{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/separating-filtering-clarifying-precipitating-and-still-machine-setters-operators-and-tenders/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders", "soc_code": "51-9012", "category": "Production", "us_employment": 60100, "median_annual_wage": 51610 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 41, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 10, "embodiment": 15, "liability_shield": 5, "trust_premium": 3, "judgment_accountability": 8 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "At 10 the split is real: setpoint trimming, flow and temperature logging, and spec-chasing on a distillation column or centrifuge are already handled by DCS loops and advanced process control, while breaking a filter press, replating it, sluicing a plugged bowl, and re-establishing reflux after an upset still needs a body on the deck — roughly half the shift resists, which is why it sits mid-band rather than at 6 or 14.", "embodiment": "15 reflects work done at the equipment, not near it: climbing to sample points on a still, entering a vessel or filter housing under confined-space permit, handling caustic and solvent-wetted media, torquing flanges on hot lines, and doing it on 12-hour rotating shifts in whatever heat, noise, and slurry the plant produces — uncontrolled enough for the upper band but inside a fixed, mapped facility, which keeps it below the 18-20 of field service work.", "liability_shield": "5 is the floor plus a nudge: no state licence gates this work, and hiring is HS-diploma-plus-OJT, but process-safety-management sites do require documented operator training under 29 CFR 1910.119, plus HAZWOPER, confined-space, and lockout/tagout certifications — credentials your employer must show a regulator, not credentials that make you personally answerable for a bad batch.", "trust_premium": "3 because the product leaves as clarified liquor, filtrate, or distillate identified by batch number and lab COA — no customer knows which tender ran the column, and your continuity value is to the shift supervisor who trusts your feel for the equipment, not to anyone buying the output.", "judgment_accountability": "8 sits just above procedure-following because the batch sheet, SOP, and alarm limits define most calls, but the ones that matter — deciding a pressure differential means fouling rather than instrument drift, calling for a shutdown before a still runs away, judging whether a filtrate looks off-spec before the lab confirms it — are yours in the minute, and get reviewed afterward by process engineering rather than owned by you." }, "rationale": "The screen half of this job — reading gauges, logging batch data, adjusting setpoints toward a spec, flagging drift — is exactly what distributed control systems and now predictive process software absorb, and headcount per unit has been falling for two decades. What holds is the physical half: swapping filter media, cleaning fouled plates and centrifuge bowls, pulling samples, chasing leaks and blockages, and hand-cranking a still or separator back through an upset when the automation loses the plot. Modal worker is a plant-floor operator on rotating shifts, not a control-room engineer, and that grounding in dirty confined equipment is the main reason the role isn't gone.", "outlook": "Expect continued slow headcount decline as control systems get smarter and plants run leaner shifts, with surviving jobs skewing toward operator-mechanics who can fix, clean, and restart the equipment they run.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Sanitary/hazardous process equipment remains manually broken down and cleaned: if pharmaceutical and food plants continue to require CIP verification with human swab sampling and manual disassembly of centrifuge bowls, plate packs and filter housings under FDA cGMP (21 CFR 211.67) and confined-space entry permits under OSHA 1910.146 naming a human entrant and attendant, the physical tier stays non-substitutable regardless of control-room automation", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift: as DCS and predictive process software absorb gauge-reading, logging and setpoint trimming, the residual job concentrates in upset recovery, fouling diagnosis and manual re-start of separators/stills when the model loses the plant — a genuinely two-tier occupation where the remaining tier is troubleshooting", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State-licensed operator requirements extending to process units: e.g. if boiler/steam and wastewater-style operator certification (many states license wastewater and boiler operators by grade, with the certificate holder personally responsible for the shift) is applied to solvent recovery stills and hazardous-waste distillation under RCRA Subpart X or EPA process-unit rules, a named certified human owns the shift log", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "cGMP batch record signature discipline: if FDA data-integrity enforcement (Part 11, recent warning letters on unattributed electronic records) is read to require a named human operator's reviewed-by signature on each separation/filtration batch record rather than a system-generated attestation, the sign-off attaches to the operator", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "PSM-covered units: if OSHA 1910.119 process hazard analysis and management-of-change practice continues to require an operator's authority to abort or manually intervene in a runaway distillation — and insurers (FM Global, Chubb) condition coverage on a qualified human present with stop authority — the consequential-call ownership formally sits with the shift operator", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route — the buyer buys purified product and never learns who tended the still. Aggregate ceiling is limited: even with licensure, this is commodity production where headcount per unit keeps falling; higher scores would describe fewer, more accountable jobs, not more jobs." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 48450, "wage": 39040 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 49770, "wage": 40810 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 51160, "wage": 41330 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 47930, "wage": 43100 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 48620, "wage": 46030 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 52470, "wage": 46250 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 53170, "wage": 48120 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 54200, "wage": 49500 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 60100, "wage": 51610 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 24, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "industrial-machinery-mechanics", "title": "Industrial Machinery Mechanics", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 67, "median_wage": 64520, "overlap": 82, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Troubleshooting", "Operation and Control" ] }, { "slug": "plant-and-system-operators-all-other", "title": "Plant and System Operators, All Other", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 57, "median_wage": 62470, "overlap": 82, "skills_to_close": [ "Systems Evaluation", "Negotiation", "Operation and Control", "Service Orientation" ] }, { "slug": "stationary-engineers-and-boiler-operators", "title": "Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 64, "median_wage": 78620, "overlap": 77, "skills_to_close": [ "Systems Evaluation" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }