Yichen GuoChief Information Officer · Essays & perspective
Chief Information Officer / China
Yichen Guo
Open toBoard appointments · Speaking invitations
Domestic software substitution5 min read
Replacing systems by understanding the work beneath them
Chinese manufacturers are moving core systems to domestically developed software. The deadline is rarely the main risk. The risk is carrying undocumented plant processes into a new system on a fixed date, and boards should ask for the process record before the cutover calendar.
47 per cent earned outside China, through 214 dealers in 76 countries
Technology colleagues led
610
Across Changzhou, eight plants, Singapore and five regional companies
Connected machines
236,000
Telematics data from excavators and loaders at work in China and abroad
Every system I replace exposes a process nobody wrote down, and writing it down is the part of the programme that lasts.
I am chief information officer of Ruoshan Heavy Machinery Company Limited, a fictional Changzhou manufacturer of hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders and hydraulic components, listed in Shenzhen since 2010 and in Hong Kong since 2019. Revenue in 2025 was RMB 38.6 billion, 47 per cent of it earned outside China. We build machines in seven plants at Changzhou, Huai'an, Hefei and Chengdu and in an assembly plant at Rayong in Thailand, and we sell and service them through 214 independent dealers in 76 countries.
My responsibility covers the systems that plan, build, sell and support those machines: the enterprise resource planning core, the manufacturing execution systems in every plant, the dealer portal, the telematics platform that receives data from 236,000 connected machines, and the security of the plant networks that carry robot and controller traffic. I came to the role from a diesel-engine shop floor, a Sino-German plant and a Nanjing software vendor.
Most of my decisions since becoming CIO in 2019 have been about sequence and boundaries. Which plant moves to the domestic core first. Which data crosses a border and which stays where it was created. Which outside engineer may connect to which controller, and for how long. Which AI pilot earns a second year. I have got some of these wrong, and I describe the failures here beside the results, because directors deciding on technology need to see both.
Six plants moved to a domestic core
Between January 2023 and December 2025 our 11 Chinese legal entities and six of seven plants moved from a foreign ERP suite to domestically developed ERP and MES software. Month-end close fell from eight working days to five, and custom programs from 1,180 to 270.
Dealers served without moving their customers' data
148 of 214 dealers, selling 84 per cent of our overseas volume, now order parts and file warranty claims through a portal hosted in Frankfurt and Singapore. Claims settle in 16 days rather than 41, and end-customer personal data stays in the dealer's region.
Eight plant networks segmented after one incident
After ransomware reached two engineering workstations at Hefei in November 2023, we stopped the plant for 58 hours and then segmented all eight plants at a cost of RMB 78 million. Fifty-two outside vendors now reach our equipment only through recorded, time-limited sessions.
An AI assistant restricted to what it can cite
Our assistant for overseas dealer technicians answers only from cited manuals and bulletins. It handles 61 per cent of questions rather than all of them, and hotline calls fell 19 per cent in 2025, well short of the 45 per cent its sponsor had hoped for.
Current focus
I am preparing the last plant cutover to the domestic core, at Chengdu in November 2026, and a recommendation to the board on whether our overseas subsidiaries should follow by 2028 or stay on an internationally supported suite. Alongside it, I am rewriting maintenance contracts with our equipment vendors so that program backups and access rules become obligations rather than requests.
Conversations I welcome
I am not looking to leave Ruoshan. I would consider one independent directorship at a company listed in mainland China or Hong Kong, outside construction machinery and with no trading relationship with us, serving on its audit and strategy committees. I can offer about thirty days a year, subject to my board's consent. Speaking invitations from plant-management and director-education audiences are welcome too, a few each year.
Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective.
In the boardroom
Ruoshan Machinery (Thailand) Company LimitedDirector of the wholly owned Thai assembly subsidiary, in an executive capacity · 2021–present
Formation
Bachelor of Engineering in industrial automationYanhu Institute of Technology · 1998
Master of Engineering in software engineering (part-time)Liyuan Graduate School of Software · 2010
Yichen told the audit committee about the Huai'an cutover failure before my finance team had finished counting the delayed machines. We argued for a year about when China finance should move, and he changed the date when my reasons were better than his. That is rarer in a CIO than it should be.
Shulan MengFictional chief financial officer, Ruoshan Heavy Machinery Company LimitedThe full record ↗
Contact
I am not looking to leave Ruoshan. I would consider one independent directorship at a company listed in mainland China or Hong Kong, outside construction machinery and with no trading relationship with us, serving on its audit and strategy committees. I can offer about thirty days a year, subject to my board's consent. Speaking invitations from plant-management and director-education audiences are welcome too, a few each year.
