Lesaffre brings AI and real-time data to 32 major fermentation plants

French fermentation specialist Lesaffre is expanding its use of artificial intelligence, connected manufacturing systems and real-time data analysis across its global production network, beginning with its 32 largest sites. The initiative forms part of the company's Industry 4.0 program, designed to improve decision-making, strengthen production oversight and give employees better tools to manage complex fermentation processes.

• Lesaffre is standardizing digital manufacturing systems across its 32 largest production facilities.
• AI-powered analysis and real-time monitoring are helping teams improve fermentation process control.
• The company outlined its digital transformation strategy at AVEVA World 2026.

Lesaffre has outlined how it is incorporating artificial intelligence and connected manufacturing technologies into its fermentation operations, with a particular emphasis on making production data more accessible and useful to employees working across its international network.

The French company, which specializes in yeast, bacteria and fermentation-derived ingredients, presented details of its digital manufacturing program at AVEVA World 2026, where members of its Digital Manufacturing team discussed the progress made in modernizing its industrial operations.

Central to the initiative is the creation of a standardized approach to collecting, organizing and analyzing manufacturing data across Lesaffre's production facilities. The initial rollout covers its 32 largest sites, establishing a common framework through which information from different equipment, systems and production processes can be brought together.

For a business operating fermentation facilities across multiple countries, the ability to compare and interpret manufacturing information consistently is an important part of improving operational performance. Individual production sites may use different equipment, configurations and working practices, making it difficult to establish a consolidated picture of manufacturing activity without a shared digital infrastructure.

Lesaffre's approach involves collecting production data, harmonizing it across different systems and adding the context necessary for employees to interpret what the information means in practical terms.

The objective is to give production teams access to information that can support decisions while manufacturing processes are underway, rather than relying exclusively on retrospective analysis.

By connecting equipment and manufacturing systems, Lesaffre is also seeking to improve visibility throughout its production operations and strengthen traceability from one stage of the process to another.

“As a best practice, our standard enables rapid deployment of high-value use cases without requiring extensive development time. This approach allows us to make the right decision at the right time,” said Rémi Correia, Global PI System Program Manager, and François Pineau, Global 4.0 Factory Leader, in a joint statement.

The company's work with industrial software provider AVEVA has been an important component of this process. Its digital manufacturing teams presented their experience with the AVEVA PI System, a platform used to collect, manage and analyze operational data from industrial equipment and processes.

Establishing common standards is intended to make it easier to introduce digital applications at different production sites without having to develop individual solutions from scratch.
This is particularly relevant to fermentation, where production conditions must be carefully managed to maintain product quality and process consistency.

Fermentation performance depends on numerous interacting variables, including temperature, oxygen availability, nutrient supply and the metabolic activity of microorganisms. Changes in these conditions can affect productivity and the characteristics of the resulting ingredients.

Real-time monitoring can provide operators with a clearer understanding of how these variables are behaving throughout production. Combining that information with analytical tools can also help teams identify patterns, investigate deviations and make adjustments based on a more complete picture of process performance.

Lesaffre is incorporating AI-powered capabilities alongside its existing fermentation expertise to support this work. The company describes the technology as a means of strengthening employees' ability to understand and control manufacturing processes, rather than replacing the judgment of experienced operators.

Its approach places considerable emphasis on the relationship between digital systems and the people responsible for running its facilities.

The company has accumulated decades of experience in industrial fermentation, and its digital strategy is intended to make that knowledge more effective by giving employees access to relevant information at the point where decisions are made.

The initiative also addresses traceability, with connected systems providing greater visibility across the production lifecycle. For a manufacturer supplying yeast, bacterial cultures and other ingredients to customers with demanding quality requirements, consistent access to production information can support quality assurance and operational reliability.

Lesaffre has not disclosed specific productivity improvements, cost savings or reductions in manufacturing downtime associated with the program. Nor has it provided a timetable for extending the standardized systems across its remaining facilities.

However, the emphasis on its 32 largest manufacturing sites indicates that the company is concentrating initially on operations where a common digital infrastructure can be deployed across substantial production activity.

The program follows four years of work on digital transformation, according to the presentation shared with AVEVA World attendees.

For Lesaffre, the immediate priority is making information generated throughout its manufacturing operations easier to use, while allowing production teams to retain responsibility for decisions informed by that data.

The company is continuing to develop its connected manufacturing capabilities as part of its wider industrial performance strategy, combining established fermentation expertise with increasingly sophisticated tools for monitoring, analyzing and managing production.

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