AI exposure: Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines, such as glass-forming machines, plodder machines, and tuber machines, to shape and form products such as glassware, food, rubber, soap, brick, tile, clay, wax, tobacco, or cosmetics.
Reading this score
computedAt 19.7% of weighted task load, Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders sits at the 34th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 70.8% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 26 tasks it averages 2.55 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Record and maintain production data, at 73.3%. The least is Install, align, and adjust neck rings, press plungers, and feeder tubes, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within production occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 107 roles in the group is 16.1%, and only 32 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 26 tasks, 7 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 19 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.97 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.55 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.16 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.31 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.86 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.76 | 0-3 |
Task by task
26 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record and maintain production data, such as meter readings, and quantities, types, and dimensions of materials produced. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.38 | exposed |
| Send product samples to laboratories for analysis. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 4.30 | exposed |
| Notify supervisors when extruded filaments fail to meet standards. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.39 | exposed |
| Review work orders, specifications, or instructions to determine materials, ingredients, procedures, components, settings, and adjustments for extruding, forming, pressing, or compacting machines. | 37.6% | 20.7% | 41.7% | 4.36 | exposed |
| Complete work tickets, and place them with products. | 35.0% | 15.0% | 50.0% | 3.91 | exposed |
| Turn controls to adjust machine functions, such as regulating air pressure, creating vacuums, and adjusting coolant flow. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.33 | exposed |
| Monitor machine operations and observe lights and gauges to detect malfunctions. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.45 | exposed |
| Adjust machine components to regulate speeds, pressures, and temperatures, and amounts, dimensions, and flow of materials or ingredients. | 27.8% | 13.9% | 58.3% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Select and install machine components, such as dies, molds, and cutters, according to specifications, using hand tools and measuring devices. | 25.0% | 12.5% | 62.5% | 4.37 | untouched |
| Press control buttons to activate machinery and equipment. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.52 | untouched |
| Synchronize speeds of sections of machines when producing products involving several steps or processes. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.18 | untouched |
| Activate machines to shape or form products, such as candy bars, light bulbs, balloons, or insulation panels. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 4.49 | untouched |
| Examine, measure, and weigh materials or products to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as templates, micrometers, or scales. | 5.6% | 2.8% | 91.7% | 4.51 | untouched |
| Measure, mix, cut, shape, soften, and join materials and ingredients, such as powder, cornmeal, or rubber to prepare them for machine processing. | 5.4% | 3.0% | 91.7% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Clear jams, and remove defective or substandard materials or products. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Clean dies, arbors, compression chambers, and molds, using swabs, sponges, or air hoses. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Move materials, supplies, components, and finished products between storage and work areas, using work aids such as racks, hoists, and handtrucks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Couple air and gas lines to machines to maintain plasticity of material and to regulate solidification of final products. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Pour, scoop, or dump specified ingredients, metal assemblies, or mixtures into sections of machine prior to starting machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.06 | untouched |
| Remove materials or products from molds or from extruding, forming, pressing, or compacting machines, and stack or store them for additional processing. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.02 | untouched |
| Feed products into machines by hand or conveyor. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.01 | untouched |
| Measure arbors and dies to verify sizes specified on work tickets. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Disassemble equipment to repair it or to replace parts, such as nozzles, punches, and filters. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Remove molds, mold components, and feeder tubes from machinery after production is complete. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Swab molds with solutions to prevent products from sticking. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.88 | untouched |
| Install, align, and adjust neck rings, press plungers, and feeder tubes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.23 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.