The automotive industry is navigating technological disruptions, market volatility, supply chain challenges, and increasing regulatory demands. At BearingPoint, we partner with automotive manufacturers and suppliers to not only overcome these obstacles but also explore innovative collaborations that drive the industry forward. Together, we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and shaping the future of mobility.
Catena-X: Radical collaboration for sustainable success
Catena-X is an open and interoperable data ecosystem that emerged from a consortium project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics. All companies involved at the time and the members who have since joined Catena-X e.V. have the same goal: to create transparency along supply chains across company boundaries and to enable data chains along the automotive value chain.
Catena-X use cases: Future-proof solutions for your company
The focused use cases streamline overall processes within the context of collaborative cooperation and address key challenges. Data sovereignty is a core consideration across all use cases. The ecosystem prioritizes digital identities, reliable business partners, and direct supply relationships, establishing a secure foundation for innovative approaches to collaboration.
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Product carbon footprint (PCF)
- Greenhouse gas emissions are generated at each stage of the product life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to product utilization and recycling. Calculating the product carbon footprint (PCF) requires collecting data across the entire product life cycle. The lack of a standardized methodology and the lack of data exchange hinders meaningful comparisons.
- Catena-X proposes a solution: semantic data homogenization through digital twins, enabling the collection, exchange, and harmonization of data from all life cycle phases, even for thousands or millions of products.
- Furthermore, Catena-X provides centralized specifications in a set of rules to guarantee the optimal comparability of PCF calculations.
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Traceability
- The automotive supply chain is lengthy and intricate and requires data from a multitude of disparate sources, which is not always currently available. Even when a database for seamless traceability is available, the information is often stored in disconnected data silos around the world.
- The use of digital twins is key to this process. They create virtual representations of real components, which form the basis for integrating all the relevant data.
- The Catena-X network links all information from individual suppliers, making entire value-creation networks transparent and ensuring that every single product is 100% traceable and maintains data sovereignty.
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Demand and capacity management (DCM)
- The demand and capacity management use case is based on a collaborative process in which members of the Catena-X network securely share their demand and capacity data with other partners, including suppliers and car manufacturers.
- The Catena-X ecosystem provides protected spaces with a shared view of the shared data, enabling partners to react to changes in plans and deviations at an early stage and find situation-based solutions together.
- This collaborative process increases planning quality, significantly enhances transparency, and creates more robust and resilient supply chains.
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Circular economy/digital product passport
- Digital twins are an effective solution for the digital product passport, as demonstrated by their use in EV batteries. The passport is a dynamic information repository that is constantly updated based on digital twins, providing transparency along the supply chain.
- The various stamps on a product’s journey mark its progress through the lifecycle phases and enable the exchange of information with its digital twin. Each aspect represents data that is provided or required by different parties in the life cycle of a product.
BearingPoint is a Qualified Advisor in the Catena-X ecosystem
Since joining Catena-X e.V., we have been actively engaged in the association, currently participating in four expert groups with our consultants. We aim to collectively enhance the standards of the ecosystem and develop digital open-source solutions for companies in the industry.
We are pleased to announce that Catena-X has certified us as a Qualified Advisor based on our track record in association work and experience in use cases with customers.
Our objective is not only to act as consultants but also as partners with our customers. We endeavor to comprehend their challenges and collaborate with them to devise innovative and future-proof solutions. Our goal is to create significant added value through our expertise and dedication and to support our customers on their journey to success. As Catena-X facilitates rapid implementation across the entire supply chain, we are well-positioned to assist our customers in achieving their goals.
We provide support to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers as they transition to the data economy. This encompasses consulting services about the potential and possibilities of Catena-X, as well as the implementation of solutions in individual use cases, technical connections, and the training of your employees.
We are currently facing similar challenges with numerous customers in the automotive industry. Many of these challenges can only be effectively addressed through novel forms of collaboration along supply chains, irrespective of whether the objective is to establish the most robust supply chains or to comply with regulatory requirements. Catena-X presents previously unimagined opportunities and possibilities in this regard.
Christoph Landgrebe, Partner at BearingPoint
Let’s dive deeper into this topic!
Our team is always available for an open and constructive dialogue. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you wish to discuss Catena-X and its potential implementation in your company.
We can cover the following topics with you:
- the potential of Catena-X for your company
- possible use cases and their prioritization for you
- the technical requirements and the connection
- using Catena-X for implementing the product carbon footprint based on SAP SFM and SDX
- the reduction of the bullwhip effect along supply chains based on the Catena-X Demand & Capacity Management Approach
- real traceability along supply chains
- and many other topic
