Commercial industry
Manufacturing Insurance for Light and Specialty Plants
A manufacturer’s insurance file is a products-liability file first and a property file second. What you make, who uses it, and whether it becomes part of someone else’s product decide the GL form. The building, the machinery, and the business income decide whether a fire or a breakdown is a bad month or the end of the company.
We place light and specialty manufacturers — metal goods, plastics, wood, food products, printed goods, tools and machinery parts, and similar commercial plants. Texas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Washington are where this page sees the most plant-floor payroll. We shop A-rated carriers and we work for the manufacturer, not for one insurer.
Products and completed operations should be a real limit, not a leftover. If your part goes into a machine, a vehicle, or a consumer product, tell us. We will not hide a component exposure inside a “miscellaneous manufacturing” description. Product-withdrawal or recall expense is a companion we discuss when a retailer or a contract requires it; it is not automatic on a package.
Property is buildings, raw stock, work-in-process, and finished goods — three different values that move every week. We set business personal property so a peak-season inventory is not coinsured. Equipment breakdown on production machinery, compressors, and electrical distribution is a plant claim. A modest BOP include will not replace a CNC cell.
Inland marine covers molds, dies, patterns, and goods in transit to a customer or a processor. Commercial auto covers the box truck that makes the Friday run. Manufacturers E&O is the design-or-spec error that is not bodily injury — useful when you design what you make.
Workers compensation in competitive states is a classification exercise: shop, yard, drivers, and clerical are not one rate. In Washington, plant payroll stays with L&I. We place stop-gap and private WC for employees in other states, including a Texas or Indiana satellite that a Washington company did not mention on the first call.
Risks we actually schedule
- Products liability after your part or finished good is in someone else’s hands.
- Fire, water, or equipment-breakdown shutdown of a single production line.
- Peak inventory undervaluation and a coinsurance penalty at claim time.
- Molds, dies, and goods in transit that a building policy never sees.
- Shop-floor injury — L&I in Washington, private WC in competitive states.
Frequently asked questions
We only make components. Is that still products liability?
Yes. Component parts are how many manufacturing claims start. Tell us the end use — industrial, consumer, automotive, food-contact — so the form is not written as a mystery.
Can a manufacturer use a BOP?
Some very light assemblers can. Most plants with real machinery, higher receipts, or a products story are cleaner on monoline property and GL. We will not force a package that a carrier will exit at renewal.
Do you write food manufacturing on this page?
Food plants have spoilage, contamination, and often a different property form. See our food-manufacturing page; we still place them as manufacturers, just with a tighter kitchen-and-cold-storage worksheet.
Our headquarters is in Washington and the plant is in Texas. Who writes WC?
Washington HQ clerical may stay with L&I. Texas plant payroll is a private WC (or a Texas-compliant structure) conversation. We map each location instead of guessing.
Related coverage, industries, and locations
General Liability
Third-party injury, property damage, and products/completed-operations protection for shops, offices, and jobsites.
Coverage detailsCommercial Property
Buildings, inventory, equipment, and business income when fire, theft, wind, or water shut you down.
Coverage detailsEquipment Breakdown
Boilers, refrigeration, production machinery, diagnostic equipment, and the business income that follows a mechanical failure.
Coverage detailsWorkers Compensation
Private WC in competitive states, plus stop-gap and multi-state design. Washington employers stay with L&I for WA payroll.
Coverage detailsInland Marine
Tools, equipment, cargo, installation jobs, and property that moves — the coverage a building policy leaves behind.
Coverage detailsFood Manufacturing
Commissaries and food plants: spoilage, contamination, products, and the equipment that runs all night.
Industry pageWholesale and Distribution
Warehouse property, fleet, products liability, and cargo for distributors who move other people’s shelves.
Industry pageWarehousing and Storage
Warehouse legal liability, the building, the lift trucks, and goods that are not yours.
Industry pageIndiana
Licensed commercial insurance broker serving Indiana.
State page