Automotive Logistics — 2023-11-02
Automotive Industry
Cofinity-X, the inaugural Catena-X operating company resulting from a joint venture between automotive industry leaders including BASF, BMW Group, Henkel, Mercedes-Benz AG, SAP, Schaeffler, Siemens, T-Systems International, VW Group and ZF Group, has officially launched its first suite of Catena-X services.
In a significant development for digital automotive supply chains, executives from VW Group, including Frank Goeller, head of digital production and processes, and Sven Lorenz, head of group data and AI, signed agreements with Cofinity-X’s CEO, Marek Jersak, that established VW Group as the first company to utilise these services.
VW will begin by deploying industry-wide business partner data management. Subsequently, these services will be extended to encompass applications in quality management and demand capacity management. The move represents a substantial step toward a digitised supply chain, promising increased transparency, resilience, sustainability and efficiency.
Cofinity-X open marketplace
Cofinity-X, founded as a collaboration in January 2023, has set out to establish an open marketplace for applications. Its goal is to deliver products and services that facilitate the secure and efficient exchange of data among all partners, and advance the development of end-to-end monitoring of material flows, with a primary focus on the European market.
This market entry by Cofinity-X marks a significant milestone for data spaces. It propels Catena-X, an already prominent project within the European digital strategy framework, into uncharted territory.
Decentralised data
Catena-X is a decentralised data ecosystem for the automotive industry. Its primary objective is to create an open and collaborative space for data exchange, built by industry players for industry players. The platform operates on shared standards for sovereign data exchange along the value chain, offering an extensible ecosystem where automotive manufacturers, suppliers, dealer associations, equipment providers, and application, platform and infrastructure providers can participate equally.
The platform’s mission is to leverage its transparent and co-operative approach to address future challenges such as CO2 reduction, supply chain resilience, part traceability and circularity.
Catena-X’s initial offerings span product carbon footprint tracking, battery and product passports, resilient supply chains, part traceability, circular practices, and master data management. Standardisation and certification through Catena-X allow various applications to interoperate for a unified business process, setting the foundation for an optimal and secure digital supply chain. The platform’s operations are managed by Cofinity-X.