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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8151

Fibre preparing, spinning and winding machine operators

Fibre preparing, spinning and winding machine operators monitor and operate machines which prepare fibres, and spin, double, twist and wind yarn and thread from natural textile fibres. They twist two or more strands of yarn to prepare single stronger, smoother, uniform and heavier strands, and treat textiles to make them stiff and water resistant. Tasks include - (a) operating and monitoring machines for tearing woollen rags into fibre; (b) operating and monitoring machines for cleaning and turning woollen yarn waste into fluffed wool; (c) operating and monitoring machines which combine textile fibres into uniform blends; (d) operating and monitoring machines which clean and fluff textile fibres, transform them into sliver, comb them into sliver for first drawing, combine slivers into sliver lap or sliver laps into ribbon lap; (e) operating draw frames (machines) having numbers of drawing sets, each set combining several slivers into one of nearly the same weight and thickness as any of the original slivers; (f) operating and monitoring machines which spin thread and yarn from roving, wind two or more threads onto a bobbin, twist two or more strands of yarn or thread into single strands of yarn to increase strength, smoothness and/or uniformity of yarn, or wind yarn or thread from one package to another; (g) operating and monitoring spinning frames that draw out and twist roving or sliver into yarn; (h) operating and monitoring machines for drawing slivers received from drawing machines into loosely twisted strands; (i) preparing sizing for use in stiffening and finishing cloth and yarn by mixing ingredients such as starch, tallow, resins and soaps with water and boiling mixture for specified times in steam; (j) treating textiles with chemicals to make them water resistant; (k) cleaning rollers and cylinders of carding machines to remove wool waste; (l) operating and resurfacing metal drawing rolls of various spinning, combing and lapping machines with new rubber or leather covers. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Fibre combing machine operator - Fibre preparing machine operator - Thread and yarn spinning machine operator - Thread and yarn twisting machine operator - Thread and yarn winding machine operator

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 80 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • spinning textile technician
  • cotton gin operator
  • spinning machine operator
  • winding machine operator

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

84.5
Holds up
against AI
Not Exposed

AI could take on 15.5 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 15.5 = 84.5

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

53.9
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

41
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 53.6 · hand skill 48.3 · cramped spaces 21 · 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 53.9 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 18, while the average is 15.5. 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. 18

    Operating and monitoring machines which combine textile fibres into uniform blends

    Very Low
  2. 17

    Operating and monitoring machines for cleaning and turning woollen yarn waste into fluffed wool

    Very Low
  3. 16.8

    Operating and monitoring spinning frame that draws out and twists roving or sliver into yarn

    Very Low
  4. 16.5

    Operating and monitoring machines which clean and fluff textile fibres, transform them into sliver, comb them into sliver for first drawing, combine slivers into sliver lap or sliver laps into ribbon lap

    Very Low
  5. 16.5

    Operating and monitoring machines for drawing slivers received from drawing machine into loosely twisted strands

    Very Low
  6. 16.3

    Operating and monitoring machines which spin thread and yarn from roving, wind two or more threads onto bobbin, twist two or more strands of yarn or thread into single strands of yarn to increase strength, smoothness and/or uniformity of yarn, or wind yarn or thread from one package to another

    Very Low
  7. 15.5

    Operating and resurfacing metal drawing rolls of various spinning, combing and lapping machines with new rubber or leather covers.

    Very Low
  8. 15.1

    Operating and monitoring machines for tearing woollen rags into fibre

    Very Low
  9. 15

    Preparing sizing for use in stiffening and finishing cloth and yarn by mixing ingredients such as starch, tallow, resins, soaps with water and boiling mixture for specified time in steam

    Very Low
  10. 14.6

    Operating draw frame (machine) having number of drawing sets, each set combining several slivers into one of nearly same weight and thickness as any of original sliver

    Very Low
  11. 13.8

    Treating textiles with chemicals to make them water resistant

    Very Low
  12. 11

    Cleaning rollers and cylinders of carding machines to remove wool waste

    Very Low

12 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, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
56
AI does it for you
24

Helping wins by 32 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7117

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80. This one is above that.