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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8181

Glass and ceramics plant operators

Glass and ceramics plant operators monitor and operate kilns, furnaces and other machinery and equipment used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, porcelain, tiles or bricks. They operate machines to anneal, harden or decorate glass and ceramics. Tasks include - (a) operating and monitoring glass-making furnaces to make glass by melting and fusing pre-mixed ingredients; (b) tending hot- or cold-end spray equipment used to coat glassware with surface hardener; (c) operating and maintaining machines that press or blow molten glass into moulds to form or shape containers such as bottles, jars and drinking glasses; (d) operating hand presses to mould glass into required shape; (e) operating drawing kilns to process molten glass into continuous sheets of flat glass; (f) operating and monitoring floating-glass production plants; (g) operating and maintaining finishing machines to grind, drill, sand, bevel, decorate, wash or polish glass or glass products; (h) setting and operating press machines to mould ceramic articles from moist clay; (i) operating machines to mix clay with water to knead it into a suitable plastic condition or semi-liquid form for making ceramic products; (j) operating and monitoring kilns which bake pottery, porcelain ware, bricks and tiles; (k) operating and monitoring machines for making glaze or abrasives; (l) operating and monitoring machines which extrude molten glass to form fibreglass filaments; (m) observing finished products to identify splits, cracks, breaks, colour and other imperfections. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Brick kiln operator - Ceramics painting machine operator - Clay mixing machine operato3 - Extruding clay press operator - Furnace operator (glass production) - Glass blowing machine operator - Glass mixing machine operator - Glass production furnace operator - Pottery kiln operator - Tile kiln operator Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Brick and tile moulder - 7314 - Glass blower - 7315 - Glass cutter - 7315

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 103 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • glass polisher
  • fibre machine tender
  • dry press operator
  • drawing kiln operator
  • clay kiln burner
  • glass annealer
  • pottery and porcelain caster
  • auger press operator
  • kiln firer
  • brick and tile caster
  • glass forming 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.

82.6
Holds up
against AI
Not Exposed

AI could take on 17.4 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 17.4 = 82.6

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

70.8
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 9 US jobs , so treat it as rough

41.1
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.9 · hand skill 44.9 · cramped spaces 33.4 · 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 70.8 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 17.4. 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

    Observing finished products to identify splits, cracks, breaks, colour and other imperfections.

    Low
  2. 21.5

    Operating and monitoring floating-glass production plant

    Very Low
  3. 18

    Operating and monitoring glass-making furnaces to make glass by melting and fusing pre-mixed ingredients

    Very Low
  4. 17.3

    Operating drawing kiln to process molten glass into continuous sheet of flat glass

    Very Low
  5. 17.1

    Operating and monitoring machines for making glaze or abrasives

    Very Low
  6. 16.8

    Operating and monitoring machines which extrude molten glass to form fibreglass filaments

    Very Low
  7. 16.5

    Operating and monitoring kilns which bake pottery, porcelain ware bricks and tiles

    Very Low
  8. 15

    Operating and maintaining finishing machines to grind, drill, sand, bevel, decorate, wash or polish glass or glass products

    Very Low
  9. 14.6

    Tending hot- or cold-end spray equipment used to coat glassware with surface hardener

    Very Low
  10. 14.6

    Operating and maintaining machines that press or blow molten glass in moulds to form or shape containers, such as bottles, jars and drinking glasses

    Very Low
  11. 14.3

    Setting and operating press machines to mould ceramic articles from moist clay

    Very Low
  12. 13

    Operating machines to mix clay with water to knead it into a suitable plastic condition or semi-liquid form for making ceramic products

    Very Low
  13. 12.5

    Operating hand press to mould glass into required shape

    Very Low

13 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
23

Helping wins by 33 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

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.1. This one is above that.