Statistical process control (SPC) and process capability (PC) may not be the latest-and-greatest analytics approaches in food manufacturing, but they deliver what other analytics approaches cannot: a defined path to quickly improve quality, reduce variation, monitor production or process changes, and ultimately increase productivity. They provide a foundation for other analytics approaches and have earned their reputation as the workhorse of manufacturing analytics by delivering easily understood and cost-effective analytics for every level of food manufacturing. The successful selection and implementation of SPC/PC software in a food processing environment does not require the level of commitment that manufacturing execution systems (MES) or enterprise resource planning does (in terms of time, personnel, expertise, and financial resources) to deliver actionable results and quick returns on investment. Once a solid analytics foundation is built with SPC and PC the chances of attaining the additional benefits promised by more esoteric big-data analytics approaches increase as well.