Troubleshoot equipment or systems operation problems
Little of this can be handed to software today.
Software can assemble the case and recommend an answer, and that is genuinely useful. The decision stays with a person because someone has to be accountable for it. Treating the recommendation as the decision is how automation projects fail.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Judgment, authorisation and strategy |
| Jobs that do it | 14 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Generalist agents, Models and routing |
| O*NET activity | Making Decisions and Solving Problems (4.A.2.b.1) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 14 occupations that perform it.
- Troubleshoot problems with audio-visual equipment.
- Diagnose problems with installed equipment.
- Diagnose and correct problems from remote locations, using special switchboards to find the sources of problems.
- Test and troubleshoot instruments, components, and assemblies, using circuit testers, oscilloscopes, or voltmeters.
- Accompany aircraft on flights to make in-flight adjustments and corrections.
- Troubleshoot fuel, ignition, and emissions control systems, using electronic testing equipment.
- Diagnose and repair vehicle heating and cooling systems.
- Diagnose faults or malfunctions to determine required repairs, using engine diagnostic equipment such as computerized test equipment and calibration devices.
- Troubleshoot equipment, electrical components, hydraulics, or other mechanical systems.
- Diagnose mechanical problems and determine how to correct them, checking blueprints, repair manuals, or parts catalogs, as necessary.
- Troubleshoot or repair mechanical, hydraulic, or electrical malfunctions related to variable pitch systems, variable speed control systems, converter systems, or related components.
- Identify and correct malfunctions of geothermal plant equipment, electrical systems, instrumentation, or controls.
- Diagnose or troubleshoot problems with gas collection systems.
- Analyze problems and take appropriate action to ensure continuous and reliable operation of equipment and systems.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for judgment, authorisation and strategy, and what it costs.
There is nothing here worth buying beyond a good assistant. Software assembles the case and recommends an answer, which any $20 assistant already does; the decision is yours, and no product on this page changes that.
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.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Generalist agents
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
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
14 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians
- Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics
- Avionics Technicians
- Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
- Geothermal Technicians
- Librarians and Media Collections Specialists
- Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
- Millwrights
- Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines
- Power Plant Operators
- Sales Engineers
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
- Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers
- Wind Turbine Service Technicians
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Diagnose system or equipment problems”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Diagnose equipment malfunctions | 9 |
| Determine causes of operational problems or failures | 5 |
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.