Building a Collaborative Automotive Ecosystem with Catena-X

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Despite the use of web UI, API, and EDI by customers and suppliers, a significant challenge persisted: if not all trading partners would use the same platform to collaborate, suppliers had to support different customer applications, or customers had to support different supplier applications. This lack of harmonization was a barrier to efficient collaboration across the industry, creating silos and hindering transparency and speed of knowledge propagation across networks. CatenaX and the o9 platform together address this problem.

For many years, o9 has been at the forefront of facilitating collaborative planning and execution processes. Automotive and other industry OEMs have leveraged o9 to synchronize production with their multi-tier supplier networks, transforming their supply chains into highly responsive and agile manufacturing communities. This transformation has resulted in enhanced responsiveness, optimized safety buffers, and reduced firefighting.

What is Catena-X, and What is DCM?

Catena-X is a collaborative data ecosystem designed to improve efficiency, transparency, and sustainability across the multi-tier value chain. It enables customers and suppliers to become independent of private networks and interoperate with all trading partners in a standardized and secure manner, both technologically and procedurally. A certification process ensures that all stakeholders remain compliant, and aligned with the same standards and tools.

Demand Capacity Management and Collaboration (DCM) is one of the key use cases supported by Catena-X. DCM focuses on aligning future demands and production capacity between customers and suppliers. The standardized technology and processes facilitate data exchange, allowing manufacturers and suppliers to detect bottlenecks early, improve planning reliability, and reduce overall costs.

Benefits of Introducing Catena-X DCM with o9 Solutions

• Accelerated Time to Market: Customers and suppliers can now align on different ramp-up curve scenarios.
• Reduced Safety Stock and Costs: Higher capacity alignment between customers and suppliers reduces the need for safety stock, expedites, and firefighting costs.
• Increased Responsiveness: Enhanced responsiveness to demand and supply changes, such as regional demand shifts or unexpected capacity breakdowns.
• Efficient Problem Resolution: A structured collaborative problem resolution process reduces firefighting costs.
• Lower Capacity Buffers: Decreased need for capacity buffers reduces costs for both customers and suppliers.
• Simplified Solution Administration: Customers and suppliers can work with their preferred solutions, driving adoption and intensifying collaboration between trading partners.

o9 and Catena-X DCM joint value proposition

Our focus has been on building the infrastructure to enable secure data sharing across the Catena-X ecosystem according to defined standards. This included backend integration, data cleansing, transformation, and the sharing of demand (customer), production capacity (supplier), and action plans/comments (both). The system was stress-tested and refined with valuable feedback from the certification committee.

We ensured that our customers did not lose advanced capabilities not yet supported by Catena-X, such as scenario collaboration and survey collaboration. We found ways to combine both worlds, ensuring DCM works seamlessly with related in-house processes like S&OP, where supplier and customer capacity alignment is crucial.

Today, customers and suppliers benefit from our standard Catena-X DCM package and the advanced package, which includes additional capabilities supporting overall capacity alignment and the resolution process.

Future Directions

o9 remains committed to the Catena-X community, driving adoption and further enhancing the DCM process. As DCM is still evolving, we are ready to adapt to ensure the successful adoption of our services by customers and suppliers. o9 will continue to support additional Catena-X workflows, with sustainability as a top priority.

Conclusion

Catena-X represents the future of the automotive industry, where collaboration and transparency lead to stronger, more resilient supply chains. As a certified partner, o9 is well-positioned to help companies unlock the full potential of this ecosystem. By leveraging the power of data and collaboration, we can move towards a more sustainable, efficient, and interconnected automotive world.

o9 Achieves Catena-X Demand and Capacity Management Certification, the Automotive Industry’s First Open and Collaborative Data Ecosystem

The Certification Marks o9’s Position as a Frontrunner and Trusted Provider of Interoperable and Secure Solutions for the Automotive Value Chain

Read the full press release