Yichen GuoChief Information Officer · Essays & perspective

Yichen Guo / Chief Information Officer

Three arguments about what a factory's systems should be judged on

Perspectives from a life in leadership.

The latest essay

Domestic software substitution5 min read

A domestic ERP will not fix a process we never wrote down

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.

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Domestic software substitution

  1. Domestic software substitution5 min read

    A domestic ERP will not fix a process we never wrote down

    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.

    Open essay

Operational-technology security

  1. Operational-technology security5 min read

    Our plants are only as closed as our maintenance contracts

    Machinery plants rarely connect their robot and controller networks to the internet on purpose. The outside world enters through the equipment vendors and integrators who maintain them, and the protection that lasts is written into their contracts.

    Open essay

AI in manufacturing

  1. AI in manufacturing5 min read

    Count the factory AI pilots you stopped

    Manufacturers report AI by the projects they have started. A board learns more from the pilots that were stopped, why they were stopped and what the survivors actually changed on the shop floor.

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