A food production system is the way a business turns ingredients into food: how much it makes at once, when, where, and whether it makes to order or to stock. Manufacturers usually describe three kinds: job production, one order at a time; batch production, a set quantity of one product before switching to the next; and continuous production, one product flowing without stopping. Foodservice describes four: conventional, where food is cooked and served in the same place; commissary, where a central kitchen supplies several outlets; ready-prepared or cook-chill, where food is cooked, chilled and reheated later; and assembly-serve, where bought-in food is finished and served. Small food makers usually run batch production, often with some custom orders alongside. Below is each kind with an example, how to choose, and what it takes to run one well.
The short version
- A food production system is how much you make at once, when, where, and why.
- Manufacturing has three kinds: job, batch and continuous.
- Foodservice has four: conventional, commissary, cook-chill, and assembly-serve.
- Small makers usually run batch production; custom orders are job production.
- Every system also answers make to order or make to stock.
- Running one well takes recipes, batch records, stock by lot, and a plan.
- TaroStack runs a batch production system: recipes, production orders, batches, lots and planning. More below.
Manufacturing: job, batch and continuous
| System | What it means | Food example | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job | Each order made on its own, often to a customer's spec | A custom wedding cake | Low volume, high variety |
| Batch | A set quantity of one product, then the line changes over | 24 loaves of taro bread, then 120 cookies | Small and mid-size makers |
| Continuous | One product made nonstop on a dedicated line | A large plant's chip line | High volume, one product |
Batch production is the middle ground: each batch is a known quantity with its own ingredients, its own lot code and its own record, which makes costing and traceability natural. Its cost is the changeover: cleaning, setting up and, for allergens, a full clean between products. How big a batch should be is in batch size calculator.
Foodservice: the four systems
| System | How it works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional | Ingredients bought, prepared, cooked and served in the same place, close to service | A café kitchen |
| Commissary | A central kitchen produces food that's sent to several outlets to finish and serve | A kitchen supplying a food truck and a market stall |
| Ready-prepared (cook-chill, cook-freeze) | Food cooked ahead, chilled or frozen, held, and reheated when needed | Meal prep, frozen meals |
| Assembly-serve | Mostly bought-in prepared food, assembled and heated | A kiosk finishing bought-in pastries |
The commissary and cook-chill systems are the ones closest to a small food manufacturer: the food is made in one place, held, and moved. What a shared commissary kitchen costs is in commissary kitchen cost.
Make to order or make to stock
Every system also has to answer when to make. Make to order waits for the order, so nothing waits on a shelf, but customers wait. Make to stock makes ahead to a forecast, so orders ship at once, but stock can expire. Many small makers do both: shelf-stable products to stock, fresh or custom ones to order. The trade-off is worked through in make to order vs make to stock.
An example: one business, several systems
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, runs several production systems at once:
| Product | System | When it's made |
|---|---|---|
| Taro chips | Batch, to stock | Three fry days a week, 700 bags, to a weekly plan |
| Taro sweet bread for cafés | Batch, to order | Overnight, to each café's standing order |
| Custom celebration cakes | Job, to order | For the date on the order |
| Market stall and food truck | Commissary | Made in the kitchen, finished on site |
Each needs something different: the chips need a forecast and enough shelf life, the bread needs tomorrow's orders by tonight, the cakes need the order's details, and the stall and truck need stock moved and counted. How to turn that into a weekly plan is in how to prepare a production plan.
What it takes to run one well
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Recipes, with versions | Say what one batch takes, and what it should yield |
| Production orders | Say what to make, how much and by when |
| Batch records | Record what was used, from which lots, and what came out |
| Stock by lot | Say what's on hand, where, and when it expires |
| A plan | Says what to make and buy next, against orders, stock and hours |
| Costing | Says what each batch really cost |
Where this stops working
On a whiteboard and a spreadsheet, a production system works until it's busy. The chips' forecast lives in one person's head, the café orders arrive by text, the cake orders in a notebook, and the commissary's stock in a fourth place. Then the oven is double-booked on Thursday, the butter runs out on Friday, and nobody can say which batch of chips went to the stall.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack is built for batch production, with job orders and a commissary alongside.
Recipes and production orders. Each product is a recipe, with sub-recipes for doughs, fillings and sauces, versions, unit conversion and a scrap allowance. A production order says what to make, how much and when, and "what could I make right now" shows what stock on hand covers.
Batches that record themselves. Recording a batch takes ingredients off stock from the lots used, notes them on the batch record, puts the output into a lot with its own date, and costs it from what you paid, divided by what came out good. Batch record forms carry your own checks with limits, and recipe truth shows whether a recipe yields what it claims.
And a plan across all of it. Planning works out what to make, what to buy and what to move, and when, from orders and your own sales history, across sites, shelf-life aware, against your work centers' hours, with every suggestion a draft you approve. A commissary and its outlets are sites, with transfers and stock in transit between them.
| The part | Whiteboard and spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a batch takes | A recipe card | Versioned recipes with sub-recipes |
| What to make this week | One person's head | Planning from orders and history |
| What went into a batch | A notebook, maybe | Lots recorded with the batch |
| Stock at the stall and truck | A guess | Sites, with transfers |
Recipes, production orders, batches and lots are on every plan, from $49 a month; planning and more than one site are on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.