Operate controls to move or discharge metal workpieces from furnaces.

“Operate controls to move or discharge metal workpieces from furnaces.” is a core task performed by Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders. Among the occupation's 15 rated tasks, workers place it 9th by importance (#7 most important). About 84% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Operate lifting or moving equipment. in Controlling Machines and Processes

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Regulate supplies of fuel and air, or control flow of electric current and water coolant to heat furnaces and adjust temperatures. · importance 4.6
• Draw smelted metal samples from furnaces or kettles for analysis, and calculate types and amounts of materials needed to ensure that materials meet specifications. · importance 4.6
• Prepare material to load into furnaces, including cleaning, crushing, or applying chemicals, by using crushing machines, shovels, rakes, or sprayers. · importance 4.5
• Weigh materials to be charged into furnaces, using scales. · importance 4.5
• Record production data, and maintain production logs. · importance 4.5
• Observe air and temperature gauges or metal color and fluidity, and turn fuel valves or adjust controls to maintain required temperatures. · importance 4.5
• Inspect furnaces and equipment to locate defects and wear. · importance 4.4
• Drain, transfer, or remove molten metal from furnaces, and place it into molds, using hoists, pumps, or ladles. · importance 4.4
• Remove impurities from the surface of molten metal, using strainers. · importance 4.3
• Kindle fires, and shovel fuel and other materials into furnaces or onto conveyors by hand, with hoists, or by directing crane operators. · importance 4.3
• Observe operations inside furnaces, using television screens, to ensure that problems do not occur. · importance 4.3
• Sprinkle chemicals over molten metal to bring impurities to the surface. · importance 4.2
• Direct work crews in the cleaning and repair of furnace walls and flooring. · importance 4.0
• Scrape accumulations of metal oxides from floors, molds, and crucibles, and sift and store them for reclamation. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-10161,
  title  = {Operate controls to move or discharge metal workpieces from furnaces.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-10161}
}