COOKED
The judgment core of this job — reading grain and defects, deciding cut patterns to maximize yield, setting blade height and feed rate — is exactly what optical scanning plus optimizing saw software already does better than a human eye in modern mills. What holds is the physical side: loading and off-bearing heavy stock, clearing jams, changing and tensioning blades, and catching a machine that is drifting out of tolerance before it wrecks a run. The threat here is less 'chatbot' than capital investment: every mill that upgrades to an optimized line cuts headcount per board foot, and small custom shops are where the remaining jobs live.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. An 8 reflects that the yield decisions — where to break a cant, which defect to drop out, how to nest cuts in a rough board — are already solved by scanner-plus-optimizer packages on modern gang rips and crosscut lines, while blade changes, jam clearing, and infeed handling still need someone at the machine, so it sits above the 0-6 floor without approaching mixed-work territory.
Hands-on in uncontrolled environments. At 14 you are on a mill floor with airborne dust, 90+ dB, green lumber that weighs what it weighs, and stock that arrives warped and unpredictable — off-bearing, decking, and reaching into a guarded but live machine to clear a bind are the parts no arm-and-vision rig has cheaply replaced.
No licence, no signature requirement. A 1 is right because nothing about running a resaw or a chop saw requires a state licence or credential — OSHA 1910.213 governs the guarding on the machine, not a certificate in your name, and the mill carries the exposure when someone is hurt.
Anonymous artifact production. Boards leave the mill with no operator name on them; a 2 rather than 0 only acknowledges that a shop foreman knows which of his operators can be trusted on the moulder feed, which is reputation inside the plant, not a customer relationship anyone would pay to keep.
Executes defined procedures on defined inputs. A 5 fits work run off a cut list and grade rules with tolerances specified in advance — the real calls, like scrapping a run or stopping the line when the blade is wandering, are escalated to a lead or millwright rather than owned by the tender.
Has AI actually changed your work?