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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8114

Cement, stone and other mineral products machine operators

Cement, stone and other mineral products machine operators monitor and operate machines for manufacturing and finishing precast concrete, bitumen and stone products, and making cast stone for building purposes. Tasks include - (a) operating extrusion, moulding, mixing, pumping, compacting, grinding and cutting machinery to manufacture and finish precast concrete and stone products; (b) operating plant to produce cement, lime and clinker, including loading and unloading ingredients and operating continuous feed equipment such as pumps and conveyors; (c) operating plant and machines which weigh and mix sand, gravel, cement, water and other ingredients to make concrete; (d) operating plant and machinery which assemble and fill moulds with concrete and artificial stone mixtures, remove castings from moulds and finish surfaces of precast products; (e) cutting, grinding, drilling, sandblasting and polishing concrete products and stone blocks, slabs and products to the specifications for the job; (f) checking production plans and specifications to determine and select materials, ingredients, procedures, components, settings and adjustments for extrusion, moulding, mixing and compacting machines; (g) monitoring plant and machines during operation by observing instruments such as temperature and pressure gauges, adjusting controls and reporting malfunctions as necessary; (h) collecting and examining samples of mixtures and finished products for conformity with specifications and adjusting machine settings accordingly; (i) checking and maintaining production records, including information about quantities, dimensions and types of materials and goods produced; (j) arranging and assisting with plant and machinery maintenance and repair. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Cast-concrete products machine operator - Cast-stone products machine operator - Concrete finishing machine opeerator - Concrete production machine operator - Industrial diamond polishing machine operator - Stone polishing machine operator Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Stone polisher (hand or hand-powered tools) - 7113 - Stone processing machine operator - 8112 - Kiln operator (brick, pottery or tiles)- 8181 - Extruding clay press operator - 8181 Note Examples of products produced by operators of plant and machines in this unit group include: mixed concrete for use in civil engineering and construction projects, flagstones, concrete bricks and tiles, fencing posts, moulded pipe sections and trench liners, concrete railway sleepers, walling and partition slabs, building components, cable conduits, fume and dust extraction conduits, abrasive wheels and outdoor furniture.

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 177 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • asphalt plant operator
  • precast moulder
  • block machine operator
  • concrete products machine operator
  • electrolytic cell maker
  • slate mixer
  • stone polisher
  • stone splitter

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

77.4
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 22.6 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 22.6 = 77.4

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

70.6
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 4 US jobs

45.2
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 46.4 · hand skill 44.6 · cramped spaces 44.6 · 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

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 70.6 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

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 49.8, while the average is 22.6. 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. 49.8

    Checking and maintaining production records, including information about quantities, dimensions and types of materials and goods produced

    Low
  2. 29.8

    Checking production plans and specifications to determine and select materials, ingredients, procedures, components, settings and adjustments for extrusion, moulding, mixing and compacting machines

    Low
  3. 28

    Collecting and examining samples of mixtures and finished products for conformity to specifications and adjusting machine settings accordingly

    Low
  4. 25.8

    Monitoring plant and machines during operation by observing instruments such as temperature and pressure gauges, and adjusting controls and reporting malfunctions as necessary

    Low
  5. 18.5

    Operating plant to produce cement, lime and clinker, including loading and unloading ingredients and operating continuous feed equipment such as pumps and conveyors

    Very Low
  6. 16

    Operating extrusion, moulding, mixing, pumping, compacting, grinding and cutting machinery to manufacture and finish precast concrete and stone products

    Very Low
  7. 16

    Operating plant and machinery which assembles and fills moulds with concrete and artificial stone mixtures, removes castings from moulds and finishes surfaces of precast products

    Very Low
  8. 15.4

    Arranging and assisting with plant and machinery maintenance and repair.

    Very Low
  9. 14.5

    Operating plant and machines which weigh and mix sand, gravel, cement, water and other ingredients to make concrete

    Very Low
  10. 12.8

    Cutting, grinding, drilling, sandblasting and polishing concrete products and stone blocks, slabs and products to the specifications for the job

    Very Low

10 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.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
57.5
AI does it for you
28

Helping wins by 29.5 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7111, 7129

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.2. This one is below that.