“Inventory became a four-letter word,” says Ambrose Conroy, founder and CEO of consultancy Seraph. “The whole JIT supply chain depends on everything running absolutely perfectly.”
With supply chains stretched to their breaking point, Germany’s carmakers are developing an early-warning system to better prepare for the next crisis, after a drought of semiconductors brought vehicle assembly lines to a screeching halt the world over.
Dubbed “Catena-X” after the Latin word for chain, this cloud-based network is designed to illuminate every corner of the industry’s vast, globe-spanning web of automotive parts suppliers in the search for stresses.
Data would be shared safely via a central repository that any participating firm can tap into, thanks to one common interface. By eliminating hardware and software barriers, it facilitates the flow of information from one company to another.
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