Food & Beverage
Optimise batch scheduling, find hidden capacity, reduce changeover waste, and replan production when conditions change
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A sector under pressure to transform
Squeezed margins, rising input costs, growing SKU complexity, and production planning that still runs on spreadsheets and experience. The gap between what the sector needs to produce and the tools it has to plan with grows every year. Cogna is the AI partner that closes that gap.
78%
of food manufacturers say manufacturing costs increased in 2025
54%
of food manufacturers say automation investment is their top priority
£14bn
Untapped productivity opportunity in UK food and drink manufacturing
Common use cases
How teams are applying AI to critical workflows in food and beverage companies
Production planning and batch scheduling
Model multi-stage production across lines, balance demand against ingredient availability, shelf life, and changeover costs, and generate plans that maximise throughput from existing assets.
Blending and recipe optimisation
Optimise ingredient blending across tanks, lines, and constraints in real time. Find hidden capacity and reduce waste by modelling the actual physics of the production process.
Disruption replanning
When equipment fails and prepped materials have hours of shelf life left, trace the impact through every production stage and generate alternative plans with clear trade-offs in minutes.
Quality and process optimisation
Detect drift in process variables like temperature, humidity, and bake colour across batches. Flag deviations before they become waste and recommend adjustments backed by production data.
Regulatory compliance and food safety
Assemble audit-ready documentation for BRC, SQF, and HACCP requirements. Automate traceability records, allergen management, and evidence packs that today consume entire teams.
Demand-driven capacity planning
Connect customer orders and demand forecasts directly to production capacity, raw material stock, and delivery windows. Replace weekly replanning cycles that run on email and spreadsheets.
What our customers say
“I've not seen a solution like this before. What Cogna has built is exceptional.”
Tim Steiner
CEO, Ocado
Frequently Asked Questions
Food and beverage manufacturers are using AI where the biggest capacity and margin gains sit: batch scheduling, blending optimisation, disruption replanning, quality control, compliance documentation, and demand-driven capacity planning. Most of this work still depends on spreadsheets and a small number of key people.
78% of food manufacturers say manufacturing costs increased in 2025, and 54% say automation investment is their top priority. Margins are squeezed from both sides: input costs up, retail pricing power limited. The gains have to come from production efficiency.
Scheduling production across lines with ingredient, shelf-life, and changeover constraints. Replanning when equipment fails and prepped materials have hours of life left. Detecting process drift before it becomes waste. Connecting demand forecasts to actual production capacity. Cogna builds applications for the decisions made under pressure with incomplete information.
Yes. Cogna integrates with your ERP, MES, SCADA, quality management systems, and scheduling tools. Manufacturing environments have complex data landscapes with many specialist systems. Cogna connects across them to add planning and process intelligence.
Cogna deploys alongside your existing production operation. Discovery happens with your production experts, the solution is built around your actual constraints and line configurations, and you test against real production data before committing.
