Rockwell Automation and Tyson join hands to build a green and smart industrial chain for the food industry

Rockwell Automation and Tyson Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreement to Build Smart Factories in the Food Industry

(Shanghai, China, November 6, 2021) On November 6, Rockwell Automation signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tyson Foods at the 4th China International Import Expo to jointly build a smart factory in the food industry, helping Tyson Foods improve the digitalization and standardization capabilities of the entire process "from farm to table", and realize the entire process of smart breeding and intelligent production from breeder chicken breeding, hatching, broiler growth, feed feeding, slaughter to deep processing, as well as innovation in business models.

This project is the first whole-plant digital solution provided by Rockwell Automation for the protein product processing industry. The two parties will use Tyson Foods' Hubei Xiaogan factory as a model to jointly develop and build a replicable smart factory, and then promote the digital construction and upgrading of Tyson Foods' factories in Nantong, Rizhao, Meizhou, Shenzhen and other places. After completion, the project will become the leading fully automated, integrated line-controlled information and intelligent factory in the food industry. In addition, Rockwell Automation will also use technologies such as industrial Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence to help Tyson Foods build a modern smart breeding cluster, including feeding methods, environmental control, production management and data collection. The success of this cooperation will further promote the digital transformation of the entire poultry and livestock breeding and processing industry, and set an example for China's food industry to create a green and smart industrial chain.

In recent years, with the upgrading of consumption and changes in dietary structure, the protein product processing industry chain has been continuously expanded, the product categories have become increasingly rich, and the requirements for flexible production and full-process traceability have also been increasing. In order to achieve the transformation and upgrading of the industry, digital technology has been applied to various links such as breeding, production, and circulation.

"Smart manufacturing is one of the core driving forces for high-quality development of the livestock breeding and processing industries. Rockwell Automation is committed to providing the food industry with full life cycle digital solutions from consulting, top-level design, lean value stream organization to implementation and delivery." Shi An, President of Rockwell Automation (China) Co., Ltd., said, "Tyson Foods is a leading brand in the global protein market. This cooperation with Tyson Foods is a major breakthrough for Rockwell Automation in this industry. The two parties will work together to create a new benchmark for modern smart breeding, intelligent slaughtering and processing smart factories, support Tyson Foods' sustainable development in the Chinese market, and set an example for the digital transformation of the food industry."

Wu Tong, President of Tyson Foods China/Korea, said: "The Chinese market is the overseas market that Tyson Foods pays the most attention to and continues to grow. We are very pleased to have in-depth cooperation with Rockwell Automation. The two parties will uphold the concept of sustainable development, build a new 'factory of the future' with green, environmental protection and intelligent manufacturing, integrate Tyson Foods' globally unified food safety standards into every production link, realize the intelligence of the entire process from farm to table, and become a model of the green and intelligent food industry chain."

According to the agreement, Rockwell Automation will provide Tyson Foods with intelligent manufacturing solutions that integrate cloud computing, industrial Internet of Things, intelligent industrial robots, digital twins and expert systems based on its decades of technology accumulation and best practices in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, helping Tyson Foods establish a digital management and control system, creating a full-process prediction simulation, rapid response, precise intervention and decision-making support platform to achieve optimal resource allocation and flexible collaborative production. At the same time, Rockwell Automation will establish customized intelligent manufacturing standards for Tyson Foods, shorten Tyson Foods' system development and delivery cycle, and improve operational efficiency and market competitiveness. Through digital upgrades, Tyson Foods will realize the dataization, visualization and full-process automatic traceability of the production process, while improving efficiency, reducing wastewater and carbon emissions, and effectively reducing the factory's operating energy consumption.

Tyson Foods was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Arkansas, USA. It is one of the world's largest producers and suppliers of chicken, beef and pork. Food safety and quality control are the core concepts of the Tyson brand and are integrated into the entire food production chain to ensure standardization of every link from farm to table.

Rockwell Automation in China

Rockwell Automation is one of the world's leading companies in industrial automation, information technology and digital transformation. We will give full play to the potential of human imagination and technology, create more possibilities for mankind, and make the world more productive and sustainable. Rockwell Automation has a history of 118 years and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It has approximately 24,000 employees and operates in more than 100 countries and regions.

In China, Rockwell Automation has 28 sales offices (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), 5 training centers, 1 R&D center, Dalian software development center, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing OEM application development centers, and 2 production bases, with more than 2,000 employees. The company has actively cooperated with 11 authorized channel partners and more than 70 key universities in China to jointly provide a wide range of extraordinary products and solutions, service support and technical training for the manufacturing industry.

As a leader in smart manufacturing, Rockwell Automation fully implements the SEEE (safety, energy saving, environmental protection, and high efficiency) sustainable development concept in smart manufacturing, aiming to deeply empower various industries through leading automation, digitalization, and intelligent technologies, and promote the sustainable development of Chinese society through innovative connected enterprise solutions that integrate IT/OT, leading to unlimited possibilities in the future.

Tyson Foods

Founded in 1935 and headquartered in Arkansas, USA, Tyson Foods is a leading global producer and supplier of chicken, beef, pork and processed foods. Its products are sold throughout the United States and more than 100 countries and regions around the world. It is also a strategic partner of many international catering brands and leading retail companies. Tyson has more than 400 companies and offices in the United States and around the world, employing approximately 120,000 employees. In 2021, it ranked 270th on the Fortune Global 500 list, with operating revenue of more than $43 billion in fiscal 2020.

As a global "protein expert", Tyson Foods has always integrated food safety and quality control into the entire production chain, standardizing every link from farm to table, and meeting the different needs of consumers with healthy, high-quality, and safe high-protein products. In 2001, Tyson Foods established its first Chinese factory and officially entered the Chinese market, with its regional headquarters located in Shanghai, China. Currently, Tyson has three R&D centers, seven processing plants, and dozens of breeding farms in China. It is the leading meat production company in the country with a full industrial chain from breeding and slaughtering to processing and distribution, providing comprehensive solutions for all categories of chicken, pork, and beef. In the future, Tyson Foods will further expand its investment and sales in China, and is committed to enriching the Chinese consumers' tables with safe, healthy, and high-quality high-protein products, improving the healthy diet structure of Chinese consumers, and making Chinese consumers feel that "where there is a home, there is Tyson."