What is a manufacturing risk assessment?
A manufacturing risk assessment is the process used to identify, evaluate, and control hazards within a manufacturing environment.
This could include almost any area of a facility, including production lines, laboratories, tooling areas, warehouses, waste management zones, maintenance workshops, loading bays, and offices.
Each environment has its own hazards, which means assessments need to be specific to the task, area, equipment, substances, and people involved.
A manufacturing risk assessment should be a practical tool that helps teams understand what could go wrong, who could be harmed, and what needs to be done to reduce the risk.
Why do risk assessments matter in manufacturing?
Manufacturing is generally considered a high-risk industry and remains a sector where risk needs to be actively managed. The HSE’s latest statistics show that, in 2024/25, there were 11 fatal injuries to workers in manufacturing, while an estimated 55,000 manufacturing workers sustained non-fatal workplace injuries, averaged across 2022/23 to 2024/25.
The nature of manufacturing work means risks can come from many sources: moving machinery, equipment failure, workplace transport, noise, vibration, hazardous substances, repetitive tasks, manual handling, electrical systems, and cleaning and maintenance activities – the list goes on.
That is why risk assessments in manufacturing are so important. They help you identify hazards before work begins, assess how people could be harmed, introduce controls that reduce the chance of incidents, record findings so they are accessible, and regularly review controls to ensure they reflect real-world work.
The main aim is to protect people, minimise disruption, reduce downtime, and support compliance with health and safety law.
What is the purpose of a risk assessment in manufacturing?
There are three key reasons manufacturing risk assessments are carried out:
1. They protect workers, contractors, and visitors from harm
Manufacturing environments can involve high-consequence hazards, including moving machinery, forklift movements, hazardous substances, manual handling, noise exposure, and maintenance activities.
A good risk assessment creates clarity around what the hazards are, who may be affected, and what controls are needed to prevent something from going wrong.
2. They support your legal and compliance requirements
In the UK, employers have general duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which is the primary piece of health and safety legislation in Great Britain.
Employers must also carry out a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of risks under Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Depending on the activity, manufacturers may also need to consider more specific requirements covering areas such as work equipment, hazardous substances, noise, vibration, manual handling, lifting operations, and workplace transport.
In the event of an incident, a risk assessment document can become an important piece of evidence, providing an audit trail of safety activity and the controls in place at the time.
3. They help prevent costly disruption
Incidents can lead to downtime, damaged equipment, unplanned maintenance, enforcement action, staff absence, and reputational harm – all of which can be costly for manufacturing businesses.
Proactively assessing the risks involved in specific tasks, equipment, processes, and environments, and putting effective controls in place, helps protect people, support compliance, and keep operations running safely.
Risk assessment software can help manage this from one central location, supporting consistency at scale, helping organisations prove compliance with confidence, and generating detailed risk insights to help prevent incidents across every site.
Common hazards identified in manufacturing risk assessments
Hazards will vary depending on the site, process, equipment, materials, and product being manufactured. However, common examples include:
- Machinery hazards, such as entanglement, crush points, cutting edges, and moving parts
- Electrical hazards, including live systems, damaged equipment, and maintenance work
- Ergonomic hazards, such as repetitive tasks, awkward postures, and poor workstation design
- Slips, trips and falls caused by spills, uneven surfaces, trailing cables, or poor housekeeping
- Forklift and workplace transport hazards, including reversing vehicles, pedestrian interaction, and falling loads
- Chemical hazards, such as fumes, splashes, incorrect storage, or incompatible substances
- Noise and vibration exposure from machinery, tools, and production processes
- Manual handling hazards linked to lifting, carrying, pushing, or pulling loads
- Fire and explosion risks linked to hot works, flammable substances, dust, or process equipment
How to conduct a manufacturing risk assessment (step by step)
The HSE’s risk management process provides a strong foundation for carrying out manufacturing risk assessments. The key stages are to identify hazards, assess the risks, control the risks, record your findings, and review the controls.
Step 1: Identify hazards
Walk through the relevant area, whether that is a production line, warehouse, maintenance workshop, loading bay, laboratory, or specialist process area.
Look at tasks, machinery, equipment, substances, materials, pedestrian routes, vehicle movements, storage areas, energy sources, and the wider working environment.
Speak to supervisors, operators, engineers, warehouse teams, and frontline workers. They often understand the difference between how work is planned and how it actually happens, especially during cleaning, changeovers, maintenance, breakdowns, and non-routine tasks.
Risk assessment software can support this by enabling assessors to complete and update assessments on site directly from tablets or mobile devices, helping them capture real working conditions as they happen.
Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how
Think beyond direct employees. Consider production operatives, maintenance engineers, warehouse teams, agency workers, contractors, visitors, auditors, service engineers, and delivery drivers.
Then consider how each group could be harmed, such as through contact with machinery, exposure to chemicals, slips and trips, manual handling, workplace transport movements, noise, heat, dust, vibration, or electrical hazards.
Risk assessment software helps standardise this process by guiding teams through consistent templates, so key groups, hazards, and harm scenarios are less likely to be missed.
Step 3: Evaluate risks and implement controls
Use the hierarchy of control to decide how risks should be managed. Where possible, eliminate the hazard. If that is not possible, consider substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and PPE as the final layer of protection.
In manufacturing, controls may include fixed guarding, interlocks, extraction systems, lockout/tagout procedures, COSHH controls, pedestrian segregation, lifting aids, permit-to-work systems, training, supervision, signage, and suitable PPE.
Controls should be practical, clearly described, and proportionate to the level of risk.
Risk assessment software can help you customise your risk matrix, structure assessments to improve clarity and accuracy, communicate risks using visual controls and icons, and prevent site teams from editing or removing company-level mandated controls.
Step 4: Record findings and assign ownership
A strong manufacturing risk assessment should record the hazards, risk rating, who may be harmed and how, existing controls, required PPE, further actions, responsible owners, deadlines, and review dates.
Actions should be assigned to named people, especially where improvements are needed, such as repairing guarding, updating safe systems of work, improving housekeeping, changing storage arrangements, or reviewing chemical controls.
Risk assessment software makes this easier by allowing teams to assign actions to the right people and track task status in real time.
Step 5: Review and update
Manufacturing environments can change quickly. Assessments should be reviewed when processes, equipment, substances, layouts, staffing, or working methods change.
They should also be reviewed after incidents, near misses, audits, maintenance issues, enforcement visits, or when new information becomes available, such as updated Safety Data Sheets or manufacturer instructions.
Regular reviews help ensure controls remain effective and reflect what is actually happening on the shop floor.
With risk assessment software, you can set up email alerts for assessments that are due for review or overdue, helping support your compliance responsibilities and keeping reviews on track.
Risk assessment in manufacturing examples
Here are three simplified examples. In practice, manufacturing risk assessments should be more detailed and task-specific.
1.) Operating machinery on a production line
Hazard: Moving parts, entanglement, and crush points.
Risk: Cuts, crush injuries, or amputation.
Controls: Fixed guards, interlocks, emergency stops, authorised operators only, pre-use checks, and lockout/tagout for cleaning and maintenance.
2.) Forklift movements in warehouse or production areas
Hazard: Vehicle collision, reversing forklift, or falling loads.
Risk: Serious injury to pedestrians or drivers, crush injuries, or fatality.
Controls: Segregated walkways, speed limits, trained drivers, reversing alarms, high-vis clothing, daily checks, and secure loads.
3.) Using chemicals for cleaning or production
Hazard: Splashes, fumes, or incorrect chemical mixing.
Risk: Burns, eye injury, respiratory harm, fire, or explosion.
Controls: COSHH assessments, Safety Data Sheets, PPE, ventilation, labelled containers, spill kits, storage segregation, and staff training.
Why paper-based risk assessments can fall short
The challenge for many manufacturing teams is not simply creating risk assessments. It is keeping them consistent, up to date, accessible, and easy to evidence across multiple sites, teams, and working environments.
Paper-based processes can make this difficult. Forms can go missing, become damaged, or be completed inconsistently. Assessments may be stored in filing cabinets, folders, or on individual desktops, making it harder for teams to access the latest version when they need it.
If a process changes, a new machine is introduced, or controls are updated, it can be difficult to know whether every hard copy of the assessment has been replaced. Without clear tracking, reminders, or ownership, reviews can be missed, and outdated assessments may remain in circulation.
For safety leaders, this creates limited visibility. It can be hard to see which assessments are live, which are overdue, what has changed, and whether actions have been completed.
And when an audit, inspection, or incident occurs, weak audit trails can make it difficult to prove who saw the assessment, when they saw it, and whether they acknowledged the controls.
This is where digital risk assessment software can make a real difference. By centralising assessments, standardising templates, controlling versions, assigning actions, setting review reminders, and capturing digital sign-off, software helps organisations move from static paperwork to active, auditable, proactive risk management.
How does risk assessment software improve manufacturing safety?
Good risk assessment software helps safety teams govern, control, approve, communicate, and evidence risk management across every site.
With Notify’s Risk Assessment Software, assessments can be completed on site using mobile devices, helping teams capture real working conditions on the production line, in the warehouse, or around specialist equipment.
Customisable templates and risk matrices help standardise assessments across departments, production areas, and multiple sites. Central teams can deploy controlled versions, reduce inconsistent formats, and improve clarity.
Governance is especially important in manufacturing. Notify helps organisations lock mandated controls, prevent essential safeguards from being edited locally, and require independent approval before publication. This supports stronger oversight and helps avoid self-approval.
Real-time dashboards make it easier to monitor completion, overdue reviews, trends by site or activity, and emerging risks across manufacturing operations. Corrective actions can also be assigned and tracked directly from assessments, keeping improvements linked to the risks they are designed to control.
For health and safety compliance, digital sign-off, secure links, QR codes, and searchable acknowledgement records help teams quickly prove who has read and understood relevant assessments.
Protected visibility can also support confidential or statutory assessments where access needs to be restricted.
Visual icons for PPE, hazards, prohibited activities, equipment risks, and chemical hazards can make safety information easier to understand, especially for busy frontline teams.
For manufacturing organisations, this helps turn risk assessments from static documents into a consistent, controlled, and measurable part of health and safety governance.
Final thoughts
Manufacturing risk assessments are essential for protecting people, maintaining compliance, and keeping operations running safely.
But as organisations grow across multiple sites, the challenge is no longer just creating assessments. It is standardising them, enforcing critical controls, proving sign-off, and turning risk information into usable insight.
Notify’s Risk Assessment Software helps you manage and mitigate risk, standardise assessments, enforce controls and prove compliance across every manufacturing site.
Book a demo to see how Notify’s health and safety software can help you control risk, reduce harm and prove impact.