About This Career

Operates or tends food or tobacco roasting, baking, or drying equipment, including hearth ovens, kiln driers, roasters, char kilns, and vacuum drying equipment.

This career is part of the Manufacturing cluster Production pathway.

A person in this career:

• Observes, feels, tastes, or otherwise examines products during and after processing to ensure conformance to standards.
• Sets temperature and time controls, lights ovens, burners, driers, or roasters, and starts equipment, such as conveyors, cylinders, blowers, driers, or pumps.
• Observes flow of materials and listens for machine malfunctions, such as jamming or spillage, and notifies supervisors if corrective actions fail.
• Observes temperature, humidity, pressure gauges, and product samples and adjusts controls, such as thermostats and valves, to maintain prescribed operating conditions for specific stages.
• Records production data, such as weight and amount of product processed, type of product, and time and temperature of processing.
• Weighs or measures products, using scale hoppers or scale conveyors.
• Operates or tends equipment that roasts, bakes, dries, or cures food items such as cocoa and coffee beans, grains, nuts, and bakery products.
• Signals coworkers to synchronize flow of materials.
• Reads work orders to determine quantities and types of products to be baked, dried, or roasted.
• Fills or removes product from trays, carts, hoppers, or equipment, using scoops, peels, or shovels, or by hand.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Picking out a particular sound in the presence of other sounds
• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Detecting sounds and hearing the differences between sounds of different pitch and loudness
• Seeing clearly up close
• Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Regular working hours and limited travel