Draft:Catena-X

• Comment: Written as a promotional piece Cambalachero (talk) 22:54, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

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Catena-X is an initiative to develop an extensible ecosystem in which automotive manufacturers and suppliers, dealer associations and equipment suppliers, including the providers of applications, platforms and infrastructure, can all participate equally. The goal is to boost and enable a secure and cross-company wide data exchange of all participants through standardization and access to information and data.

The project name is a reference to catena, the Latin word for chain. The X represents the participating stakeholders and it is a reference to the Gaia-X European cloud which Catena is based on. Catena-X is Gaia-X’s first implementation project. Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, described Catena-X as an “industrial policy beacon project for the digitalization of supply chains”. In 2020, a set of companies initiated the Catena-X Automotive Network. The founders of the partner network include BMW AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAP SE, Siemens AG and ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

The network was originally announced at the 2020 Digitalgipfel by the German government. Today, the consortium of the project that is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action comprises 28 joint partners from research and industry.

The association Catena-X Automotive Network e.V. was founded as a legal organization and carrier of the brand Catena-X in May 2021.The Catena-X Automotive Network e.V. currently consists of 172 members (as of: 21.12.2023).

Goals

According to its project statement, the shared goal of Catena- X is to provide an environment for the creation, operation and collaborative use of end-to-end data chains along the entire automotive value chain, to increase the competitiveness of the automotive industry and to create new data-based business models.Furthermore, the project participants are expecting more efficient quality and logistics processes, higher transparency with regard to sustainable CO2 reduction, simplified master-data management and substantial improvements in product development. Finally, the goal is to include many companies, suppliers and SMEs in order to achieve value creation, through the cross-company use and exploitation of data.

The Catena- X ecosystem

The Catena-X ecosystem consists of the following three areas:

1. The Catena-X Automotive Network e.V is responsible for standardization, certification and governance of the Catena-X ecosystem. As an implementation-oriented network and to ensure openness and neutrality the Catena-X ecosystem, the purpose of the association is to create a uniform standard for information and data-sharing throughout the entire automotive value chain.
2. The development environment is responsible for the development of the initial reference implementations of the core and enabling services. The development work takes place in the consortium project: Concrete solutions are developed that will later be used by the relevant users. Catena-X Consortia supports the transition to the official open-source Project Eclipse Tractus-X. The Eclipse Tractus-X project is the official open-source project in the Catena-X ecosystem under the umbrella of the Eclipse Foundation.
3. The operating environment, where the open-source reference implementations as well as certified services can be accessed.

Solutions of the Development Environment

The focus here is on the development of technological foundations, such as the Eclipse Dataspace Connector and the Catena-X Portal, as well as concrete pilot applications. What is developed in the workbench later undergoes certification by the Catena-X association before it goes into operation. Results from the consortium are also candidates for standardisation by the Catena-X Automotive Network e.V. The standards and values derive from the specifications developed by Gaia-X.

The consortium is developing the legal, operational and technical basis for the Catena-X digital ecosystem and the planned services. Building on this, it is developing ten industry-relevant use cases:

• Traceability (of product –relevant Artefacts– e.g. Hard- & Software Components)
• Sustainability (e.g. CO2- Footprint and Compliance with Social Standards)
• Circular Economy (e.g. minimizing the CO2- Footprint)
• Quality Management (e.g. Real-Time & Cooperative/Collaborative Quality Mgmt.)
• Demand and Capacity Management (DCM)
• Business Partner Data Management (BPDM)
• Data- and Model-Centric Engineering and Operational Support
• Modular Production
• Manufacturing as a Service
• Real-Time Control and Simulation

As extensively as possible, the development is based on open-source principles. The Eclipse Tractus-X™ [TS1] project is the official open-source project in the Catena-X ecosystem under the umbrella of the Eclipse Foundation. The goal is to create the connections for data exchange and ensure access to the data ecosystem. Therefore, Catena-X provides (1) Core Services (e.g., portal and marketplaces for, e.g., core service providers) as well as (2) Kits (e.g., for solution providers) in the Eclipse Tractus-X™ project. Tractus-X™ is the official corresponding open-source project to the Catena-X ecosystem following the Eclipse Foundation's development process.

The Catena-X Marketplaces access solutions that complying to Catena-X standards, enable and ensure secure data exchange. Solutions offered on Catena-X Marketplaces are required to fulfill specific standards , they may vary depending on the use case. The goal is to promote interoperability and allow each company to work with the solution of their choice, while seamlessly exchanging production data with its partners.

The certification process of Catena-X ensures that solutions are aligned with Catena-X principles such as data sovereignty and interoperability. Solution providers, accordingly, must consider this process, since only certified solutions can be offered on Catena-X Marketplaces.

Currently, there is no other comparable toolsuite available which provides a similar set of functionalities.

Catena-X Automotive Network e.V.

Catena-X originated as an initiative of a group of companies under the title of the "Automotive Alliance" in 2020, united by the vision of a secure and sovereign data ecosystem for all players in the value chains of automotive industry. The following year, numerous other companies joined the vision.

The founders of the partner network include BMW AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAP SE, Siemens AG and ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Additional companies have joined the initiative including Mercedes-Benz AG, BASF SE, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Schaeffler AG, German Edge Cloud GmbH & Co.

The members are creating technical standards for the operation, software offerings and applications as well as certification criteria for operating companies and providers. In addition, they are facilitating and coordinating development cooperations, information and qualification offers for the Catena-X data ecosystem. The association is coordinating a network of companies and partnerships with federations and implementation partners on a global scale.

Policy Rules

The data ecosystem is based on a system architecture that meets the following technical aspects based on the preliminary work of Gaia-X and the International Data Space Association (IDSA).

The standards defined by Gaia-X describe the minimum technical requirements for the structure of a federated and sovereign data infrastructure. These standards are the basis for all Catena-X use cases. 

Gaia-X describes the requirements for secure data exchange. The collaboration between Catena-X and Gaia-X includes the alignment of technical architectures and standards, the development, testing and integration of reference services in the data space as well as the harmonization of onboarding and certification services.

The Catena-X project is the first application for Gaia-X. With the connection to the cloud/edge infrastructure of Gaia-X, the consortium participants have already agreed upon principles and infrastructure fundamentals for the project implementation.  

Catena-X Hubs

The Catena-X Hubs support the internationalization and expansion of the global network by working together towards achieving the common goal of enabling a data-driven automotive value chain. A National Hub represents the Catena-X Network locally and its goal is to integrate companies, stakeholders and use-cases from the national level in order to foster easy access to long data chains. In November 2022 the first International Hub of Catena-X was established in France. The PFA ( Plateforme Filière Automobile) and GALIA coordinate the regional Hub in France. The two associations represent Catena-X locally and connect companies, key players in the data economy and software development as well as use cases from the French automotive industry.

In April 2023 the Catena-X association signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Odette Sweden to establish a national Catena-X hub.

Political Support

Politicians funded the project from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of the “Future Investments in the Vehicle Industry” funding programme. Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, acknowledged the data ecosystem Catena-X as a pioneer for transformative solutions to face current challenges.