AI exposure: Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks
Coordinate and expedite the flow of work and materials within or between departments of an establishment according to production schedule. Duties include reviewing and distributing production, work, and shipment schedules; conferring with department supervisors to determine progress of work and completion dates; and compiling reports on progress of work, inventory levels, costs, and production problems.
Reading this score
computed59.6% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks at the 95th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 3.4 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 17 tasks it averages 1.71 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Distribute production schedules or work orders to departments, at 80.0%. The least is Plan production commitments or timetables for business units, specific programs, or jobs, at 26.7%. A gap of 53.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within office and administrative support occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 51 roles in the group is 54.6%, and only 14 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 17 tasks, 17 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 0 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take systems being given deeper access to the organisation's own records and history, which is already happening. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
17 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distribute production schedules or work orders to departments. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.35 | exposed |
| Requisition and maintain inventories of materials or supplies necessary to meet production demands. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.94 | exposed |
| Establish and prepare product construction directions and locations and information on required tools, materials, equipment, numbers of workers needed, and cost projections. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.35 | exposed |
| Compile information, such as production rates and progress, materials inventories, materials used, or customer information, so that status reports can be completed. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.77 | exposed |
| Calculate figures, such as required amounts of labor or materials, manufacturing costs, or wages, using pricing schedules, adding machines, calculators, or computers. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.67 | exposed |
| Record production data, including volume produced, consumption of raw materials, or quality control measures. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.45 | exposed |
| Maintain files, such as maintenance records, bills of lading, or cost reports. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.20 | exposed |
| Provide documentation and information to account for delays, difficulties, or changes to cost estimates. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 2.92 | exposed |
| Compile and prepare documentation related to production sequences, transportation, personnel schedules, or purchase, maintenance, or repair orders. | 70.0% | 30.0% | 0.0% | 3.68 | exposed |
| Revise production schedules when required due to design changes, labor or material shortages, backlogs, or other interruptions, collaborating with management, marketing, sales, production, or engineering. | 64.2% | 23.3% | 12.5% | 4.29 | exposed |
| Review documents, such as production schedules, work orders, or staffing tables, to determine personnel or materials requirements or material priorities. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.16 | exposed |
| Confer with department supervisors or other personnel to assess progress and discuss needed changes. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.86 | exposed |
| Confer with establishment personnel, vendors, or customers to coordinate production or shipping activities and to resolve complaints or eliminate delays. | 47.5% | 27.5% | 25.0% | 3.98 | exposed |
| Examine documents, materials, or products and monitor work processes to assess completeness, accuracy, and conformance to standards and specifications. | 45.8% | 16.7% | 37.5% | 3.85 | exposed |
| Contact suppliers to verify shipment details. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.63 | exposed |
| Arrange for delivery, assembly, or distribution of supplies or parts to expedite flow of materials and meet production schedules. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.99 | exposed |
| Plan production commitments or timetables for business units, specific programs, or jobs, using sales forecasts. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.78 | exposed |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 3.41 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.53 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.62 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.79 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.71 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.82 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.