Perform basic equipment maintenance
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 | 9 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment (4.A.3.b.4) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 9 occupations that perform it.
- Perform minor repairs or make adjustments to slot machines, resolving problems such as machine tilts and coin jams.
- Perform regular maintenance tasks, such as rotating or replacing xenon bulbs, cleaning projectors and lenses, lubricating machinery, and keeping electrical contacts clean and tight.
- Arrange funeral home equipment and perform general maintenance.
- Maintain fitness equipment.
- Perform preventative maintenance or minor repairs on meters.
- Clean and lubricate bicycle parts.
- Repair machines, equipment, or structures, using tools such as hammers, hoists, saws, drills, wrenches, or equipment such as precision measuring instruments or electrical or electronic testing devices.
- Refill, change, and monitor the level of fluids, such as oil and coolant, in machines.
- Perform preventative maintenance or minor repairs on machines.
- Perform minor repairs, such as replacing worn sprockets, or notify maintenance personnel of the need for major repairs.
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
9 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Bicycle Repairers
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers
- Embalmers
- Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors
- First-Line Supervisors of Gambling Services Workers
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
- Meter Readers, Utilities
- Motion Picture Projectionists
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Maintain facilities 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.