Maintain work equipment or machinery
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 | 23 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 23 occupations that perform it.
- Apply safety tags to equipment needing maintenance.
- Create or maintain inclines or ramps.
- Perform skilled repair or maintenance operations, using equipment such as hand or power tools, hydraulic presses or shears, or welding equipment.
- Fill machines with toners, inks, or other duplicating fluids.
- Perform maintenance or repair work on existing tower equipment, using hand or power tools.
- Clean and maintain tools, test equipment, and motor vehicles.
- Perform scheduled preventive maintenance tasks, such as checking, cleaning, or repairing equipment, to detect and prevent problems.
- Adjust, maintain, and repair or replace subassemblies, such as transmissions and crawler heads, using hand tools, jacks, and cranes.
- Repair and maintain gasoline engines used to power equipment such as portable saws, lawn mowers, generators, and compressors.
- Repair or maintain the operating condition of industrial production or processing machinery or equipment.
- Conduct preventative maintenance and repair, and lubricate machines and equipment.
- Clean or maintain tools or test equipment.
- Perform preventive maintenance or service, such as cleaning, lubricating, or adjusting equipment.
- Perform regular adjustment and maintenance on timepieces, watch cases, and watch bands.
- Maintain or repair specialized equipment or machinery located in cafeterias, laundries, hospitals, stores, offices, or factories.
- Perform routine maintenance on wind turbine equipment, underground transmission systems, wind fields substations, or fiber optic sensing and control systems.
- Fill machines with products, ingredients, money, and other supplies.
- Check and maintain diving equipment, such as helmets, masks, air tanks, harnesses, or gauges.
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
23 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers
- Commercial Divers
- Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers
- Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining
- First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers
- Geothermal Technicians
- Helpers--Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Workers
- Industrial Machinery Mechanics
- Light Truck Drivers
- Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
- Medical Equipment Repairers
- Millwrights
- Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines
- Motorboat Operators
- Nuclear Technicians
- Outdoor Power Equipment and Other Small Engine Mechanics
- Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairers
- Signal and Track Switch Repairers
- Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers
- Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers
- Watch and Clock Repairers
- Wind Turbine Service 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.