If the heads of SAP and BMW take the time to meet, it could be a bigger deal. This should also be the case with Catena-X. BMW boss Oliver Zipse sees the project, which is intended to network industrial companies worldwide, as the further development of Industry 4.0 – the globally successful model of digital networking of individual companies. Catena-X, according to the plan, should build data chains that give the companies involved clarity about how the supply chains look, for example: where are things going, where are there problems? But also about the CO₂ footprint of each individual product, each raw material.
Ultimately, Catena-X is also the admission that even corporations can no longer manage to keep the necessary perspective on their own. BMW alone, for example, has 12,000 different direct suppliers, and the Munich-based company’s cars contain products from a total of 60,000 suppliers. The solution: data. With digital twins of future cars, BMW saves 30 to 40 percent on demonstration models, the so-called mockups, says BMW IT manager Alexander Buresch. The data from production is included, and the same data is also used later to virtually show customers their dream car.
The big companies are not the problem. Many of them have long been among the 104 members of the Catena-X association, which acts as a neutral authority and takes care of things like standardization. The problem is the large number of small and medium-sized companies. Partly because they are still far behind in terms of digitization and therefore cannot provide the data that is required. Partly because they don’t yet see why they should disclose data at all. Henkel, a specialist in adhesives, also had these concerns just a few years ago, says board member Jan-Dirk Auris. In the meantime, it has been realized that transparent cooperation is essential.
Transparency does not just relate to delivery dates and quantities. Catena-X is also designed to enable members to meet the supply chain law requirements that are coming their way. “What’s the alternative?” Henkel man Auris asks rhetorically. A comparable system that makes the tedious work easier for companies and at the same time provides an overview of the situation in the supply chains is not in sight.
BMW boss Oliver Zipse is therefore optimistic that many companies will participate. In the future, they will all have to provide data on whether everything is going right with the suppliers, for example, or how much CO₂ a product actually causes, from the raw materials to disposal or recycling. SAP boss Christian Klein agrees. There will be a snowball effect and more and more companies will join. “You don’t lose anything by doing this,” but you can gain a lot.
Even the little ones can and should take part
So far, the basics have only been laid for the Catena-X project. The important thing is that there will be no central database, but rather a complex network of companies. This should be made possible by a standardized data format. A small supplier company does not have to operate any complicated systems, but simply uploads the file from the existing spreadsheet, usually Excel, to a cloud area. There the data is processed in such a way that all other participants can do something with it. Companies that already have a system for controlling company resources, such as from SAP, can also export this data automatically. Which data to share remains the decision of each individual company. IT services are offered not only by SAP, but also by other companies.
For Marius Pohl from the car recycler LRP, a smaller medium-sized company, there was no question of participating in Catena-X. “There are up to 300 types of plastic in a car,” says the recycling expert, “but we can only separate them if we know what they are.” So far they don’t know. The result: 80 percent of a car’s parts are no longer used. “An enormous waste of raw materials,” says Pohl. Politicians are also promoting Catena-X. Economics Minister Robert Habeck made an appeal in particular to medium-sized companies. Because he also knows that the more companies that take part, the better for everyone. By the end of this year it should be 1000. In order for it to bring real added value, however, the project must advance into other dimensions in the long term. 100,000 members, says the head of the Catena X consortium, Oliver Ganser, it should be.