The physical AI startup's Process-Aware Autonomy is nominated in the Equipment and Service category by the ADS manufacturer members running Laminar Clean-in-Place models to improve productivity and sustainability
BOSTON, Oct. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Laminar, creator of Process-Aware Autonomy — the foundation that makes self-driving factories possible, today announced its nomination for the 2026 Supplier Partner of the Year Award in the Equipment and Service category by The Association for Dressings and Sauces (ADS). The nomination was submitted by ADS manufacturer member companies and announced in advance of the ADS Annual Business Forum, held October 4-6th, 2026 in Philadelphia, where winners will be named.
The award recognizes supplier members who have elevated themselves as true partners through equipment and service, embedding in plant operations and solving problems on the production floor.
"A dressings and sauces line can run dozens of formulations, and every switch means a full clean," said Annie Lu, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Laminar. "Those cleans run to a fixed recipe, so they take longer and use more water and chemicals than the line actually needs. In a plant running around the clock, every minute spent cleaning is a minute not producing. This nomination by the manufacturers themselves tells us Process-Aware Autonomy solves a real problem in addition to delivering improvements for both productivity and sustainability."
Laminar works with dressings and sauces manufacturers of every size, from regional co-manufacturers to global brands. Laminar's Process-Aware Autonomy connects to the control systems a plant already owns: advanced, inline sensors on existing pipework measure what flows through the line in real time, the models reason about the real-time chemistry against the optimal process state as it happens, and a cleaning cycle advances when the line reads clean instead of when a timer runs out.
The nomination by ADS members recognizes Laminar's work to move the Dressings and Sauce industry forward. Laminar engineers commission on site, tune models to each line's own formulations and residues, and train operators and sanitation teams to read the data themselves instead of waiting on a report. Savings are verified cycle by cycle, so a plant can see what changed and why.
Operators urgently need Laminar's category defining approach to transform static processes into dynamic ones. Dressings, condiments, and sauces run high SKU counts on shared lines, which means frequent changeovers and a clean between nearly every one of them. Many of those changeovers cross allergens, so cleaning validation is not optional. Water and energy use now carry reporting obligations alongside cost. The cleaning cycle is where cost, capacity, and compliance all meet — and where timer-based recipes, waste time, labor, and utilities. Consequently, changeovers and CIP see the strongest savings from transformation to self-driving with Laminar.
Laminar Process-Aware Autonomy
Laminar is a pioneer in Physical AI for process manufacturing, enabling operators to unlock more productive and sustainable production lines. The startup's Process-Aware Autonomy converts inefficient, pre-programmed automation to dynamic, self-driving processes that save time, chemicals, energy, and water — ultimately powering factories that are more agile and more resilient.
- Process-Aware Sensors: Patented, inline sensors retrofit easily into existing infrastructure and generate a unique, digital fingerprint of what's flowing inside the pipe in real-time.
- Process-Aware AI: Factory-proven, foundational ML models interpret the digital fingerprints in the context of a specific manufacturing process to determine the current process state and autonomously drive the optimal next action.
- Process-Aware Insights: Laminar's trust layer that transforms millions of historical, real-time, and predictive process measurements into explainable decisions, verified savings, and actionable opportunities so operators can confidently run the best version of their factory.
Laminar Proven at Scale
Laminar is deployed on hundreds of lines across six continents, including with seven of the ten largest global food and beverage companies — among them AB InBev, Coca-Cola, and Unilever. Across those deployments, Laminar has measured an average of 20% less chemical use, 20% less water per cycle, and cycles running 15% faster. At Unilever's Poznań facility, Laminar saved more than €100,000 annually on each of two lines.
Laminar Industry recognition
The ADS nomination adds to recognition from some of the industry's most demanding institutions. Laminar received the 2026 FoodTech Innovation Award and the 2026 Edison Gold Award in Manufacturing and Logistics, and was named AB InBev's 2024 Cheers Award winner for outstanding startup partnership and Unilever's 2023 Supplier Startup of the Year. Laminar is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and is deployed in WEF Lighthouse factories, a select group recognized for leadership in advanced industrial technology.
Headquartered at Greentown Labs in Somerville, MA — North America's leading cleantech community, Laminar is a woman-founded startup backed by top-tier investors, including Greycroft, Construct Capital, 2048 Ventures, and Flybridge Capital.
About ADS
The Association for Dressings and Sauces (ADS) was founded in 1926 and represents manufacturers of salad dressing, mayonnaise and condiment sauces and suppliers of raw materials, packaging and equipment to this segment of the food industry. Its purpose is to serve the best interests of industry members, its customers, and consumers of its products.
About Laminar
Laminar's Process Aware Autonomy is an entirely new category of Physical AI reinventing how leading process manufacturers run more productive, sustainable factories. Our patented, inline sensors measure real-time fluid conditions in every production process, informing our factory-proven, foundational Process-Aware Models that interpret process states to drive optimal decisions that maintain quality standards and reduce waste. The Laminar Insights Platform serves as our trust layer for AI decision making and delivers real-time visibility into the time, water, chemical, and energy saved across every cycle, line, and facility. Across six continents, leading manufacturers like AB InBev, Coca-Cola, and Unilever trust Laminar to run their most critical processes and realize self-driving factories. Learn more at runlaminar.com
** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
Dressings and Sauces Manufacturers Nominate Laminar for the 2026 ADS Supplier Partner of the Year Award
