Learn how ceramics manufacturers insurance helps ceramics & pottery industry manufacturing businesses protect themselves against the many complex risks they face every day. Whether your business is large or small, or you make one or many products – you need the right commercial insurance program to protect you.
Ceramics Manufacturers Insurance
Ceramics Manufacturers Insurance. Non-industrial ceramic manufacturers produce plumbing fixtures such as sinks and tubs, dinnerware, and cookware. Ceramics products may include mixtures of clays, binding agents, and glass. High-temperature processing gives ceramic its characteristic properties. The raw materials may be purchased from others or mined at the manufacturer’s own quarries. After mining, the raw materials are run through crushing, sorting, and mixing operations to achieve the proper proportions of materials, and then baked (“fired”) in a kiln. The ceramic may be glazed before the firing, or glazed afterwards and refired.
Industrial ceramic manufacturers produce a wide variety of products including piping, structural and non-structural brick and tile, and linings for residential and industrial furnaces, hearths, kilns, incinerators, and crucibles for melting glass and steel. Ceramics protect electric substations from lightning and are used in other surge protection applications. They provide heat shields for space shuttles and missile nose cones and are used in some types of bullet-proof body armor. Polycrystalline ceramic is used in gas sensors.
As a ceramics manufacturer, just like any other type of business, it’s important that you take the right precautions in order to protect your business. While you go to great lengths to ensure that your employees are properly trained, that you are adhering to protocol, and that you are delivering the best products possible, there are still several inherent risks associated with running your business. A client could file a lawsuit against you, alleging that you failed to provide the services you advertised, your property could be an act of nature, your goods could be stolen, or an employee could sustain a work-related injury, for example.
For these reasons – and others – it’s important that you protect your assets. The best way to do that is to ensure that you have the right ceramics manufacturers insurance coverage for your operation.
Why Ceramics Manufacturing Insurance Is Important
There are several reasons why investing in the right type of insurance policies and making sure that you carry adequate coverage is important. Unfortunately, our society is very litigious. If a lawsuit is brought against your business, you could be looking at financial devastation.
All it takes is one accident on your property or a single broken contract and your business could fold as a result of the crippling costs that are associated with litigation. Your commercial property or the products that you make could be damaged as a result of a natural disaster, such as a fire, or may be stolen or vandalized.
In these cases, the cost of repairing or replacing the damaged property and goods can be exorbitant; not to mention the amount of money you stand to lose while you are trying to recover from the losses. A piece of equipment could malfunction and seriously injure an employee. As the employer, you are liable for the individual’s medical expenses and lost wages, which can cost a significant amount of money.
Because of the extensive costs that can be associated with the many inherent risks that you face as a business owner, carrying the right type of ceramics manufacturers insurance coverage is absolutely vital. Plus, it’s the law. Businesses are legally required to carry certain types of insurance, and failure to carry these forms of coverage can result in fines – or worse.
Types Of Insurance For Ceramics Manufacturers
The type of policies that you require depends on the specifics of your business; how many people you employ, the specific type of goods you create, and the contracts you fulfill, for example. But, for many individuals in the ceramics manufacturing industry, the following ceramics manufacturers insurance policies are an absolute must:
- Commercial Property: This type of insurance provides coverage against third-party injuries, damages, and claims. For instance, if a vendor is injured on your property, your commercial property insurance would cover the cost of any medical bills. If the individual takes legal action, it would also help to cover legal costs, such as defense fees and settlements.
- Business Personal Property: If your property is damaged as a result of a natural disaster, such as a fire or a storm, or your equipment is stolen or vandalized, commercial property and material damage insurance will help to cover the losses. This form of insurance will help to pay for the damaged property or materials.
- Errors and Omissions: As a ceramics manufacturer, you charge your clients a fee in return for the products and services you offer. If a product that you produce fails to meet the expectations of a client, a lawsuit could be filed against you. Errors and omissions insurance safeguard you and your business from any legal claims that might be brought up against you as a result of negligence. Even the most highly trained and experienced professionals can make costly errors, which is why errors and omissions insurance is so important.
- Workers Compensation: To protect you and your employees, workers’ comp insurance is a must. If a staff member is injured on the job, this type of coverage will help to pay for the employee’s medical care, as well as lost wages.
Ceramics Products Manufacturing’s Perils And Risks
Property exposures consist of office, production plant and warehouse for raw materials and finished goods. Ignition sources include electrical wiring, heating systems, production machinery, kilns, and the storage of large amounts of fuel to run them. The kilns burn continuously and must be monitored to prevent overheating. Wear and tear and overheating of machinery are potential fire hazards. Electrical equipment must be maintained in good repair and must be adequate for the heavy-duty requirements.
In the absence of well maintained dust collection systems, cutting and buffing operations can generate dust which can catch on fire. Operating the kilns without adequate ventilation systems can build up flammable vapors and heat that can result in fire or explosion. Fuels stored on premises should be separated from processing areas. Some types of ceramic are extremely fragile and subject to breakage; neither the raw materials nor the finished products are susceptible to fire, water or smoke damage. Explosives used in blasting operations may explode and are targets for theft.
Equipment breakdown exposures include malfunctioning production equipment for both the kiln and the hydraulic press used to compact the clay, dust collection and ventilation systems, electrical control panels and other apparatus. These should be properly maintained. Production equipment may include CNC (computer controlled) machinery. A lengthy breakdown could result in severe loss, both direct and under time element.
Crime exposure comes from employee dishonesty. Employees may act alone or in collusion with outsiders in stealing money, raw materials or finished stock. Background checks should be conducted on all employees. There must be a separation of duties between persons handling deposits and disbursements and handling bank statements. There should be security methods in place to prevent theft.
Inland marine exposure includes accounts receivable if the manufacturer offers credit, computers (which may include computer-run production equipment), goods in transit, and valuable papers and records for customers’ and suppliers’ information. Backup copies of all records should be made and stored off premises. Stock in transit may be highly susceptible to damage from breakage in a collision or overturn, and possibly theft. There will be a contractors’ equipment exposure if there is a quarry.
Premises liability exposure is normally low due to limited access by visitors. If tours are given or if outsiders are allowed on premises, visitors may be injured by slips, trips, or falls. Hazards increase if the yard is not fenced as piles of raw materials or finished goods present an attractive nuisance hazard to trespassers, particularly children.
Fumes, dust, and noise from processing operations may affect neighbors. This can result in a high frequency of nuisance claims, but may also cause serious health problems due to the generation of silica dust. Blasting poses high exposures as neighboring properties may be damaged either directly or by shock waves.
Products liability exposure is dependent on the final use of the product. Plates and china will have relatively low exposure while failure of plumbing fixtures could result in costly repairs to structures. Good quality control procedures should be in place, with inspections conducted to detect cracks, blemishes or other defects.
Environmental impairment exposure is moderate to high due to the potential for air, land and water pollution from dust and fuel storage tanks. Most ceramic manufacturers will have fuel tanks on premises and may require a UST policy. Vapors, fumes and air pollutants, wastewater and by-products disposal must be evaluated and controlled.
Disposal procedures must adhere to all EPA and other regulatory standards. Reclamation procedures should be in place to control the impact of the quarry operation on the environment. There is the possibility of claims for cumulative structural damage to neighboring foundations from the heavy traffic of quarry operations.
Commerical auto exposure can be high if the manufacturer has a quarry, picks up raw materials, or delivers finished goods to customers. The delivery of goods requires careful loading and tie-down to prevent products from coming loose and toppling over during transport. Manufacturers generally have private passenger fleets used by sales representatives. There should be written procedures regarding the private use of these vehicles by others. Drivers should have an appropriate license and an acceptable MVR. All vehicles must be well maintained with documentation kept in a central location.
Workers compensation exposure is serious even if there is no quarry. Injuries from production machinery are common, as are minor cuts, burns, slips, trips, falls, foreign objects in the eye, back injuries from lifting, hearing loss from noise, and repetitive motion losses. Workstations should be ergonomically designed. Employees should be provided with safety training and protective equipment. Areas that generate dust require respiratory protection devices, as well as eye protection and eye wash stations.
Maintenance and fueling of machinery and kilns may require workers to enter confined spaces. Exposure to rock dust and silica may cause serious skin, eye, and respiratory irritations, and lead to occupational diseases such as Silicosis or Shaver’s Lung.
Ceramics Manufacturers Insurance – The Bottom Line
We hope this article on ceramics manufacturers insurance has been informative. To find out more about the different types of insurance you should carry and whether or not there are combined policies that can offer broad range coverage for your business, speak to a professional business insurance broker.