International supply chains in the automotive industry are highly complex. They typically have a large number of players at different supply levels. They are also often subject to very rapid changes. Therefore, great efforts may be required to clearly trace the origin or delivery route of a component, for example. Until now, it has been common practice for the many partners involved to manage their data in isolation, each on their own. The respective IT systems of the companies involved were not always able to communicate with each other consistently. For the BMW Group's purchasing experts and their suppliers, ensuring transparency therefore involved a high level of manual effort. In order to ensure seamless traceability of components and immediate data transparency in complex supply chains for all partners involved - virtually "at the push of a button" - the BMW Group launched a project called "PartChain". This project enables data in the supply chain to be recorded and transactions to be checked at any time and made tamper-proof.
