How Cisco is Supporting Smarter Manufacturing in India

Cisco has announced a collaboration with Rockwell Automation to further provide smart manufacturing training to India.

The partnership will bring a Software-Defined Manufacturing Demo Pod to Rockwell Automation’s facility in Gurugram, India.

Cisco will also provide its software-defined networking infrastructure that will combine IT and industrial automation to help Rockwell transition traditional factory floors to AI-enabled autonomous operations.

Kartika Prihadi, VP and Routes to Market Sales at Cisco APJC, says: “Cisco is proud to work alongside Rockwell Automation to support India’s manufacturing transformation.”

Cisco's role in manufacturing

Cisco is a global technology company that designs, manufactures and distributes telecommunications equipment, cybersecurity solutions and networking software.

Founded in December 1984, it has established itself in the manufacturing and technology industry across more than four decades.

Its employee count increased by just under 3.5 times between 2022 and 2025, growing from 26,000 to 86,000 according to Macrotrends data.

Cisco says its technologies can remove pressure on manufacturers by optimising resources through digital-first workflows.

The company outsources to more than 20 manufacturing partner facilities located across 17 countries to manage large-scale manufacturing, final product creation and testing.

Cisco’s AI for manufacturing

According to the Cisco State of Industrial AI Report 2026, 83% of companies are planning to increase AI spending and 87% are expecting meaningful outcomes in the next two years.

More than 1,000 manufacturing decision-makers from 19 countries were involved in the report.

More than half of respondents in this research said that Cisco is a vendor that can be trusted to provide AI-ready networking infrastructure for industrial AI cases.

The company has partnered with E80 Group to implement its AI-ready industrial networks through the ultra-reliable wireless backhaul (URWB) and industrial ethernet (IE) switches across all of E80’s autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs).

Cisco says this gives the AGVs reliable, zero-latency wireless connectivity and improved cybersecurity to streamline productivity in the automated warehouses.

Cisco’s partnership with Audi

The technology company has also previously partnered with Audi to increase productivity in smart manufacturing and electric vehicle production.

Cisco provided the network infrastructure for Audi’s Edge Cloud 4 Production, which was the first TUV-certified and fully virtualised programmable logic controller system.

The two combined to decrease reliance on Audi’s traditional hardware features in production and kickstart a transition to a smoother software-focused environment.

Audi’s Edge Cloud 4 Production was fully incorporated in mid-2023 at the car company’s Böllinger Höfe site.

Audi said: “The software-controlled, flexible and scalable server solution will replace the decentralized control system that relies on high-maintenance industrial PCs.”