Measure dimensions of completed products or workpieces to verify conformance to specifications.
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
Software can pull the data, run the comparison and write up what it found. The accuracy depends almost entirely on whether it is wired into the real system of record rather than a stale copy, which is the problem the tools and auth layer exists to solve.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Analysis and evaluation work |
| Jobs that do it | 50 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Builders, Tools and auth, Memory and knowledge, Generalist agents |
| O*NET activity | Estimating the Quantifiable Characteristics of Products, Events, or Information (4.A.1.b.3) |
What could do this work.
These are the categories of tool that address analysis and evaluation work, with a few live examples from our landscape. We name the category rather than promise that a specific product does your specific task, because that promise would not be true.
Builders
Tools and auth
Memory and knowledge
Generalist agents
Categories are matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Before committing to any of them, check that the tool can reach the system your record actually lives in. That connection, not the model, is where most of these projects stall.
Who does this work.
50 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
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
- Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters
- Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
- Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Gem and Diamond Workers
- Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Machinists
- Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Model Makers, Wood
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Patternmakers, Wood
- Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Potters, Manufacturing
- Prepress Technicians and Workers
- Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Sewers, Hand
- Sewing Machine Operators
- Stone Cutters and Carvers, Manufacturing
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Tool and Die Makers
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- 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 “Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, 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.