Insurance by operating model
How machine shop and manufacturing insurance is structured
Machine shops and manufacturers are not one class to an underwriter — they are two operating models on the same axis: working to a customer’s print versus making and selling your own product. Each carries a different lead exposure and a different coverage stack. Here is how the two differ.
The two models share lines — both a job shop and a manufacturer carry general liability, property, machine and equipment, and workers compensation — but the emphasis and the order differ. A machine shop works to someone else’s specification, so the equipment that does the work is the asset to protect (equipment breakdown leads) and the precision is the exposure (an out-of-spec part runs to errors and omissions; a defective part runs to products liability). A manufacturer makes and sells its own product, so the product going into the world is the defining exposure (products liability leads), along with the recall that pulls it back and the federal sector regulation it carries. Writing both off one generic form misprices one and leaves the other exposed.
Machine Shop Insurance
Lead exposure: the equipment that runs the floor and the work made to a customer’s print
Insurance for machine shops — CNC machining, laser cutting, welding, metal fabrication, and job shops. The precision-machining operating model, where working to spec on customers' parts, machine-heavy production, and the per-job contract drive the risk profile.
See the coverage by model →Manufacturing Insurance
Lead exposure: products liability, product recall, and the federal regulation a product carries
Insurance for manufacturers — metal, plastic, food, auto-parts, beverage, aerospace, firearm, medical-device, and metal rolling and forming. The product-manufacturer operating model, where making and selling your own products drives the products-liability, recall, and industry-regulatory exposure.
See the coverage by model →Not sure which model you are?
Many operations carry elements of both — a job shop that also makes a product line of its own, or a manufacturer with an in-house machine shop. Start a quote and we will sort out which model — or which mix — your operation really is, or browse the coverage lines the class carries and the states we serve on the locations index.
Primary sources
Insure your operation the way it runs
Tell us whether you machine to a print, sell your own product, or both — and we will market it to carriers that write the class.