Operate metal or plastic forming 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.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 16 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 16 occupations that perform it.
- Fabricate parts needed for assembly or installation, using shop machinery or equipment.
- Operate or tend wire-coiling machines to wind wire coils used in electrical components such as resistors and transformers, and in electrical equipment and instruments such as bobbins and generators.
- Set up and operate metalworking machines, such as milling or grinding machines, to shape or fabricate parts.
- Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion.
- Start machines to produce sample workpieces, and observe operations to detect machine malfunctions and to verify that machine setups conform to specifications.
- Adjust and correct machine set-ups to reduce thicknesses, reshape products, and eliminate product defects.
- Adjust ram strokes of presses to specified lengths, using hand tools.
- Adjust machine controls and change tool settings to keep dimensions within specified tolerances.
- Set up, adjust, or operate basic or specialized machine tools used to perform precision machining operations.
- Set up and operate machines, such as lathes, drill presses, punch presses, or bandsaws, to fabricate prototypes or models.
- Set up, operate, or tend metal or plastic molding, casting, or coremaking machines to mold or cast metal or thermoplastic parts or products.
- Select the proper coolants and lubricants and start their flow.
- Set up and operate conventional or computer numerically controlled machine tools such as lathes, milling machines, or grinders to cut, bore, grind, or otherwise shape parts to prescribed dimensions and finishes.
- Operate metal shaping, straightening, and bending machines, such as brakes and shears.
- Set up, operate, or tend machines that extrude and form filaments from synthetic materials such as rayon, fiberglass, or liquid polymers.
- Adjust machine components to regulate speeds, pressures, and temperatures, and amounts, dimensions, and flow of materials or ingredients.
- Set up or operate machines or systems to crimp, cut, bend, form, swage, flare, bead, burr, or straighten tubing, according to specifications.
- Adjust controls to draw or press metal into specified shapes and diameters.
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
16 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
- Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Machinists
- Model Makers, 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
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Tool and Die Makers
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate industrial processing or production 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.