At the heart of The Prophets’ vision are “The 24 Essential Supply Chain Processes.” What are they? Find out, and see the future yourself. Click here

“Just tell us why you’re making changes.” That simple request from a Tier 2 supplier at an AIAG conference says everything about where the automotive supply chain still struggles.

The supply base still faces a lack of basic communication. Data is also slow to move, locked in outdated systems, or scattered across formats. Catena-X aims to address these issues.

In this episode, Jan Griffiths, Jim Liegghio, and Terry Onica sit down with Kevin Piotrowski, Chief Transformation Officer at AIAG, to talk about what Catena-X really is and what it means for the future of the automotive supply chain.

Kevin explains what Catena-X does. It’s a network that allows companies to share complex data across the entire supply chain, up and down multiple tiers.

Catena-X is encrypted, controlled, and designed to enable suppliers and customers to decide who sees what. It’s not your usual point-to-point system; it’s built for multi-tier collaboration.

The group gets into real examples. One supplier used Catena-X to calculate carbon footprint using actual data instead of averages and found a 46% drop in reported emissions.

And no, Catena-X isn’t replacing EDI. Kevin clarifies that EDI still works well for structured transactions like shipment notices. Catena-X handles everything that doesn’t fit neatly into that box—data that needs to be shared for visibility, not stored or processed.

They also talk about supplier overload, where small raw materials suppliers get hit with hundreds of requests for the same information. Catena-X could solve that by allowing assessments and surveys to be shared once, securely, across customers.

This isn’t just a European project. It’s a global standard, and AIAG is helping drive its rollout in North America. OEMs, suppliers, and solution providers are already getting involved, with pilot projects and certifications underway.

The episode closes with a message to listeners: this is just the start. There’s more to cover, and the team wants to hear your questions. If you want to know something about Catena-X, now’s the time to ask.

Themes discussed in this episode:

• The need to fix basic communication gaps in the automotive supply chain
• How Catena-X enables secure, multi-tier data sharing across suppliers and OEMs
• The importance of real-time data in automotive supply chains
• Why traditional data systems can’t keep up with today’s global supply chains
• The difference between structured EDI and Catena-X’s complex data exchange
• How Catena-X helps contain quality issues before they become costly recalls
• The critical role of encrypted, permission-based access in protecting supply chain IP
• What tech providers need to know about Catena-X certification and readiness

Name: Kevin Piotrowski

Title: Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) at Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG)

About: Kevin serves as Chief Transformation Officer at AIAG, where he leads enterprise-wide transformation for the world’s largest global automotive association. With decades of leadership experience in both automotive and manufacturing, including senior roles at Infor and AIAG, Kevin has built a reputation for driving innovation, strengthening collaboration, and advancing data integration across complex supply chains. His expertise spans process improvement, global operations, and large-scale technology adoption, and he’s playing a key role in expanding the reach and impact of Catena-X within the automotive industry.

Connect: LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

• Materials Management Operations Guideline/Logistics Evaluation (MMOG/LE)
• IATF 16949:2016: All the Resources You Need in One Place
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
• AIAG Supply Chain Conference
• AIAG Charity Golf Outing
• Catena-X
• Got questions about Catena-X? Email Jan at [email protected] and we’ll get them answered in a future episode.

[04:28] No More Chasing Data: Catena-X offers a standardized, encrypted way to share complex data across the entire supply chain. Instead of point-to-point transfers and outdated formats, this system enables multi-tier collaboration.

[06:36] One Survey, One Standard: Resin and steel suppliers are drowning in repetitive data requests, but Catena-X could change that. By standardizing common fields like country of origin, the platform aims to streamline compliance surveys across the entire supply chain, reducing the burden from top to bottom.

[08:34] Real Data, Real Results: Catena-X is already in action, cutting reported emissions by 46% with real-time data and helping OEMs trace quality issues faster across the supply chain, minimizing the scope and impact of recalls.

[10:35] Not Replacing EDI: Catena-X isn’t here to replace EDI, it’s built to handle complex, multi-tier data visibility while EDI keeps doing what it does best: structured, point-to-point transactions like ASNs and inventory updates.

[12:19] Beyond Tier One: Catena-X enables encrypted, many-to-many data sharing across all supply chain tiers, giving OEMs the insights they need without exposing suppliers’ proprietary info.

[13:28] Data Is the Differentiator: As global supply chains grow more complex, Catena-X helps companies unlock real-time, multi-tier data to drive faster decisions, tighter collaboration, and better business outcomes.

[15:50] Vendors, Time to Plug In: Solution providers aren’t just bystanders—Catena-X needs them certified and connected to power the full supply chain ecosystem, from OEMs all the way through the supply chain.

[17:38] Not Another System? Suppliers are tired of hearing about new systems, but Catena-X offers real value: better collaboration, tighter data security, and a chance to help shape industry-wide standards from the ground up.

[19:04] Ask Us Anything: Got questions about Catena-X? Jan’s opening the floor—send yours in and shape the next episode.

Top Quotes:

[04:36] Kevin Piotrowski: “Catena-X is a way for companies—automotive companies—but in general, manufacturing companies to move data across their supply chain, both up and down. So the term radical collaboration comes into play, because it is not just a point to point to connection, but it goes through up and down the supply chain. And this is for complex data, Jan, not standard data—so data around product carbon footprint, data around the battery passport, data around the digital twin—and it moves in a secure, encrypted way. And it's the data that the supplier and the customer, they decide: what data, who gets to see it, what's the sharing of that data. So, it's very well controlled as well.”

[08:51] Kevin Piotrowski: “We had the benefit of having one of our OEMs and one of our top suppliers at a couple events here in the last month, where they actually demonstrated this use case on stage. One of 'em is around product carbon footprint and getting product carbon footprint data from your supply chain. And by leveraging Catena-X, and being able to leverage primary data versus average secondary data—that's more of an average, not an exact amount—they were able to report 46% less carbon emissions from just one example. And that wasn't because there was something wrong with the prior calculation; it was just using accurate, real-time data in the supply chain.”

[09:42] Kevin Piotrowski: “When there’s a quality recall by any OEM. How do you contain? How do you track where all those parts are? That takes time, right? So when the defect is found, all of a sudden you have to look how many vehicles are at dealers, how many dealer vehicles are on the assembly line, and start working your way backwards through the supply chain—which takes a lot of time, a lot of manual effort, and typically results in a recall that's much larger because you don't wanna make any mistakes. With Catena-X, and leveraging it for quality, you can blow through the supply chain and get information back up—greatly containing that issue. And then, when you throw AI in and you throw other things down the road, it'll work from being not only helping contain but helping be more predictive, and then ultimately preventing these types of recalls.”

[11:52] Kevin Piotrowski: “ For Catena-X, it's more of the complex data, where you really wanna see not just move data from one point to another and then be done as a one-time thing, but where you wanna move data up and down the supply chain—not to store or save the data, but just to have visibility. That's the key: seeing where the issues are or what the data is, without storing it. And that's the beauty of Catena-X — to be able to do that very quickly.”

[14:51] Kevin Piotrowski: “How you leverage the data, and how you manage your data, and how you drive data down in the organization to the right people to make decisions will impact your business and your bottom line. Having access to data is really knowledge. And getting the data quickly—not waiting weeks, months, or through a very manual process—doesn't work anymore. That will lower the value of your supply chain. So not only do supply chains have to be lean, fast, nimble, quick, they've gotta be able to share and have transparent data throughout their ecosystems.”