Mark products, workpieces, or equipment with identifying information.
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 | 28 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events (4.A.1.b.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.
28 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
- Butchers and Meat Cutters
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers
- Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Helpers--Production Workers
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers
- Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers
- Model Makers, Wood
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Patternmakers, Wood
- Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
- Sewing Machine Operators
- Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
Work that goes with it.
O*NET groups these under “Mark materials or objects for identification”. 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.