How about a mini game? Sort of like in everquest i believe. certain things happen during the crafting process and you have different ways of correcting the issues. After the mini game ends the stats of the item are based upon how well you handled the mini game. Have a progression system but instead of progressing to make better items have it so you progress to have more solutions to issues in the mini games with different results. Also could have progression simply make the mini game easier to play.
I prefer a mini game where i can directly effect the outcome of my product rather than a simpler progress bar and random stats. Otherwise i feel all i did was trade a few mats for a random piece of gear completely out of my control.
