Interview with Merck CPO Joachim Christ

"Just-in-time and single sourcing to achieve maximum cost savings are a thing of the past – what matters now is sustainability and partnerships"

Almost all large companies are currently striving to become more resilient to unexpected crises. Joachim Christ, Chief Procurement Officer and Executive Vice President at Merck, explains how the science and technology company's procurement functions as a business partner that safeguards its supply of key materials and services, and minimizes risks throughout the supply chain.

Mr. Christ, how would you describe the past three years from a procurement perspective?

CHRIST The coronavirus pandemic, the Suez Canal blockage, rising raw material prices, the Shanghai lockdown, the war in Ukraine and now the energy crisis – the challenges for procurement teams merge into one another. The past three years were largely characterized by operational crisis management and the search for short-term solutions. In general, robust supply chains have become even more important.

Are global supply chains becoming increasingly unbundled? To what extent are the value chains at Merck currently localized?

CHRIST I still believe in the future of global markets, global production networks, and global supply chains, which must also work together. Our business model at Merck is based on this; we are a globally positioned company. However, we are increasingly moving our sourcing activities closer to our production sites – to where our internal added value is created – with the goal of ensuring short logistics paths. So we're taking more of a "region for region" approach.