Volkswagen is Leading the Auto Industry in the Biggest Data Exchange It’s Ever Seen

When it comes to innovating in the field of supplier collaboration, the ultimate goal is to have every link in an industry’s value chain working harmoniously with one another and all singing from the same hymn sheet.

At the core of this lofty ambition is data, and Volkswagen is spearheading a new project which aims to bring the entire automotive industry together in a massive data-sharing operation. Dubbed the Catena-X Automotive Network, the project has, at time of writing brought together 25 partners from the worlds of business and science and is creating uniform standards for the flow of data and digital information in the industry.

Volkswagen intends to use the project to seamlessly connect its factories, suppliers, and other industrial partners to one another create new opportunities for transparency and efficiency throughout its production and supply chains. The Catena-X Automotive Network will be cross-company, secure, and fully compliant with all existing antitrust laws.

“Digitalization and networking play a key role for the production and supply chains of the future,” said Murat Aksel, Board of Management Member of Volkswagen AG. “On the one hand, constantly connected data chains from the supplier to the manufacturer enable the flows of material to be organized more efficiently, meaning supply bottlenecks can be identified early on. On the other hand, digitalization helps us to strengthen processes for observing environmental protection and human rights standards and to make supply chains even more transparent on these sensitive points.”