Description
Operate or tend machines to prepare industrial or consumer products for storage or shipment. Includes cannery workers who pack food products.
- • Observe machine operations to ensure quality and conformity of filled or packaged products to standards.
- • Adjust machine components and machine tension and pressure according to size or processing angle of product.
- • Tend or operate machine that packages product.
- • Remove finished packaged items from machine and separate rejected items.
- • Regulate machine flow, speed, or temperature.
- • Stop or reset machines when malfunctions occur, clear machine jams, and report malfunctions to a supervisor.
- • Secure finished packaged items by hand tying, sewing, gluing, stapling, or attaching fastener.
- • Stock and sort product for packaging or filling machine operation, and replenish packaging supplies, such as wrapping paper, plastic sheet, boxes, cartons, glue, ink, or labels.
- • Inspect and remove defective products and packaging material.
- • Clean and remove damaged or otherwise inferior materials to prepare raw products for processing.
- • Sort, grade, weigh, and inspect products, verifying and adjusting product weight or measurement to meet specifications.
- • Clean, oil, and make minor adjustments or repairs to machinery and equipment, such as opening valves or setting guides.
- • Monitor the production line, watching for problems such as pile-ups, jams, or glue that isn't sticking properly.
- • Stack finished packaged items, or wrap protective material around each item, and pack the items in cartons or containers.
- • Start machine by engaging controls.
- • Count and record finished and rejected packaged items.
- • Package the product in the form in which it will be sent out, for example, filling bags with flour from a chute or spout.
- • Supply materials to spindles, conveyors, hoppers, or other feeding devices and unload packaged product.
- • Attach identification labels to finished packaged items, or cut stencils and stencil information on containers, such as lot numbers or shipping destinations.
- • Clean packaging containers, line and pad crates, or assemble cartons to prepare for product packing.
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Supply Chain & Transportation
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
