Well if we're on the premise of Crafters working on the products on the machines, once the gatherers have brought in the items, they could be tastked with feeding the raw materials into said machine at the correct times.

If items are fed into the machines correctly it can assist the crafter on a better item, or perhaps more room for error on the crafter side.

That way gatherers are still participating. and the crafter is focused on the machines running and the end product. Gatherers are focused on optaining and then infusing the raw materials.

Personally i'd like to see the gatherer's skill at placing raws into the machine give the crafter more room for error instead of a bonus to the end product. I belive this would make it more inclusive for everyone.