A workplace safety inspection on a manufacturing floor is a walk through production looking for the things that hurt people in plants specifically: a guard someone has taken off to clear a jam, a lock that was never applied, a forklift cutting through a walkway, a drum of solvent decanted into an unmarked bottle at a workstation. This checklist follows that walk — machines, isolation, traffic, chemicals at the point of use, noise, extraction, air, hot work and the line itself — and you can fill it in here and download the finished PDF without creating an account.
Who this checklist is for
It is written for production supervisors, plant safety leads, EHS coordinators and the managers who walk a factory, fabrication shop, food plant, moulding hall or assembly line on a weekly or monthly cycle. Every question assumes there is machinery running and people working beside it.
If you are inspecting an office, a shop, a clinic or a mixed premises, the general workplace inspection at /general-workplace-inspection is the better fit — it is the broad periodic sweep for any building. A construction site has its own walk, and an employer who wants to check themselves against every OSHA subject has the OSHA self-inspection.
Topics a plant does not have — welding, compressed gas, a forklift fleet — sit behind a single question each. Answer No and the topic folds away, and the switch never counts toward the score.
Guarding: check it the way it fails
Guards rarely fail by breaking. They are removed for a changeover and not refitted, an interlock switch is taped or held with a magnet so the door can stay open, or a light curtain is muted and left that way. The checks here are written to catch those, not just to confirm that a guard exists.
When you find a problem, put it in the guarding defect log with the machine number, what is wrong, and whether the machine was stopped. A line in the report that reads "guarding — No" helps nobody; "Press 4, rear panel off, interlock bridged, machine stopped and tagged" gets fixed.
Lockout is a habit, so watch for it
Written isolation procedures and a rack of padlocks show that the system exists. What tells you it works is what people do when a machine jams mid-shift. The quickest route to a serious injury on a production floor is reaching into a machine that has been stopped but not isolated.
Look for:
- A personal lock on each isolation point for every person working on the machine, not one lock for the team.
- A try-start after isolating, to prove the machine really is dead.
- Stored energy released — air dumped, hydraulics bled, raised parts blocked, springs relaxed.
- Jam clearing done with the machine isolated, or with a tool designed for it from outside the guard.
Chemicals at the line, not in the store
The chemical store usually passes. The problems are at the workstation: a day's worth of solvent turning into a week's worth, a spray bottle with no label, cutting fluid that has gone rancid and is giving operators dermatitis, an eyewash bottle that expired last year. This checklist looks where the substance is actually being used.
Speak while you walk, and the record writes itself: "Line 2, station 6, unlabelled wash bottle of IPA, about half a litre, removed" is easy to say standing in front of it and almost impossible to reconstruct back at a desk.
Common questions
How often should a manufacturing workplace be inspected?
A documented floor walk like this one weekly or monthly is common, with some things on their own cycles: forklifts and guarding checked before each shift, extraction systems examined on a statutory cycle, pressure systems and lifting equipment on theirs. If findings pile up faster than you can close them, walk more often.
What is the difference between this and a general workplace inspection?
Focus. The general workplace inspection is a broad sweep for any premises, offices included. This one assumes a production floor and spends its questions on machines, isolation, vehicles among people, process chemicals, noise and extraction — the hazards that cause serious injuries in plants.
Who should carry out a shop floor safety inspection?
Someone who knows how the machines are supposed to be guarded and isolated, and who can stop a machine on the spot. Take an operator or a maintenance technician from that area with you; they know which guards come off and why.
Should I stop a machine during the inspection?
If a guard is missing or defeated, or an emergency stop does not work, yes — stop it, tag it, tell the supervisor, and record that you did. The form asks about this before it lets you sign off.
Does this replace a machinery risk assessment?
No. A risk assessment decides what guarding and controls a machine needs. This inspection checks whether those controls are still in place and being used on the day you walk.