Successful business owners across industries understand that assessing their risks and developing strategic plans to reduce exposures is an effective business practice. That’s why it’s important to work with experienced risk management professionals to advance proactive efficiencies across the business. This is especially true for manufacturing companies that need to mitigate risk to improve workplace safety, maintain quality standards, increase productivity, and reduce costs.

With an integrated approach that leverages modern technology, regulatory expertise, and intelligent workflow, risk management consulting can help optimize compliance, solve complex problems, and navigate ongoing changes — both internal and external to your operation. As long as a business is in operation, risk is present. Executives can help mitigate their exposure and continue to improve their business outcomes by partnering with insurance professionals that take these factors into consideration.

What is Risk Management Consulting?

Risk management consulting is a structured process applied across business units to recognize material risks, assess probabilities, identify probable impacts, prioritize risks, and design a plan of action. This robust strategic plan should consist of a list of risk priorities, specific action items required to minimize risk, and the projected outcomes.

Top Risks for Manufacturing Businesses

Product Liability

Manufacturing businesses can be held liable for damages caused by their products. This can include design defects, manufacturing defects, and warning defects. Product liability claims can be costly and damaging to a business’s reputation.

Workplace Safety

Working within a manufacturing environment poses unique risks that include bodily injury, fires and material hazards, machinery risks, and more. It’s important to protect the physical well-being of all employees and visitors in manufacturing facilities, which involves sharing workplace safety protocols, empowering personnel to voice concerns, and upholding a culture of safety.

Cyber Risks

In a 2016 survey, 31％ of manufacturing respondents admitted they had never performed a cyber risk assessment of their industrial control systems. This staggering statistic clearly demonstrates how vulnerable manufacturing businesses are to cybersecurity breaches. As new technologies are deployed, there’s an increased need for secure data sharing, document management, and access control.

Supply Chain & Business Disruptions

Manufacturing businesses rely on streamlined supply chain processes to ensure their projects remain on time, cost effective, and high-quality. But when the unexpected happens such as cargo theft or grounded flights, supply chain disruptions can thwart efforts to meet delivery targets. This can lead to significant revenue losses and negatively impact relationships with key suppliers.

Property Exposures

Manufacturing operations often involve the use of heavy machinery and equipment, which can result in property damage. Fires, explosions, and other accidents can cause significant damage to a business’s property, resulting in lost productivity and income.

Environmental Liability

Manufacturing companies may face environmental liabilities related to pollution or other environmental impacts of their business operations.

Benefits of Risk Management for Manufacturing Businesses

Improving Workplace Safety

Risk management consulting is focused on ensuring the workplace environment of a business is as safe as it can be, while upholding a culture of compliance with all federal, state, and local health and safety policies. Skilled risk management professionals can partner with a business’s internal safety personnel, HR, or operations team to help design a comprehensive risk management program.

In identifying and controlling top material risks, risk management consulting helps achieve positive business outcomes associated with workplace safety concerns. By conducting on-site visits, risk management consultants can observe top hazards for both safety and environmental threats. With a thorough inspection, these safety professionals can identify issues in meeting federal and state Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements.

Additionally, risk management consultants often draft specific protocols and policies that address common safety hazards in manufacturing environments, including the following:

  • Emergency Response Program
  • Fall Protection Programs
  • Heat Illness Prevention Program
  • Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)
  • Powered Industrial Trucks (Forklifts)
  • Respiratory Protection Program
  • Hazard Communication Standard
  • Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (IIPP or I2P2)

Decreasing Costs

Risk management consulting can help manufacturing operations by helping business owners embrace uncertainty, build resilience, and empower growth. By taking a holistic risk management approach, manufacturing companies can balance short-term hurdles with long-term objectives to increase revenue and hedge financial losses. Risk management consultants are focused on identifying immediate cost reduction strategies that save money, fund future growth, and transform risk exposure into long-term mitigation plans.

By having a safer and more secure workplace, you will reduce the number of injuries to your workforce, resulting in less turnover and lower costs for hiring and training. Having a plan and protocol in place to reduce injuries can dramatically improve the culture of your business and improve the bottom line and creating a plan that incentives employees and leaders to follow is a win-win for all parties.

Improving Efficiency & Reputation

By identifying potential risks and developing procedures to mitigate them, a risk management plan can improve a manufacturing company’s efficiency. Employees and company leaders are better equipped to handle their daily exposures and will work more efficiently knowing that processes will run smoothly because of their upfront efforts.

Also, a well-designed risk management plan can help a manufacturing business establish a reputation for being safe and reliable. Customers, employees, and stakeholders are more likely to trust and do business with a company that prioritizes risk management.

How We Can Help

At Doeren Mayhew Insurance Group, our team of experienced risk management professionals can help protect your business in the face of costly exposures across business units. We partner with business leaders in the manufacturing industry to design and implement risk management programs that identify and minimize exposures and ultimately make their companies safer and more efficient.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you improve workplace safety and decrease costs with our reliable risk management consulting services.