Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders

Operate or tend equipment such as cooling and freezing units, refrigerators, batch freezers, and freezing tunnels, to cool or freeze products, food, blood plasma, and chemicals.

The occupation "Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders" has an automation risk of 61.8%, which is slightly below its base risk of 62.5%. This moderate risk level is primarily due to the routine and repetitive nature of many core job tasks that are highly susceptible to automation. For example, tasks such as recording temperatures, tracking materials processed, and documenting test results are administrative and data entry functions that can be readily handled by computerized systems. Additionally, monitoring gauges and adjusting controls to maintain specific operational conditions can be managed by automated feedback and control systems, reducing the need for human oversight. Similarly, reading dials or gauges and making adjustments based on readings can be integrated into programmable logic controllers, further increasing the automatable aspects of the occupation. However, the automation risk is not higher because several essential duties are more resistant to full automation. Tasks like manually stirring material to ensure even cooling and prevent coagulation require nuanced judgment and dexterity that current robotic systems struggle to replicate reliably. Likewise, activating mechanical rakes to regulate ice flow and manually scraping or breaking frost and frozen products from equipment are hands-on physical activities that often occur in varied and unpredictable environments. These duties involve fine motor control and the ability to adapt on the fly, which present challenges for existing automation technologies and thus act as bottlenecks to complete automation. The bottleneck skills that protect this occupation from further automation are notably low in requirements for originality, with an assessed level of just 2.4%. While originality is present, the tasks do not generally demand creative problem-solving or complex decision-making. This suggests that as technology continues to advance, even the moderately resistant hands-on tasks could become more susceptible to automation improvements, especially if robotic manipulation and sensory technologies evolve. For now, it is primarily the manual and physically variable aspects of the work that anchor the automation risk below the base rate, but the relatively low need for originality signals that long-term job security in this occupation may become increasingly uncertain.