This programme was designed to move beyond traditional efficiency and build true manufacturing agility. We helped the client re-engineer their processes to improve the effectiveness of their response to market volatility, ensuring continuity of supply for critical medicines in a turbulent environment.
Executive Summary
The UK’s world-leading pharmaceutical manufacturing sector faces a critical inflection point. Confronted with volatile energy markets, mounting operational costs, and the NHS’s ambitious decarbonisation targets, the industry requires a paradigm shift from rigid, energy-intensive processes to a more dynamic, resilient, and sustainable model. In response, Innovate UK launched its Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Grand Challenge.
The Decision Lab, leading a strategic consortium of industry giants and academic experts, was awarded funding to pioneer a solution. Our project, EcoSynth, introduces an AI-powered energy orchestrator that transforms production planning from a static, siloed function into an intelligent, integrated system. By synchronising production schedules with real-time energy data, carbon intensity forecasts, and on-site renewables, we are building an antifragile manufacturing ecosystem. Initial pilots have already demonstrated the potential for 7-12% energy savings, up to 20% reduction in Scope 2 CO₂ emissions, and a 10% uplift in asset utilisation. This initiative is not just about incremental improvements; it is about creating a replicable, scalable blueprint to secure the UK’s position as a global leader in low-carbon, resilient medicines manufacturing.
The Challenge: A High-Stakes Environment
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is the backbone of UK life sciences, yet it operates under immense pressure. The sector spends over £1 billion annually on energy and is responsible for an estimated 5% of Europe’s industrial CO₂ emissions. This environmental footprint is coupled with significant economic and regulatory challenges:
- Energy Volatility: Unpredictable energy prices create major financial risks for manufacturers whose validated processes cannot be easily adjusted.
- NHS Net Zero Targets: The NHS, a primary customer, has mandated that suppliers publish carbon reduction plans and footprints, making decarbonisation a commercial imperative.
- Operational Rigidity: Traditional planning systems are blind to energy and carbon data. Schedules are optimised for throughput and compliance, leaving significant cost and carbon savings untapped and exposing the supply chain to disruption.
The challenge was clear: to move beyond isolated efficiency measures and fundamentally redesign the operational DNA of medicines manufacturing to be smarter, more adaptive, and inherently sustainable.
Our Solution: The EcoSynth AI-Powered Orchestrator
Leveraging our deep expertise in energy management, strategic production planning, and optimisation, The Decision Lab convened a powerhouse consortium including GSK, AstraZeneca, the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGTC), Aston University, Industrial Systems and Control, and Transformational Energy.
Together, we are developing EcoSynth: an AI-powered energy orchestrator that serves as an intelligent co-pilot for production planners.
EcoSynth integrates disparate data streams—from manufacturing execution systems (MES), grid carbon intensity forecasts, and on-site energy assets—into a single, dynamic decision-support environment. Its core innovation lies in its ability to:
- Forecast and Model: Predict energy demand and carbon impact at an asset level.
- Optimise Schedules: Recommend adjustments to production sequences to align with periods of low-cost, low-carbon energy, without compromising GMP compliance or throughput.
- Simulate Scenarios: Allow planners to test strategies and build resilience against market or grid disruptions, creating a truly antifragile operational capability.
This project, funded by Innovate UK, moves beyond theory. It involves live pilots at up to eight diverse manufacturing sites, including a pioneering National Readiness Demonstrator that integrates on-site hydrogen generation to stress-test the system in a next-generation energy environment.
Business Outcomes and Strategic Impact
The EcoSynth project is already delivering significant, measurable results that create a powerful business case for change.
Quantifiable Performance Gains:
- 7-12% reduction in total site energy consumption.
- Up to 20% reduction in Scope 2 CO₂ emissions through intelligent scheduling.
- 10% uplift in asset utilisation by smoothing production flow and reducing downtime.
- An estimated £100M+ in potential annual savings if scaled across the UK pharma sector.
Strategic Business Benefits:
- Enhanced Resilience: By creating flexibility in energy use, the system makes the supply chain less vulnerable to price shocks and grid instability, enhancing its antifragility.
- Competitive Advantage: Directly supports compliance with the NHS Net Zero Supplier Roadmap, securing and strengthening crucial commercial relationships.
- Increased Productivity: Frees up production capacity and capital by optimising existing assets rather than requiring expensive new infrastructure.
- UK Economic Strength: Anchors high-value jobs and intellectual property in the UK, aligning with the government’s Life Sciences Vision and Advanced Manufacturing Plan.
By proving that sustainability and productivity are not mutually exclusive, we are providing a practical, scalable blueprint for deep industrial decarbonisation. This positions the UK to lead the global transition to cleaner, more efficient, and resilient medicines manufacturing.