Read specifications, blueprints, and work orders to determine setups, temperatures, and time settings required to mold, form, or cast plastic materials, as well as to plan production sequences.

“Read specifications, blueprints, and work orders to determine setups, temperatures, and time settings required to mold, form, or cast plastic materials, as well as to plan production sequences.” is a core task performed by Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic. Among the occupation's 33 rated tasks, workers place it 29th by importance (#5 most important). About 75% 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.

• Read documents or materials to inform work processes. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

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 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 75% of that use is work-related
• 95% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Measure and visually inspect products for surface and dimension defects to ensure conformance to specifications, using precision measuring instruments. · importance 4.5
• Observe continuous operation of automatic machines to ensure that products meet specifications and to detect jams or malfunctions, making adjustments as necessary. · importance 4.4
• Set up, operate, or tend metal or plastic molding, casting, or coremaking machines to mold or cast metal or thermoplastic parts or products. · importance 4.3
• Turn valves and dials of machines to regulate pressure, temperature, and speed and feed rates, and to set cycle times. · importance 4.2
• Observe meters and gauges to verify and record temperatures, pressures, and press-cycle times. · importance 4.0
• Connect water hoses to cooling systems of dies, using hand tools. · importance 3.9
• Cool products after processing to prevent distortion. · importance 3.9
• Remove parts, such as dies, from machines after production runs are finished. · importance 3.9
• Operate hoists to position dies or patterns on foundry floors. · importance 3.9
• Install dies onto machines or presses and coat dies with parting agents, according to work order specifications. · importance 3.8
• Unload finished products from conveyor belts, pack them in containers, and place containers in warehouses. · importance 3.8
• Perform maintenance work such as cleaning and oiling machines. · importance 3.7
• Remove finished or cured products from dies or molds, using hand tools, air hoses, and other equipment, stamping identifying information on products when necessary. · importance 3.7
• Obtain and move specified patterns to work stations, manually or using hoists, and secure patterns to machines, using wrenches. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic 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
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

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

@misc{singulariki-task-10186,
  title  = {Read specifications, blueprints, and work orders to determine setups, temperatures, and time settings required to mold, form, or cast plastic materials, as well as to plan production sequences.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-10186}
}