The paper gives an overview of a novel innovative vision system embedded in manufacturing applications. The system is able to handle (1) unknown products, (2) in-available data, (3) large disturbances and deviations (shape, position, or even part type) and (4) even very small lot-sizes. The concept foresees a full integration into production technology. Products to be processed are past through a flexible 3D sensor cell. The proposed system adapts its sensor system to arbitrary product geometry and builds a 3D world model of the task space using a fast and robust 3D object recognition system.