these under “Replenish inventories of materials, equipment, or products”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.

Related work activities
Activity	Jobs
Maintain inventory of medical supplies or equipment	16
Maintain supply or equipment inventories	11
Manage inventories of products or organizational resources	6
Maintain food, beverage, or equipment inventories	5
Maintain the inventory of equipment	4

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.