Danone, one of the world’s largest food producers, operates a vast network of more than 100 production sites and 300 distribution centers. To remain competitive and meet the demands of Industry 5.0, Danone needed to transform how it manages and shares data across its global operations.
At the heart of this transformation is Cortex, a real-time, event-driven digital ecosystem powered by an event mesh built with Solace’s event-driven integration and streaming platform, PubSub+ Platform. Cortex acts as a data highway, enabling real-time integration across Danone’s factories, warehouses, and enterprise systems—powering smarter decision-making, AI-driven insights, and scalable digital transformation.
Challenge: Breaking Down Data Silos
Danone’s traditional IT and OT integrations presented significant challenges:
- Data fragmentation: Information was trapped in isolated systems, preventing real-time visibility.
- Poor decision-making: Data delays meant business decisions were based on outdated information.
- Limited scalability: New digital initiatives deployed in one factory couldn’t be easily rolled out to others due to inconsistent data structures and integration bottlenecks.
To overcome these challenges, Danone needed a real-time, event-driven approach that could connect its entire digital ecosystem, scale on demand, and unlock the power of AI and predictive analytics.
“The transfer of data between IT systems and OT systems in the factories was locked into applications or point-to-point interfaces that introduced latency.”
Mathias Ollion
Digital Manufacturing Manager
Solution: Cortex and Event Mesh
Danone launched Cortex as the foundation of its Digital Manufacturing Acceleration Program—a strategic initiative to modernize data flow across all business operations. By implementing an event mesh with PubSub+ Platform, Danone transformed Cortex into a real-time, scalable data backbone that:
- Instantly connects equipment and applications including manufacturing execution systems (MES), warehouse management systems (WMS) and SAP, and IoT devices.
- Enables IT & OT Convergence, eliminating silos of information and enabling efficient collaboration between physical operations and digital systems.
- Supports AI & Predictive Maintenance, leveraging standardized real-time data for AI-driven insights that reduce equipment failures and optimize production.
- Scales across global operations, allowing solutions deployed in one factory to be easily rolled out across the enterprise.
“Our aim is to deliver a strong foundation of reliable data distribuation across our systems, and also to enable AI so we will able to distribute consistent data with our different partners.
Raluca Roy
IT and Data Manufacturing and Logistics Director
Outcome: A Smarter, More Agile Danone
With Cortex, Danone successfully built a fully connected, real-time operational ecosystem. The impact has been game-changing:
- Faster, data-driven decision-making: Real-time insights drive smarter business operations.
- Superior agility: Digital solutions can be easily implemented across all factories and distribution centers.
- Significant cost savings: Eliminating inefficient integrations reduced IT overhead.
- Future-proofed for Industry 5.0: A strong foundation for AI-driven manufacturing, automation, and intelligent decision-making.
“The positive results led Danone to expand Solace to other sites and now the goal is to extend beyond the factories, enhancing integration with finance, HR and quality tools, as well as distribution centers.”
Raluca Roy
IT and Data Manufacturing and Logistics Director
Danone is a global leading food and beverage company, with a unique health-oriented product portfolio driven by a mission to bring health through food to as many people as possible.