Having spent 25 years in various manufacturing industries, including: auto, electronics, heavy, white goods and others, I thought, "How hard could food processing be?" Now that I've spent some time in food/beverage, I have an entirely new appreciation for this world! 

This article hits it on the head!  I would put food processing in a league of its own.  And, fortunately, the major producers understand that cheap labor means nothing if quality and safety are compromised.

With all due respect, i beleive you have missed key aspects to any manufacturing process.  A quality process produces minimal output variation, is robust to input variation, and produces within design specifications.

Food production IS a manufacturing process and the quality concerns are the same for food as with any other process.  The aspects you  presented as "different", i.e. food is different day to day, batch to batch, ... this is exactly the with-in lot and between lot variation every manufacturer has to cope.  See "robust to input variation".

The "unique" aspects of a "recipe" are exactly the process standardization every manufacturer struggles to find. 

The sampling you contend is unique because the sample cannot be returned is exactly a challenge many manufacturers look to optimize through approproate measurement systems (ever try to return a machined part that needs to be sectioned (i.e. cut) back into regular production? ever try to return the sample taken out of a batch of steel? or how about sample a part in the middle of a heat treat process?)  even if a manufacturer CAN do non-destructive testing and evaluation, the cost to check is still a barrier to cost and throughput. 

I could go on with examples but I beleive you are attempting to make a point between different types of manufacturing processes.  I believe every process can fit into one of 3 categories: transformation, assembly, fabrication.  While there are some processes (e.g. welding fabricates (joins parts) and transforms (melts the material into something different that is difficult to restore) that blur this somewhat I believe this captures the essence of what you are trying to speak to.

I see you article as describing "transforming" processes.  Of these, many food products, many raw materials (steel, aluminum, polymer creation, reaction molding, heat treating, etc.), drugs, soaps, dyes, etc. all fit into this category.  All have the attributes of "batch" mentality and "recipe" mentality.  all are created from varying degrees of source material that may be less controllable than assembly or fabrication.  Many of these processes are more sensitive to envirommental conditions (temperature, humidity, moisture content, etc.)

you contrast this to what i term "assembly" operations.  Of these most are not food (however, creating spice blends, filling containers, etc. fit into this category).  These processes typically have better controlled raw materials (maybe not basket assembly, the reeds are still grown and have inherent "mother nature variability") as they come from some other fabrication or transformational process.  IF (and thats emphasized purposefully) the design of the assembly allows, THEN the part can be disassembled and reworked (with significant cost any throughput penalties).  The difficulty here is many assembly processes contain transformational steps (many plactic parts are assembled and kept in place via heat staking).  Some, such as soldering, can be "retransformed" back to the oringial state or "close enough"

then we get to fabrication.  many fabrication processes (i.e. machining, molding, forming, etc.) while they do not generally alter the chemistry of the source materials, do locally transform the raw material making it prohibitive to "revert back".  Machining, for example, creates a new shape out of a raw shape and creates waste in the form of chips.  while the chips and the "finished" shape can be remade into the raw form, they would need to go back through the transformational process that created the raw shape (be it billet, bar, casting, forging, etc.).  Even sheet metal bending creates localized tranformations that may make it very difficult to revert a formed piece back to the origanl flat stock.

SOOOOOO..my (very) long winded point is ALL manufacturing has the SAME approaches to Quality namely: be within design specification with minimal output variation and is robust to process inputs. 

Kind regards,

Richard A Johnson, CQE

I liked the article, but as I was reading through I kept expecting to see what is near and dear to my heart - the packaging.  The correct packaging and measurement of that packaging determines how long food lasts on the shelves or in the freezer, how it looks, and whether it is safe to eat.  Packaging is becoming more complex and more integral to the product every day as we move from traditional cans, jars and simple plastics to flexible packaging and multi-layer films.  Each package has its own challenges for measurement and inspection and this should be treated with the same care as the aspects you discussed.