Everyone thinks all pizzas are the same and you just need to pick the toppings!
Nothing could be further from the truth: made from scratch and properly engineered is always the best!
Firstly, all dough is not the same. To me, the flour may be the most important ingredient; it is like picking the correct equipment for your manufacturing floor. You can use all-purpose flour for your dough and you can choose all-purpose SMT placement equipment (Juki, Fuji, Europlacer, Yamaha). Choosing the 00 flour, will give you a finer consistent light dough, just like how choosing Mycronic SMT equipment will give the ease of set-up and a finer placement consistency— necessary for a small build.
Next comes the process. You can use a general-purpose mixer and each dough ball will be the same. On the other hand, you can hand stretch (or manipulate) the dough to the perfect size that will fit your pan. Most rapid prototype suppliers have one process and they fit each project into it. The right supplier will know that each project and timeline are different, so while using the same recipe, they will personalize (or manipulate) each process to fit your request.
Everyone thinks quality is a given. Have you ever tried to make a red sauce and noticed that the slightest difference in ingredients can completely change the taste? Quality needs to be engineered into the process, otherwise you will have bland store-bought sauce. My mom carefully selects and measures every ingredient. The lesson here: never try and fit a one-time quick turn proto into a repeatable process, it just will not have the right flavor!
The toppings to consider here are: Did your supplier debug your documentation? Did they understand your delivery requests? Did they have a good sense of urgency and keep the communication crisp and fresh? How did you sleep during the project? I like my pizza with simple toppings that provide a lot of good taste: sauce with fresh mozzarella and basil. There is nothing worse than expectations that are not understood or being met. Sometimes, the ingredients are good, but if the toppings are not fresh, you will lose the good taste you were counting on.
The bottom line is every assembly is different. Make sure your supplier is not just placing your proof of concept or proto into their standard process. If they’re not: choosing the right ingredients, carefully engineering each step, asking the right questions, adapting to your requests, and communicating with accuracy, you’re going to get a frozen pizza and not even a good Chianti is going to make it taste good!
by Steve Pappalardo, Sales Director at IMS
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