COOKED verdict contested
The core of this job — visual defect checks, dimensional gauging, sorting by grade, weighing, logging results into quality systems — is exactly what machine vision, in-line sensors, and automated gauging already do faster and more consistently, and the factory floor is the most controlled, automation-friendly physical environment that exists. Physical handling of parts and fixtures still needs hands, which is the main thing holding the number up. The surviving tier is narrow: NDT-certified technicians, calibration and metrology specialists, and inspectors who own nonconformance dispositions, supplier audits, and root-cause investigations rather than pass/fail calls.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. At 7 rather than 4, the pass/fail visual scan, caliper and micrometer readings, and grade sorting are already being done by in-line cameras and laser gauges on the same lines you work, but first-article layouts, fixturing odd geometries, and chasing an intermittent defect back to a machine still take a person walking the floor — that residue is what keeps it out of the bottom band.
Some physical or field component. An 11 reflects that you are physically lifting, rotating, and mounting parts, running CMM setups, pulling samples from tanks and totes, and standing at a line all shift — but it happens inside a lit, climate-managed plant with fixed stations and known part families, not on a roof or in a trench, so it stops well short of the uncontrolled-environment band.
No licence, no signature requirement. A 4 is right because most inspection jobs post as high-school-plus-training with no state licence: your sign-off on an inspection record is countersigned into the QMS and the legal exposure lands on the company's quality manager and PE-stamped drawings, and even ASNT Level II NDT or ASQ CQI credentials are employer- or program-issued preferences, not a personal liability that follows you.
Anonymous artifact production. At 4, your output is a stamped ticket, a dimensional report, or a lot disposition that the next station consumes without knowing who produced it; the buyer trusts the AS9100 or ISO certificate and the audit trail, not you by name, and shifting inspectors between lines and shifts costs the customer nothing.
Meaningful discretion. A 7 acknowledges genuine calls — accept-with-deviation, borderline cosmetic defects, when to stop the line, whether a sample is representative — but those decisions are bounded by written specs, control limits, and AQL sampling tables, and anything expensive escalates to an MRB or engineering disposition rather than resting on you.
Model Makers, Metal and Plastic EXPOSED
Model Makers, Wood EXPOSED
Has AI actually changed your work?