Purpose -To present numerical techniques and results of finite element based optimisation of material forming process for production of shaped food and beverage cans. Design/methodology/approach -The objectives were achieved by combining finite element system ELFEN with optimisation shell INVERSE. These computer systems were applied to optimisation of preform design, optimisation of tribological conditions between can body and individual segments of the tooling system as well as to optimisation of kinematics of the tooling segments. Findings -Numerical analyses show that preform design offers the highest optimisation potential. For preform shape optimisation a very efficient algorithm has been developed which enables effective minimisation of the objective function. Originality/value -The paper identifies three main technological possibilities to optimise production process for shaped cans and quantifies the effects of each option. It also identifies the most efficient optimisation techniques to improve the investigated process.