Monitor equipment operation to ensure that products are not flawed
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 | 13 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings (4.A.1.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 13 occupations that perform it.
- Start machines, monitor their operations, and record operational data.
- Start lathe or turning machines and observe operations to ensure that specifications are met.
- Observe milling or planing machine operation, and adjust controls to ensure conformance with specified tolerances.
- Observe continuous operation of automatic machines to ensure that products meet specifications and to detect jams or malfunctions, making adjustments as necessary.
- Monitor the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion, or expansion of material.
- Operate presses to print proofs of plates, monitoring printing quality to ensure that it is adequate.
- Monitor factors such as temperatures and dye flow rates to ensure that they are within specified ranges.
- Monitor operation of machines and make adjustments to correct problems and ensure conformance to specifications.
- Monitor hydroelectric power plant equipment operation and performance, adjusting to performance specifications, as necessary.
- Monitor production operations or equipment to ensure conformance to specifications, making necessary process or assembly adjustments.
- Observe machine operations to ensure quality and conformity of filled or packaged products to standards.
- Monitor painting operations to identify flaws, such as blisters or streaks, and correct their causes.
- Monitor operation and adjust controls of processing machines and equipment to produce compositions with specific electronic properties, using computer terminals.
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
13 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Hydroelectric Plant Technicians
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
- Prepress Technicians and Workers
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Monitor equipment operation”. 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.