All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Manufacturing and metal fabrication safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for manufacturers, structural and miscellaneous metal fabricators, welding, machine and sheet metal shops, and equipment builders, wherever in Canada the plant is. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: machine safeguarding, machine-specific lockout, presses, press brakes and shears, CNC machines, welding, cutting and hot work, cylinders, grinders, overhead cranes and rigging, forklifts and loading docks, robots and automated cells, painting and blasting, and confined spaces in the plant. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s guarding, lockout, crane, forklift, welding and young worker rules and Ontario’s pre-start review. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: twenty safe work practices written for plants and fabrication shops, machine guarding shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's machine guarding, lockout, crane, forklift, welding and young worker rules, and Ontario's pre-start review

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready forms: the machine-specific lockout procedure and lockout record shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, supervisors, lead hands, welders and fitters, machinists, operators, maintenance and shipping, and for crews who install at a client’s site.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by work area and process, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the workstation and task hazard assessment.

3. Safe work practices

Twenty practices for the plant: housekeeping, machine guarding, lockout, welding, cylinders, hot work, grinders, presses and shears, CNC machines, cranes and rigging, forklifts, ergonomics, hazardous products, painting and blasting, electrical, docks and racking, robots, heights, confined spaces and shift work.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for locking out a machine, changing press brake tooling, welding inside a tank, an overhead crane lift, changing an abrasive wheel, loading at the dock, running a CNC machine and hot work outside the welding area.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for the plant (never reach past a guard, lock it out yourself, no hot work without a permit, never under a suspended load), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Welding PPE, respirators and fit testing, hearing protection, cut-resistant gloves, eye and face protection and footwear, chosen by task.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Machines and their guards and interlocks, cranes and below-the-hook devices, forklifts, compressed air, ventilation and fume extraction, and racking.

8. Training and communication

Machine authorization, crane and forklift operators, welders, lockout training, and orientation for every new and young worker.

9. Inspections

Workplace inspections of production, the warehouse and maintenance, a yearly machine guarding audit, and pre-use checks of cranes, forklifts and tools.

10. Investigations and reporting

Amputations, caught-in incidents, crane and forklift incidents, burns and near misses reported and investigated.

11. Emergency preparedness

Entanglement, amputation, fire, a gas leak, a confined space rescue and first aid that reaches every corner of the plant.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Lockout procedures, guarding audits, crane and forklift inspections, hot work permits and training records, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law, the CSA machine guarding, lockout, welding, crane and lift truck standards, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Buying and modifying machines, contractors in the plant, and checking new equipment and products before they arrive.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, machine guarding and lockout, cranes and forklifts, welding and hot work, young workers on machinery, Ontario’s pre-start review, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

38 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the workstation and task hazard assessment, machine-specific lockout procedure and record, hot work permit, machine guarding audit, crane and forklift pre-use inspections and confined space entry permit.

Written for the work, not just the province

In a plant the serious injuries come from machines: a hand past a guard, a jam cleared with the power on, a press brake cycling during a tooling change, a load slipping off a crane hook. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

Every machine gets its own lockout procedure and a yearly guarding audit, and where a province sets a stricter rule, the stricter rule wins.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the plant is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Manufacturers, structural and miscellaneous metal fabricators, welding, machine and sheet metal shops, equipment and trailer builders, and their install crews.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your plant and your machines before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for manufacturers and metal fabrication, welding and machine shops and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law, machine guarding, lockout, crane, forklift, welding and young worker rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 28 October 2026.