Find Manufacturing Subcontractors in Australia

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Manufacturing subcontracting splits between capacity and capability. Either you need more of what you already do, or you need something you cannot do in-house, and the two are priced and verified very differently.

This page covers what gets subcontracted in this sector, the credentials worth confirming, and how a job runs on Workforce Marketplace. Early access is open.

What gets subcontracted

The work most often subcontracted covers:

Fabrication and welding overflow against a production programme
Machining, turning and CNC work to drawing
Sheet metal, laser cutting and forming
Surface treatment, coating and galvanising
Assembly and sub-assembly under contract
Plant and equipment maintenance, and planned shutdown work
Production labour during peak demand

Credentials that matter here

The credentials that matter are largely about the process and the plant rather than a business licence:

Welding qualifications to the relevant standard and process, and CSWIP 3.1 Welding Inspector where inspection is part of the deal
NDT Level 2 in the relevant method where welds are tested
High Risk Work Licence, Forklift (LF), and dogging or rigging where lifting is involved
Plant tickets for the equipment in use, and EWP where access requires it
ISO Lead Auditor or certified quality system where the contract requires traceability
Confined Space Entry, LOTO isolation and lockout, and Working at Heights for maintenance scopes

On fabrication, the qualification that matters is the welding procedure and the welder qualified against it, not a general trade certificate. If the work is to a standard, ask which standard and ask to see the procedure qualification record.

What to confirm before work starts

An active ABN. Where a supplier does not quote one, you are generally required to withhold 47 per cent of the payment and remit it to the ATO. Their GST registration also tells you whether the price should carry it.

That the credential is held by the entity you are contracting with. A person can hold a qualification while the business you are paying holds nothing. Check the name on the document against the name on the invoice.

Insurance appropriate to the scope. Public liability is the common one. Depending on the work you may also need professional indemnity, and workers compensation if they carry their own staff.

That the engagement is genuinely a contract for services. Since the Fair Work amendments the test looks at the real substance of the relationship rather than the label on the paperwork, and getting it wrong creates back-pay, superannuation and payroll tax exposure. Contractor vs employee in Australia sets out how it now works.

Writing a scope that gets comparable quotes

Manufacturing quotes are only comparable when the tolerance, the standard and the material are fixed. State the drawing revision, who supplies material and what happens to offcuts, the inspection and test plan and who witnesses it, what certification and traceability documents come with the goods, whether finishing and treatment are included, and who carries freight and the cost of rework where the fault is disputed.

How it works on Workforce Marketplace

Post the scope with the payment structure it actually uses, whether that is fixed price, hourly, daily, quoted or split into milestones for staged work. Subcontractors apply, and you compare them side by side rather than chasing callbacks.

Every account is ABN-verified at sign-up. Beyond that, subcontractors can submit licences, certifications and insurance for verification, which we review rather than grant automatically. Their profile shows the status against each credential without showing the document, the licence number or the ABN. Verification is opt-in, so a profile may hold credentials that have not been submitted, and it reflects the document as at the date it was reviewed rather than standing indefinitely.

Applying for work costs nothing and there are no leads to buy. Payment runs through Stripe, and Workforce Marketplace never stores your card or bank details.