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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3122

Manufacturing supervisors

Manufacturing supervisors coordinate and supervise the activities of process control technicians, machine operators, assemblers, and other manufacturing labourers. Tasks include - (a) coordinating and supervising the activities of process control technicians, machine operators, assemblers and other manufacturing labourers; (b) organizing and planning the daily work with regard to plans, economy, staff and environment; (c) preparing cost estimates, records and reports; (d) identifying shortage of staff or components; (e) ensuring safety of workers; (f) instructing and training new staff. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Area coordinator (manufacturing) - Assembly supervisor - Finishing supervisor - Production supervisor (manufacturing) Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Manufacturing manager - 1321

A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't. It ranks 272 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • dairy processing technician
  • waste management supervisor
  • industrial assembly supervisor
  • production supervisor
  • food production planner

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

65.3
Holds up
against AI Minimal Exposure

AI could take on 34.7 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 34.7 = 65.3

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

57.3
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

43.2
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 42.9 · hand skill 41.1 · cramped spaces 45.5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 57.3 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, and for work like this robots are the bigger question.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 59, while the average is 34.7. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 59

    Preparing cost estimates, records and reports

    Medium
  2. 38.5

    Organizing and planning the daily work with regard to plans, economy, staff and environment

    Low
  3. 36.3

    Instructing and training new staff.

    Low
  4. 26.5

    Co-ordinating and supervising the activities of process control technicians, machine operators, assemblers and other manufacturing labourers

    Low
  5. 24

    Identifying shortage of staff or components

    Very Low
  6. 24

    Ensuring safety of workers

    Very Low

6 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
72
AI does it for you
42

Helping wins by 30 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 1335

Compared with similar jobs

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” group, averaging 65.4. This one is below that.