In the traditional logic of manufacturing, industrial automation focuses on supply-side improvements—higher efficiency, lower capacity costs, and faster production speeds. However, when multinational giants gathered at the 9th China International Import Expo (CIIE), Rockwell Automation, a six-time consecutive exhibitor, presented an unconventional industry assessment: "Today's Chinese manufacturing sector largely lacks neither capacity nor efficiency. If we merely help companies produce one more bottle of water or save a few cents in cost, the value of industrial control remains too limited."
Facing the new trends of intelligentization, greenification, and integration in manufacturing during the15th Five-Year Plan period, Shi An, President of Rockwell Automation (China) Co., Ltd., stated frankly in a pre-exhibition media interview that the core pain points for enterprises currently lie in "lack of orders" and "homogenized involution." To address this, Rockwell Automation is adopting the new identity of a "chain leader" in productive service industries, leveraging virtual-real integrated AIoT technology, the Climate Lighthouse paradigm, and a global ecosystem to guide manufacturing from "single-point optimization" to "global optimum" through cross-indimensional upgrades.
Image | Shi An, President of Rockwell Automation (China) Co., Ltd.; Source: EEFOCUS
From "Network Architecture" to "Data and AI-Native Orchestration"
At this year's CIIE, Rockwell Automation unveiled two core hardware products for their debut at the expo: the CompactLogix® 5390 Controller and the ControlLogix® 5590 Controller.
Image | CompactLogix® 5390 Controller; Source: Rockwell Automation
On the surface, this represents a hardware iteration for medium-large and compact controllers—for example, the form factor of the 5390 has been reduced by 43% compared to the previous generation, saving nearly half of the panel space for enterprises, and it features integrated network and mechanical safety protection strictly compliant with the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).
However, Shi An pointed out that these two hardware products carry underlying micro-adjustments within the broader framework of industrial control.
Past "Integrated Architecture" emphasized the series connection between hardware, whereas the new generation of controllers connects directly to the comprehensive AIoT architecture, with the core lying in bridging the data links across the five layers of industrial control architecture. Through the newly launched FactoryTalk® Conductor™ AI-Native Orchestration Platform, an "AI layer" is injected into industrial scenarios, transforming past network architectures into data architectures.
"Large language models pursue approaching 100% perfection, but industrial AI requires zero errors," Shi An emphasized. Rockwell Automation's advantage lies in its hardcore industrial underlying process mechanism models. Relying on the open capability of EtherNet/IP "one network to the end," it uses AI Agents for program orchestration, deeply integrating the physical world with virtual AI to solve the most challenging issues of "AI silos" and data security in the era of data and AI.
Stepping Out of the Factory Walls: AIoT Driving Precise Rescue on the Demand Side
Rockwell Automation extends its strategy to "beyond the four walls of the factory," covering upstream and downstream supply chains and end-to-end value chains. Since enterprises face significant challenges on the demand side, how does the automation giant help customers "find orders"?
Image | AI Deployment Levels for Reference; Source: Rockwell Automation
Based on signings scheduled during the CIIE, Rockwell Automation is deepening cooperation with traditional leading enterprises in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and nut baking equipment, introducing AI capabilities directly to the marketing end.
Shi An noted that the biggest headache for traditional consumer goods bosses is inventory digestion and the high cost of public domain traffic promotion. What Rockwell Automation is doing is orchestrating a cross-industry ecosystem, introducing front-end precision marketing and private domain systems, using front-end consumption big data to reverse-empower back-end manufacturing and lights-out warehouse logistics with precision.
A typical case involves a traditional nut baking equipment manufacturer facing dual bottlenecks of industry involution and second-generation succession. Rockwell Automation did not help them engage in hardware price wars but utilized lightweight, modular "Digital + AI" capabilities to assist their transformation from "selling equipment" to "providing digital-intelligent services." This successfully opened a second growth curve with higher profit margins for the enterprise and smoothly completed the transition of talent and industry succession.
"We facilitate complementary advantages at the DNA level," Shi An smiled. Rockwell Automation does not earn money from the marketing end, but when partners precisely align with front-end demands, hard requirements for automation technologies like lights-out factories and unmanned warehousing naturally derive from the back-end. This is exactly where Rockwell Automation excels.
"Green Sustainability" Must Be Grafted onto "Industrial Sustainability"
At this year's CIIE, "Green Sustainability and Climate" was the absolute main axis of Rockwell Automation's booth. However, amid constantly changing global ESG narratives and survival threats posed by carbon taxes for many SMEs going global, Rockwell Automation's green logic appears relatively pragmatic.
"If your industry cannot survive, what is there to talk about regarding green sustainability?" Shi An pointed out incisively. The underlying logic of true green sustainability is that there must be orders and profitability to support green investments.
To this end, the Climate Lighthouse initiative jointly launched by Rockwell Automation and Shanghai Climate Week has accumulated over 500 advanced use cases in three years, selecting 100 excellent cases covering more than 100 industrial sub-sectors. The global business scale of the enterprises behind these cases accounts for approximately 1.2% of the global GDP. Meanwhile, the 2026 Climate Lighthouse released new paradigm results, focusing on publishing the Climate Lighthouse Construction Guidelines white paper to provide replicable methodologies for the entire industrial chain.
Shi An emphasized that Rockwell Automation's driving strategy is not single-point improvement but "led by the chain leader, pulling the entire chain at once." For example, the SDMA (Supply Chain Digital Maturity Assessment) system co-created with top global food and beverage clients directly links suppliers' green and digital-intelligence metrics with "order share allocation." If they are not green enough or fail to meet standards, their allocated orders decrease. This business model, which strongly binds sustainable development with the "lifeline of orders" that enterprise bosses care about most, is demonstrating remarkable chain-driving effects.
China for the World: Going Global Together with Cross-Industry Partners
Currently, as the global landscape evolves rapidly, Chinese manufacturing is moving from "In China, For China" to a new stage of "China for the World"—radiating global standards and markets through high-density scenario practices in China.
Shi An revealed that Rockwell Automation has participated in the CIIE six times because it serves as a strategic platform connecting top-tier global resources. At this year's CIIE, Rockwell Automation not only showcased continuously deepened IT/OT full-stack software-defined manufacturing solutions with giants like Cisco and Dell but also reached a strategic partnership with TÜV Rheinland, the German entity that sets the rules.
Facing trust barriers such as cross-border data compliance and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) encountered by Chinese SMEs going global, Rockwell Automation leverages its "objective and neutral" multinational identity. It integrates domestic cost-effective structures with its own digital-intelligence solutions, coordinating with third-party verification agencies like TÜV Rheinland and SGS in the early stages, systematically opening a "trust green channel" for China's 180,000 "Specialized, Refined, Differential, and Innovative" (SRDI) enterprises to go global.
Simultaneously, Rockwell Automation is actively offline-izing this ecosystem carrier. Relying on the "Net-Zero Smart Manufacturing Joint Innovation Center" built with Caohejing Hi-Tech Park, Rockwell Automation is converting the short-term buzz of exhibitions into long-term strategic exchanges between senior executives, bridging the last mile from innovation scenarios to scaled industrial GDP.
Conclusion
"Without crossing boundaries, you are destined for a red ocean; blue ocean opportunities always lie in crossing boundaries," Shi An summarized. "By orchestrating friend circles through 'cross-dimensional upgrades' and solving social livelihood and supply chain difficulties that others cannot, Chinese manufacturing can truly bid farewell to low-price involution and sail toward a blue ocean future of global optimum."