Catena-X and OPC Foundation Unite to Enable Seamless Industrial Data Exchange for the Digital Product Passport

Adopt a multiplatform data-exchange layer now to connect Catena-X and the OPC Foundation for the Digital Product Passport. This window opens a direct path for data exchange across the chain, helping a manufacturer and end-users alike and setting a common standard that travels beyond borders, starting in germany and expanding globally.

For manufacturers, this collaboration yields a great opportunity with significant gains in traceability, compliance accuracy, and new cases of data-driven optimization across supply chains, with roaming data flowing securely between suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers on a global scale. The approach provides strong podpora for end-to-end visibility and helps end-users by providing transparent product histories and easy access to information in real time, enabling the most efficient partner networks to unlock value quickly in germany and globally.

stefan from the OPC Foundation emphasizes that exchange interfaces are designed to be multiplatform and modular, enabling quick onboarding for existing factory systems and reducing time-to-value for most partners. The collaboration also highlights an inovácie path with open standards that other industries can adapt, expanding the network globally.

In germany pilots show measurable results: fewer data gaps, faster compliance reporting, and improved data quality. An initial set of 5 cases demonstrates how the common data model supports the Digital Product Passport’s core attributes, with the источник of truth at the data layer governed by clear data-quality rules. Stakeholders across germany and other regions can leverage this foundation to accelerate rollout and podpora cross-border interoperability.

Collaboration Scope: Catena-X and OPC Foundation for the Digital Product Passport

Adopt a joint data-exchange framework that standardizes formats and enables interoperable product data across ecosystems, providing straightforward enablement for users and accelerating exchanges for the Digital Product Passport. Catena-X and OPC Foundation will define a minimal, common set of technologies and services required to support certification and compliance workflows, with clear ownership and timelines. hoppe will drive alignment on certification requirements and interoperability benchmarks to ensure consistent signals across partners. The joint program will focus on interoperable data models, references, and formats that support smart product metadata, lifecycle information, and carbon analytics, enabling a scalable value chain. Implement a modular architecture that separates core technology from ecosystem-specific extensions, supporting a wide range of actors–from manufacturers and suppliers to logistics providers and regulators. Activities include establishing shared reference implementations, common APIs, and a certification framework that validates conformance to data-exchange standards, while ensuring backward compatibility and easy adoption for users. By aligning on standardized formats and accompanying services, the collaboration will reduce integration costs, improve data quality, and accelerate time-to-value toward digital product passport enablement. The effort will also emphasize governance, compliance, and traceability, ensuring that exchanges are secure, auditable, and privacy-preserving, thus strengthening ecosystems while reducing carbon impact through improved material transparency and circular economy insights.

What problem is addressed by the alliance for the Digital Product Passport?

Adopt a standardized cross-industry data model and administration framework to enable seamless Digital Product Passport data exchange across vendors. The alliance between Catena-X and the OPC Foundation was founded to address fragmentation in data definitions, governance gaps, and incompatible formats that create silos during manufacturing and in the supply chain, with a clear focus on practical interoperability.

• Problem: data definitions and attributes differ by vendor and sector, hindering traceability, auditability, and the ability to fulfill regulatory and sustainability reporting.
• Solution approach: combine a common data model with templates and tools to support administration and ongoing management, enabling cross-industry data exchanges and consistent reporting.
• Implementation path: establish a window for pilots, integrating manufacturing data into the Digital Product Passport, and publish an agreement that defines access, security, value sharing among participants, and the needed governance details.
• Expected outcomes: faster compliance, reduced duplication of data entry, better visibility across their supply chains, and measurable benefit for partners in manufacturing and beyond, therefore accelerating adoption.
• Governance and maintenance: maintain templates, update the model on a regular cadence, and provide a solid basis for ongoing transformation while supporting their ability to manage data governance.

This partnership establishes a practical basis for ongoing transformation, focusing on value creation for their manufacturing ecosystems and regulators.

How do OPC UA standards align with Catena-X data fabric?

Providing a clear alignment between OPC UA standards and the Catena-X data fabric requires using OPC UA information models as the shared semantic layer, enabling catena-x application data to flow with a common vocabulary through the life cycle and toward sustainability.

Key alignment points include:

1. Data model harmonization: Map Catena-X data objects (part, document, life cycle attributes) to OPC UA Information Models; build a shared catalog that covers petrochemical industrie and automotive sectors, so semantics are identical across parties, enabling catena-x data to travel smoothly.
2. Security and governance: Enforce OPC UA security with encryption and certificate-based authentication; implement role-based access and cross-border trust rules to protect data while meeting compliance across parties. They require formal policies and a cadence for audits. OPC UA specifications are developed with broad vendor input.
3. Lifecycle data and eventing: Use OPC UA History and Alarms & Conditions to capture lifecycle changes; feed Catena-X data fabric with life-cycle records and DPP data to support decision-making and disaster resilience; provide data lineage across partners.
4. Open-source and costs: Leverage open-source OPC UA stacks (for example open62541) and Catena-X components (catena-xs) to reduce integration costs, speed up pilots, and foster collaboration across industries; standardize on security updates and patching across the ecosystem.
5. Approach to transformation: Start with a joint meeting of key parties and a pragmatic transformation path; this approach can breed cross-industry collaboration and help join data streams with minimal duplication; plan scalable adoption across industries toward measurable benefits.

Practical regional note: in china facilities, edge OPC UA servers can expose plant data to the Catena-X data fabric through secure gateways, enabling quick wins in providing life-cycle visibility while keeping local data handling policies intact.

What data models, attributes, and exchange patterns enable the DPP workflow?

Adopt a modular, product-centric data model with a core DPP passport schema and standardized attributes, and implement API- and event-based exchange to enable secure, scalable sharing. This approach supports catena-x initiatives and moving data across hubs and parties.

Key attributes to enable standardization: passportId, productId, batchNumber, manufacturer, supplier, productionDate, originCountry, materialInfo, lifecycleStatus, complianceStatus, verificationResults, digitalSignature, dataSource, accessPolicy, version, provenance, dataQualityFlag. please align the schema with all parties to confirm alignment.

Exchange patterns include: API-based request-response for on-demand passport details; publish-subscribe for updates to passport objects; streaming for real-time status; delta messages for changes; bulk extracts for compliance reporting. All patterns are governed by data-sharing agreements and policy-based access controls to ensure interoperability.

Governance relies on data hubs to coordinate sharing among parties and initiatives; define agreement terms between manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers; integrate automation tools to reduce manual work; align with future passports and starlinks networks; incorporate input from hoppe and thomas teams to accelerate adoption.

Operational guidance emphasizes starting with a minimal passport core and expanding extensions along real needs; map to ERP/PLM data interfaces, ensure versioning, and maintain robust provenance and audit trails to support ongoing management and improvement across manufacturing ecosystems.

How are security, privacy, and governance handled across regions?

Adopt a federated governance model that aligns catena-x and the opc foundation, with a central policy backbone and clearly defined regional responsibilities. The association coordinates cross-border rules, while local entities maintain sovereignty and minimize exposure. The chairman leads security, privacy, and governance priorities, and upcoming initiatives will expand a modular approach that supports adoption across markets and future deployments.

Security rests on a zero-trust framework, robust identity and access management, MFA, mutual TLS for all service calls, and AES-256 encryption at rest. Edge processing keeps sensitive data local, shrinking the footprint and reducing exposure when cross-border transfers are required. Data-sharing remains encrypted in transit, with strict key management using distributed HSMs and regular key rotation to maintain resilience.

Privacy by design governs data lifecycles: data minimization, purpose limitation, consent tagging, and clear data lineage. In spain, privacy controls align with GDPR and local rules, using local data stores and privacy-preserving analytics to support reference models while protecting individuals. Modeling of access controls ensures that individuals’ rights are enforced and auditable across sites and systems.

Cross-region governance relies on binding data-sharing agreements, common data classifications, and cross-border risk assessments. We model data flows, provenance, and consent across regions to ensure partner data sharing respects local norms while delivering value. Within this framework, enforceable data-sharing rules guarantee compliance and traceability across exchanges, with clear reference points for audits.

Implementation steps include establishing a shared reference architecture, policy baselines, and partner onboarding processes; measure carbon footprint of data flows and progress from pilot to scale. In spain and beyond, ongoing initiatives will build resilience, adoption, and future gains for the partner ecosystem. oliver coordinates security modeling across teams, while the chairman oversees governance reviews; starlink connectivity supports remote edge sites without compromising security, boosting edge performance and reliability.

What are the adopters’ steps, pilots, and timelines to begin?

Begin with a 12-week cross-company pilot using a lightweight, open-source enablement framework to accelerate adoption. This framework coordinates data capture, semantic tagging, and secure exchange within ua-based manufacturing-x environments, establishing a solid basis for scalable interoperability. The approach is streamlined to deliver working capabilities quickly and to generate learnings that inform decisions moving forward.

Form a partnership across procurement, manufacturing, and IT to coordinate the data governance and exchange. Within this setup, align on a minimal information model and map it to the Catena-X and OPC Foundation schemas. Use semantically enriched blocks and standard data elements to ensure information remains interoperable across suppliers and plants.

Timeline guidance: 0-2 weeks for governance and scope, 2-6 weeks for data-model alignment and tagging, 6-12 weeks for pilot execution with selected manufacturers (ua-based where possible), and 12+ weeks for evaluation and rollout planning. This time-bound process helps maintain momentum and prepares the ecosystem for broader cooperation.