Products liability, property and equipment breakdown coordinated with the workers' comp exposure on the floor — reviewed and placed by an independent Rochester Hills commercial agency for shops and plants across Metro Detroit and Michigan.
We reply within one business day.
A manufacturing account combines a product exposure that follows goods after they leave the building with a property and payroll exposure that stays on the floor. These are the policies that make up the program.
General liability answers injury and property damage on the premises; products liability extends that to a finished product after it has been sold or shipped. The two are usually written together, but the products side is priced on what is made and what it is used for, not on the size of the building.
The building where applicable, plus machinery, raw materials, work in process and finished goods. Valuation matters more here than on most commercial risks — inventory levels swing through the year, and a limit set once at binding can fall behind actual stock on hand.
Mechanical and electrical failure of production machinery, boilers and control systems is generally excluded on the property form, so this fills a gap that is often the single largest loss exposure on a production floor. Business income coverage is usually tied to the same equipment.
Lost income and continuing expenses while production is down after a covered loss, running through the period of restoration. The realistic question is whether the limit reflects how long it actually takes to replace specialized machinery, not a generic estimate.
Payroll and class code drive the premium, and manufacturing classifications vary widely by process — welding, press work and material handling rate very differently from assembly or packaging at the same facility. Michigan's statutory criteria determine when coverage is required.
Delivery and material-handling vehicles are rated separately from the building and equipment, and an umbrella adds capacity above the general liability, auto and employers liability limits — often the practical answer where a customer contract sets a limit the primary market will not write alone.
Manufacturing is underwritten on process and product more than on square footage. These are the items that decide which markets will look at an account at all.
What the product is, and what it is used for, sets the products liability rating far more than revenue does. A component that ends up in a vehicle, a structure or a medical application carries different severity potential than one sold for a low-consequence consumer use, and carriers ask for the end use specifically.
Welding, cutting, heat treatment, painting and chemical processes each carry their own fire, injury and environmental considerations. A facility running several processes under one roof is underwritten on the highest-hazard operation present, not the average.
Documented machine guarding, lockout-tagout procedures and a written safety program affect both liability and workers' comp pricing, and are frequently the subject of a pre-binding survey on higher-hazard accounts. Facilities without documented procedures are a harder placement regardless of loss history.
Whether a defective batch can be traced and contained, or has already reached broad distribution, changes both the potential severity and the coverage conversation. Lot tracking and quality-control documentation are underwriting questions on products carrying meaningful recall potential.
Customer contracts commonly require specific liability limits, additional insured status and waivers of subrogation before a purchase order is issued. These requirements should be reviewed against the actual policy language, not assumed to be satisfied by a certificate alone.
Currently valued loss runs read alongside the physical demands of the work — repetitive motion, lifting and material handling drive a meaningful share of manufacturing injury claims. Frequency of soft-tissue claims is often a bigger factor in comp pricing than the industry's reputation would suggest.
Not every carrier asks for every item, but a manufacturing submission moves faster when this is assembled up front.
Direct answers to what Michigan manufacturers ask before moving a program.
Most Michigan manufacturers carry general and products liability, commercial property covering the building where applicable plus equipment and inventory, equipment breakdown, business income, and workers' compensation once the statutory criteria are met. An umbrella and commercial auto are typically added depending on customer contracts and whether the operation runs its own delivery fleet.
Only if products liability coverage is included, which is usually written alongside general liability but priced separately. It responds to injury or property damage caused by a product after it has left the manufacturer's control, subject to the policy's terms and exclusions. What a claim actually recovers depends on the specific allegation and the form as written.
It responds to sudden mechanical or electrical failure of production machinery, boilers and control systems — a cause of loss standard property forms generally exclude. On a manufacturing floor this is often the exposure most likely to actually produce a claim, since a single machine failure can halt production even without fire or storm damage.
When scheduled and valued correctly, yes. Inventory at various stages — raw material, work in process and finished goods — can be covered under the property form, but the values fluctuate through the year and should be reported accurately rather than left at a single estimate set at binding.
By the work actually performed, not the industry label on the business. A single facility running welding, assembly and warehousing may carry more than one class code where payroll records support the split, and each process is rated on its own risk rather than an average across the plant.
It can. Written machine guarding and lockout-tagout procedures, along with a documented safety program, are reviewed on higher-hazard accounts and can influence both liability and workers' comp terms, subject to the carrier's underwriting guidelines. Facilities without documented procedures are generally a harder placement regardless of past loss history.
Titanium Shield Insurance Agency is an independent commercial agency in Rochester Hills. We review manufacturing programs against what is actually made and how — products, processes, equipment values and safety practices — and coordinate property, liability, comp and auto as one program rather than separate purchases.