Manufacturing
Manufacturers produce ‘new products’ by transforming raw materials using machinery. This page has key safety information for manufacturers operating plants, factories or mills.
Manufacturers are responsible for producing a diverse range of products including:
- milk bottling and pasteurising
- both processing and canning or bottling
- fresh fish packaging (including oyster shucking, fish filleting)
- printing and related support activities
- ready-mixed concrete production
- leather tanning and dressing
- grinding of lenses to prescription
- wood preserving and treatment
- electroplating, plating, metal heat treating, and polishing
- fabricating signs and advertising displays
- tyre retreading
- ship, boat, railway rolling stock and aircraft repair and maintenance
- substantial alteration, renovation or reconstruction of goods such as transport equipment.
It does not include:
- logging and production of crops or livestock.
- construction and fabrication of structures performed on site
- publishing
Health and safety starts at the top
Strong leadership and a firm commitment to continuously improve, backed by action, are the foundations of a strong safety culture. We understand that developing a culture of safety in your workplace takes time, commitment and leadership, but we're here to help.
Find out how to build a culture of safety.
Manufacturing mental health resource kit
Only 25% of manufacturing businesses in NSW are taking effective action to create a mentally healthy workplace. Workers in manufacturing businesses face risk factors such as high demands, low control, poor communication and bullying and discrimination that can impact their mental health and performance.
Business leaders have duties under new work health safety regulations to manage psychosocial risks in their workplaces. Our mentally healthy workplaces manufacturing resource kit provides guidance on how you can identify and address common risk factors to mental health in the manufacturing sector and take easy actions to support workplace mental health.
Visit the NSW Government resource kit.
Related information
- Plant, machinery and equipment
- Forklifts
- Noise in manufacturing fact sheet
- Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs)
- Mental Health in the workplace
- The Healthy Older Worker Toolkit (PDF) – Centre for Work Health and Safety
- Guidelines for Safe Collaborative Robot Design and Implementation – Centre for Work Health and Safety