The shutdown you fear is not the fire. It is the phone call.
If you run a plant in Ontario, you already know the moment that hurts most. A customer calls asking why the shipment is late. Your team is scrambling for parts. Your suppliers are waiting on you. Your cash flow is now tied to a repair timeline you do not control.
Manufacturing losses compound. Repairs are only the first cost. The second cost is downtime. The third cost is the ripple effect across contracts, freight, payroll, and customer retention.
The biggest insurance gap in manufacturing
Most policies are built to pay for physical damage. Many are not built to keep your business stable while you rebuild.
Common gaps we see in Ontario and across Canada include:
• Business interruption limits that do not reflect real recovery time
• Equipment breakdown coverage that does not match lead times and replacement realities
• Supplier disruption that is excluded because contingent business interruption was never added
• Inadequate coverage for stock, work in progress, and finished goods in transit
• Product liability limits that do not match customer contracts
• Cyber exposure that stops operations even when nothing is physically damaged
What a strong manufacturing insurance program should include
A resilient program is structured around your actual production flow, not last year’s policy wording.
• Property coverage based on accurate values for building, equipment, stock, and work in progress
• Equipment breakdown with realistic repair, replacement, and expediting costs
• Business interruption and extra expense sized to your real restoration timeline
• Contingent business interruption for key suppliers and key customers
• Cargo, stock throughput, or transit coverage if you ship across Ontario, Canada, and the US
• Product liability and completed operations aligned with your largest contracts
• Cyber coverage that addresses operational shutdown risk
Practical steps to reduce premiums and reduce surprises
• Update values and revenue assumptions annually, not only at renewal time
• Document critical dependencies: top suppliers, top customers, and single points of failure
• Build a downtime plan: alternate production, alternate suppliers, alternate shipping
• Treat certificates and contracts as part of your insurance program, not paperwork
FAQ
**What is the difference between equipment breakdown and property insurance?** Property responds to insured physical damage from covered causes. Equipment breakdown is designed for sudden and accidental breakdown of certain equipment and the resulting loss. The gap matters when the damage mechanism is mechanical or electrical rather than an external event.
**Why do manufacturers get burned on business interruption?** Because the policy was sized to revenue, not gross profit and recovery time. The repair might be weeks. The return to normal output can be months.
**Do I need different coverage if I sell across Canada?** Often yes. Transit, warehousing, contracts, and product exposure scale quickly when you distribute nationally.
Talk to Boardwalk
If your equipment values, suppliers, production volume, or contracts changed in the last year, your insurance should change too. Boardwalk builds manufacturing programs for Ontario operations with Canada wide exposure, with a clear focus on downtime, cash flow protection, and contract readiness.