Odette2025

Group logistics on the move - more digital, more resilient, more fit for the future

Pandemics, environmental disasters and wars - crises are the new normal and logistics must be able to counter the effects. How can we adapt to ever-changing demands and challenges? How can we harness the potential of digitalisation to become more efficient, flexible and sustainable? And how can we become more resilient to crises and disruptions?

Dr. Berenike Höhne will show how Volkswagen Group Logistics is on the move to become more digital, resilient and future-proof and will provide inspiring insights into current trends and best practice from different logistics improvement projects.

Building a circular automotive industry

The mobility aftermarket is key to keep vehicles moving, today and in the future. With the carpark changing and new technologies coming in, we need to evolve the aftermarket offering, not only to enable mobility but also to make it more sustainable. Circularity is one key driver.

This includes addressing the 4R: Remanufacturing, Repair, Recycle and Reuse. As Bosch we are committed to sustainability and will work on increasing the R-readiness of our whole portfolio.

We will do things differently and do new things.

Sustainable transport: the challenges facing us all and the solutions available

Low Emissions Zones, roadmap to neutral carbon footprint, European Trading System, alternatives fuels, electrification, multimodal : all companies are facing unprecedent challenges that will drive heavy structural changes to their supply chains. Discover in this presentation a 360° review of the current supply chain challenges but more importantly concrete solutions to plan & act today.

• Understand transport & logistics challenges ahead
• Investigate concrete solutions available now or in the near future
• Where to start? Act today to be ready for tomorrow change

Living la ViDA Loca – Everything you need to know about VAT in the Digital Age

Tax Authorities around the world want to be provided with more invoice and tax data within a much shorter timeframe. This has led to a fragmented regulatory landscape with a multitude of different tax-reporting and e-invoicing schemes in operation.

To avoid further proliferation, in Europe at least, the EU is introducing ViDA to harmonize e-invoicing and tax-reporting standards. There is some resistance from those countries which already have domestic schemes in place or planned so we must find smart ways to protect existing investments without obstructing a fully digitalised Europe where paper invoices no longer exist.

Shifting Priorities in eInvoicing: Navigating ViDA's Cross-Border Directives

The automotive sector, adept at eInvoicing using EDIFACT messages, is approaching a critical juncture with the advent of the ViDA Directive. In its current form, this directive mandates EN16931 conformance for cross-border e-invoicing, marking a significant deviation from the current e-invoicing practices of many countries in Europe.

While the automotive industry has tailored its e-invoicing standards to suit automatic processing and domestic tax transactions, the ViDA Directive steers a new route towards a unified standard for cross-border invoicing. Given the current non-alignment of EN16931 with automotive industry needs, the new route presents major challenges such as a potential surge in invoice volumes and more complex validation routines.

This presentation aims to highlight these looming challenges and rally Odette member companies and national organisations to step up their involvement in European standardisation endeavours to ensure a smooth entry to this new eInvoicing highway.

• • A short dive into the sequential emphasis on receiving EN16931 compliant invoices before sending them, as necessitated by the ViDA Directive for cross-border eInvoicing.
  • An inside look at the practical mechanics of EN16931 standardisation at CEN, providing a basic understanding of the current standardisation landscape.
  • Awareness of the potential challenges such as increased invoice volumes and more complex validation, underscoring the urgent need for active engagement in standardisation initiatives to align EN16931 with automotive industry requirements.

eFTI - a unique opportunity for authorities and logistics service providers

The EU 2020/1056 eFTI Regulation is expected to become fully applicable during the first half of 2026. The regulation mandates that the authorities of the 27 Member States must be able to receive transport information in a harmonised digital format. eFTI is not mandatory for economic operators, but if they want to share data with authorities they must use so-called eFTI Platforms.

Using a real-world use case, Rudy will provide a hands-on presentation how the EU eFTI exchange environment will enable transport operators to share transport information, such as a CMR consignment note or dangerous goods document, with the relevant authorities.

Get ready for Global Trade 2.0 – Top Tips for handling Customs

Customs can be complex and consume a lot of resource but neglecting them can seriously hurt and expose vulnerabilities in your business. Handled the right way, however, they can help improve the business, secure growth, and even create an edge against your competitors.

Rolling out Global eInvoicing

Leuze electronic, an international supplier of sensors which are used in all different areas of automotive production, as well as in many other industries across the world, are implementing an eInvoicing solution with customers in several countries.

Frederick Schäfer, Director Digital Sales, will explain exactly what Leuze are doing in terms of eInvoicing and how they plan to rollout the service globally.

Managing Reusable Transport Items using RFID

Yusen Logistics will demonstrate how to find and use the best RFID technology for marking and managing returnable packaging in the automotive industry.

They will show how to tune both software and hardware and how to train the users to implement the proper processes to improve and speed up the flow of returnable packaging and explore the possibility of cross connecting RFID technology with EDI.

How to keep up with IT Integration Challenges

A modern IT Integration Team in an agile environment always needs to be ready for any type of integration demand with a 24x7 high availability platform and self-services. Newer integration patterns like API and MFT or technologies like Data Lake might need to be served, potentially even combined with classic integration patterns like EDI / B2B and technologies like AS2, OFTP2 or SFTP in one interface. Learn, how ams OSRAM keeps up with this challenge.

• Why we all need integration/interfaces every day
• How technology change is driving Integration
• How One Platform can help to adopt your capabilities to the demand short-term

Microservices – transitioning transport to less paper and more visibility

All automotive companies are seeking to reduce paper documents and enhance visibility in supply chain transport processes. REST API is a promising technology enabling micro services to seamlessly gather information throughout the transport chain to report progress and the achievement of key events.

An Odette recommendation on how micro services can be harmonised in terms of functionality and data structures was published in September 2021.

Now Andrea Sümer and Jörg Walther will report on the first implementation of this recommendation and use of these services in a proof-of-concept visibility application and will show how to start the transition to paperless by digitalisation of the waybill and other documents in the transport process.

Circular Economy - a key factor in packaging

Digitalisation is the buzz word but let’s get back to basics: without these very physical objects called “packaging”, the Supply Chain can’t exist. They are the red cells of our industry, transporting parts, rather than oxygen.

For decades, we have been designing packaging solutions to optimise not just the cost of the packaging itself but also the cost of transportation, handling, storage, etc. This continuous optimisation has resulted in a huge use of returnable packaging and instead of generating millions of tons of packaging waste in our plants, each car manufacturer generates “only” many thousands of tons each year! Much of this is recycled but the level of waste is still enormous.

Olivier Cotillard insists that we must do even better by implementing every single principle of Circular Economy: rethink, reduce, replace, reuse, repair, retrofit, recycle, etc…

He knows that regulation will push the industry to act but believes that we must all collaborate to facilitate the implementation of the regulations and accelerate the drive to zero packaging waste.

Packaging regulations: Collecting the data to satisfy increasingly stringent legal requirements

The focus on environmental protection has brought about a massive increase in regulations aimed at reducing packaging waste and eliminating single use plastic packaging. To comply with the new regulations, companies need to collect much more data about the constituent parts of the packaging that is used to move and store parts throughout the automotive supply chain.

Audrey Piskula will describe how Volvo Group is facing up to this challenge, identifying the additional data required, the difficulties involved in obtaining it and the lessons learned from the project so far.

A culture of innovation

Amazon’s approach to innovation has remained consistent since the company first launched—start with the customer and work backwards. In this session, Michael introduces Amazon’s peculiar culture and how they innovate through four distinct yet interdependent elements: Culture, Mechanisms, Architecture, and Organization.

Dive deeper on each topic, and learn about practical applications including Leadership Principles, Working Backwards, Two-Pizza Teams, the PR/FAQ document, and why it’s always still Day 1 at Amazon.

Forecasting customer demand with AI

Since the mid 1980’s, automotive customers have shared demand data with their suppliers but one of the biggest challenges has been forecast accuracy. PipeChain will describe its AI-supported forecasting tool for delivery schedules, helping suppliers to understand short-term variances as well as longer term forecast and volume trend in a better way. This will help to cut operational cost and release tied-up capital.

PipeChain will demonstrate how to use AI to better understand the industry’s delivery schedule demand data and cut costs in the supply chain. This will be supported by a Tier 1 supplier’s perspective on the benefits of using AI in demand management

Digital messaging standards – Is the original still the best?

UN/EDIFACT, is still the most widespread digital messaging standard in today’s automotive supply chain. Designed to facilitate efficient data exchange and optimised to support the key business processes of automotive production and the upstream supply chain, it has continued to fight off newer technologies which have presented themselves as pretenders to the crown.

At a time when everyone is using these new technologies in their everyday lives, major OEMs and Tier1 Suppliers will reflect on the reasons why EDIFACT based EDI messages still form the backbone of customer-supplier communications in the automotive industry.

In this interactive session, you will be able to exchange with our panel and learn:

• the reasons they continue to rely on the EDIFACT message format
• the importance of implementing new message versions to support new business processes
• which new technologies are most likely to make inroads on the EDIFACT hegemony
• the best migration strategies, challenges and how to overcome them

Packing the power: Developing standard packaging for the battery supply chain

Alsco Anwood Logistic is a leading Chinese producer of containers used in the EV battery supply chain and is today pooling standard reusable packaging for the complete packaging for Giga factories in China.

mts Maschinenbau is a leading German producer of containers for the automated supply chain of battery pack production and batteries in different states and has developed the Liio box for criticial defect HV batteries.

In most cases, the production of EV battery components is located at some distance from battery pack production and the assembly plant. This means that transportation, containers and the packing density are very important cost factors.

Current battery packaging is mostly of customised design and is often one-way but as HV Batteries, modules, cells have mostly similar dimensions so why can´t we use standardised containers?

Mr Sun will explain what Alsco is doing in China to produce standardised, re-useable products for new energy key players such as BYD and CATL.

Dr. Laible will transfer this approach to the battery supply chain in Europe. He will identify the cases where it make sense to standardise containers and what the solutions could look like.

Calculating and reporting GHG emissions in the automotive supply chain

The urgent requirement for more sustainable automotive logistics practices has led vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and logistics service providers to come together, under the auspices of ECG and VDA, to develop a guideline to standardise the calculation and reporting of Scope 3 GHG emissions within the automotive supply chain. The aim is to provide a clear framework for the application of ISO 14083 in the automotive industry, taking account of industry-specific requirements.

The first draft of the guideline has just been published and Andreea Serbu will tell us more about its scope, how it aligns with the ISO 14083 and the benefits of standardisation in this area for automotive players.

From combustion to electrification: re-designing plant logistics

The automotive industry is quickly moving to volume manufacture of battery electric vehicles, but how do you adapt your facilities to be ready for this evolution? After years of experience understanding the processes and challenges to engineer your facilities for ICE assembly, how do you adapt that thinking for a new technology with limited experience to learn from.

• Which challenges need to be considered in the facility readiness for battery handling/storage
• How should the traditional calculations for designing facilities be adapted
• What opportunities are created for existing operations

Transformation @ ZF - Our E-Mobility Strategy

Ten years ago ZF was a Chassis and Powertrain supplier with excellent hardware products and a high dependency on internal combustion engine vehicles.

Today ZF offers innovative E-Mobility solutions in all segments, from Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles to Industrial Applications and even Micro Mobility.

This transformation of ZF core business is based on a holistic strategy, covering product portfolio, supply base, strategic partners, internal processes as well as workforce and capabilities.

John Sobek will provide:

• Insights on ZF’s transformation strategy
• Examples of lighthouse projects along the way
• An open exchange about challenges and solutions

Finished Vehicle Logistics in Volkswagen Group – why cooperation with LSPs is the key to success

Introducing a new message standard is easy: writing a specification, mapping some data, setting up a server and you are good to go, right? Wrong!

Hear from Volkswagen Group Logistics why close collaboration with LSPs and with associations, such as ECG, Odette and VDA, is a key success factor for the implementation of the standard FVL messages and how these messages are being used to support the efficient distribution of VW Group vehicles.

Integrating smaller operators in the digitalisation of vehicle logistics

Improving integration and automation between OEMs and smaller transporters offers enormous potential for both sides. Bosch and RIO will demonstrate how networking between OEMs and smaller LSPs can be facilitated to provide added value.

Digitalisation! An on-going challenge for SMEs

Digitalisation of internal processes and supply chain operations has been at the heart of the strategy of automotive companies for many years and with the ever-increasing availability of enterprise software solutions, specialised service providers and standardised technology such as IOT, RFID, bar-coding, and APIs, it would seem to be not so difficult to achieve.

But many companies, especially SMEs, still struggle to comply with latest digital requirements of their customers, so what are the roadblocks and, more importantly, what could be the solutions?

With years of experience in the digitalisation of automotive processes, Michael Spaeth will explore the causes of the roadblocks. He will then share some possible solution paths that can be used to build a roadmap to streamline core processes and will provide examples of tools and support that are available from OEMs and industry associations to help smaller companies face up to the digitalisation challenge.

Enabling the Catena-X Data Space

This presentation provides an introduction to the technical foundation and services that enable the Catena-X data space. How data is made available via digital twins, how trust between data provider and consumer is established and how data is exchanged through the Eclipse Dataspace Connector (EDC).

• Learn how Catena-X proposes to simplify digital interactions and change the way that companies exchange data
• Gain an understanding of core Catena-X Data Space components

OFTP2 and Catena-X: An integrative perspective

Product engineering in automotive is a confidential collaboration process between OEM and supplier and relies on secure data transfer technologies such as OFTP2.

In the collaboration process, the protection of intellectual property is crucial and data sovereignty is seen by many as a key element in the protection of IP.

Catena-X has been developing approaches to the question of data sovereignty but the integration of well-proven technologies like OFTP2 is still an open issue.

Dr Hubl will demonstrate the practical steps that are being taken by the Odette community to ensure interoperability of current Odette tools and recommendations with Catena-X methods, providing:

- An overview of the current situation with respect to Catena-X and the corresponding Eclipse Dataspace Connector (EDC)

- Insights into the process of how Odette becomes a Catena-X lead user with SSC-Services as IT Enabler

- An understanding of how the OFTP2 Expert Group can contribute to develop a technical solution to connect with the EDC, including a potential update of the current OFTP2 RFC and Implementation Guidelines.