Which jobs involve operate cutting equipment?

19 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity, including Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers, Bakers, Cutters and Trimmers, Hand, Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic.

What kind of work is this?

It is physical, manual and inspection work. O*NET files it under the work activity "Controlling Machines and Processes" (element 4.A.3.a.3).

Operate cutting 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.

Key facts about this work activity
How automatable	Barely automatable
Kind of work	Physical, manual and inspection work
Jobs that do it	19 occupations
Tool categories that apply	None
O*NET activity	Controlling Machines and Processes (4.A.3.a.3)

What this looks like on the job

Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 19 occupations that perform it.

Set up or operate machines or systems to crimp, cut, bend, form, swage, flare, bead, burr, or straighten tubing, according to specifications.
Set up and operate fabricating machines, such as brakes, rolls, shears, flame cutters, grinders, and drill presses, to bend, cut, form, punch, drill, or otherwise form and assemble metal components.
Operate slicing or wrapping machines.
Operate shearing mechanisms to cut rods to specified lengths.
Set up, operate, or tend presses and forging machines to perform hot or cold forging by flattening, straightening, bending, cutting, piercing, or other operations to taper, shape, or form metal.
Activate shears and grinders to trim workpieces.
Set up, operate, or tend machines to saw, cut, shear, slit, punch, crimp, notch, bend, or straighten metal or plastic material.
Activate machine start-up switches to grind, lap, hone, debar, shear, or cut workpieces, according to specifications.
Start lathe or turning machines and observe operations to ensure that specifications are met.
Machine parts to specifications, using machine tools, such as lathes, milling machines, shapers, or grinders.
Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, drill presses, punch presses, or bandsaws, to fabricate prototypes or models.
Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, cutters, shears, borers, millers, grinders, presses, drills, or auxiliary machines, to make metallic and plastic workpieces.
Prepare metal surfaces or workpieces, using hand-operated equipment, such as grinders, cutters, or drills.
Set up or operate auxiliary equipment, such as cutting, folding, plate-making, drilling, or laminating machines.
Set up, operate, and adjust a variety of woodworking machines such as bandsaws and planers to cut and shape sections, parts, and patterns, according to specifications.
Guide workpieces against saws, saw over workpieces by hand, or operate automatic feeding devices to guide cuts.
Route items to provide cutouts for parts, using portable routers, grinders, and hand tools.
Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut or slice materials, such as glass, stone, cork, rubber, tobacco, food, paper, or insulating material.

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.

Our pickBuy nothing

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.

Research an account firstGenerate a one-page account brief before every call so you spend the meeting on what matters, not what Google already knows.Sales · 8 steps Answer inbound leads in a minuteAcknowledge every form submission in under sixty seconds and ask one qualifying question while you sleep.Sales · 9 steps

Who does this work

19 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.

Work that goes with it

O*NET groups these under “Operate cutting or grinding equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.

Related work activities
Activity	Jobs
Operate grinding equipment	31
Operate woodworking equipment	4
Operate textile cutting or production equipment	3

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.