Maintain mechanical 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 | 12 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Repairing and Maintaining Electronic Equipment (4.A.3.b.5) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 12 occupations that perform it.
- Maintain and repair materials, work sites, and equipment.
- Maintain and coordinate repair of marine machinery and equipment for installation on vessels.
- Wind parking meter clocks.
- Perform routine maintenance on delivery vehicles, such as monitoring fluid levels and replenishing fuel.
- Repair or replace defective pressure vessel parts, such as safety valves or regulators, using torches, jacks, caulking hammers, power saws, threading dies, welding equipment, or metalworking machinery.
- Perform routine maintenance or repairs to restore solar thermal systems to baseline operating conditions.
- Perform routine photovoltaic (PV) system maintenance on modules, arrays, batteries, power conditioning equipment, safety systems, structural systems, weather sealing, or balance of systems equipment.
- Assemble, install, repair, and maintain elevators, escalators, moving sidewalks, and dumbwaiters, using hand and power tools, and testing devices such as test lamps, ammeters, and voltmeters.
- Perform preventative maintenance on vehicles and heavy equipment.
- Repair or adjust track switches, using wrenches and replacement parts.
- Rotate cleaning rods manually, using turning pins.
- Dismantle and repair oil field machinery, boilers, and steam engine parts, using hand tools and power tools.
- Adjust safety controls, counterweights, door mechanisms, and components such as valves, ratchets, seals, and brake linings.
- Dress and reshape worn or damaged railroad switch points or frogs, using portable power grinders.
- Disassemble defective units, and repair or replace parts such as locks, gears, cables, and electric wiring.
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
12 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Boilermakers
- Couriers and Messengers
- Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors
- Highway Maintenance Workers
- Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
- Parking Enforcement Workers
- Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
- Roustabouts, Oil and Gas
- Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners
- Solar Photovoltaic Installers
- Solar Thermal Installers and Technicians
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Maintain tools or equipment”. 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.