Operate pumping systems or 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 | 17 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 17 occupations that perform it.
- Set temperature and time controls, light ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and start equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps.
- Fill processing or cooking containers, such as kettles, rotating cookers, pressure cookers, or vats, with ingredients, by opening valves, by starting pumps or injectors, or by hand.
- Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps.
- Start metering pumps and observe operation of machines and equipment to ensure continuous flow of filaments extruded through spinnerettes and to detect processing defects.
- Start or stop generators, auxiliary pumping equipment, turbines, or other power plant equipment as necessary.
- Operate valves, pumps, engines, or generators to control and adjust production of biofuels or biomass-fueled power.
- Operate hydroelectric plant equipment, such as turbines, pumps, valves, gates, fans, electric control boards, or battery banks.
- Operate or tend stationary engines, boilers, and auxiliary equipment, such as pumps, compressors, or air-conditioning equipment, to supply and maintain steam or heat for buildings, marine vessels, or pneumatic tools.
- Start pumps to wash and rinse reactor vessels, to exhaust gases or vapors, to regulate the flow of oil, steam, air, or perfume to towers, or to add products to converter or blending vessels.
- Control or operate manifold and pumping systems to circulate liquids through a petroleum refinery.
- Operate valves, pumps, engines, or generators to control and adjust biofuels production.
- Open valves or start pumps, agitators, reactors, blowers, or automatic feed of materials.
- Turn valves or move controls to admit, drain, separate, filter, clarify, mix, or transfer materials.
- Tend accessory equipment, such as pumps and conveyors, to move materials or ingredients through production processes.
- Stop mixing or blending machines when specified product qualities are obtained and open valves and start pumps to transfer mixtures.
- Set controls to regulate temperature and length of cycles, and start conveyors, pumps, agitators, and machines.
- Start machinery, such as pumps, feeders, or conveyors, and turn valves to heat, admit, or transfer products, refrigerants, or mixes.
- Control or maintain auxiliary equipment, such as pumps, fans, compressors, condensers, feedwater heaters, filters, or chlorinators, to supply water, fuel, lubricants, air, or auxiliary power.
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
17 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Biofuels Processing Technicians
- Biomass Plant Technicians
- Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Chemical Plant and System Operators
- Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
- Food Batchmakers
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Hydroelectric Plant Technicians
- Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers
- Power Plant Operators
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate pumping systems or equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Control pumps or pumping equipment | 11 |
| Operate pumps or compressors | 7 |
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.