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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8131

Chemical products plant and machine operators

Chemical products plant and machine operators monitor and operate units and machinery to blend, mix, process and package a wide range of chemical products. Tasks include - (a) setting up, starting, controlling, adjusting and stopping machines and plant; (b) monitoring reaction processes and transfers of products in conformity with safety procedures; (c) monitoring meters, gauges and electronic instrumentation on one or more chemical or formulation units, such as mixers, kettles, blenders, dryers, or tabletting, encapsulation, granulation and coating machines; (d) measuring, weighing and loading chemical ingredients following formulation cards; (e) making samples and performing routine chemical and physical tests of products and recording production data; (f) cleaning and performing minor repairs to machines and plant. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Candle production machine operator - Explosive products machine operator - Pharmaceutical and toiletry products machine operator Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Chemical processing plant controller - 3133 - Petroleum and natural gas refining plant operator - 3134

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 191 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • gauger
  • dry house attendant
  • granulator machine operator
  • nonwoven filament machine operator
  • plodder operator
  • soap tower operator
  • capsule filling machine operator
  • perfume production machine operator
  • coking furnace operator
  • chemical mixer
  • soap maker
  • nitrator operator
  • fermenter operator
  • nitroglycerin separator operator
  • cosmetics production machine operator
  • pill maker operator
  • mine control room operator
  • lime kiln operator
  • distillation operator
  • wax bleacher
  • nitroglycerin neutraliser

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

75.6
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 24.4 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 24.4 = 75.6

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

67.6
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 6 US jobs

44.5
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 45.3 · hand skill 45.3 · cramped spaces 43 · 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 67.6 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 34.5, while the average is 24.4. 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. 34.5

    Making samples and performing routine chemical and physical tests of products and recording production data

    Low
  2. 29.5

    Monitoring reaction processes and transfers of products in conformity with safety procedures

    Low
  3. 27.5

    Monitoring meters, gauges and electronic instrumentation on one or more chemical or formulation units, such as mixers, kettles, blenders, dryers, tabletting, encapsulation, granulation and coating machines

    Low
  4. 21

    Measuring, weighing and loading chemical ingredients following formulation cards

    Very Low
  5. 19.5

    Setting up, starting, controlling, adjusting and stopping machines and plant

    Very Low
  6. 14.5

    Cleaning and performing minor repairs to machines and plant.

    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.

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

AI helps you
59.5
AI does it for you
29

Helping wins by 30.5 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7119, 7129

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.3. This one is below that.