Test products for functionality or quality
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 | Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials (4.A.1.b.2) |
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.
- Investigate or test vendors' or competitors' products.
- Develop or perform operational, maintenance, or testing procedures for electronic products, components, equipment, or systems.
- Test selected products at specified stages in the production process for performance characteristics or adherence to specifications.
- Assist engineers to design, develop, test, or manufacture industrial machinery, consumer products, or other equipment.
- Improve fuel efficiency by testing vehicles or components that use lighter materials, such as aluminum, magnesium alloy, or plastic.
- Test new food products and equipment.
- Conduct pressure tests on vessels, such as boilers.
- Test combustible appliances, such as gas appliances.
- Fabricate, install, position, or connect components, parts, finished products, or instruments for testing or operational purposes.
- Set up prototype and test apparatus and operate test controlling equipment to observe and record prototype test results.
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.
- Automotive Engineering Technicians
- Boilermakers
- Dietitians and Nutritionists
- Electrical Engineers
- Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
- Industrial Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Weatherization Installers and Technicians
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Test characteristics of materials or products”. 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.