What is the mission for Merck procurement?
Generally speaking, it is our mission to strategically source high-quality goods and services at optimal costs, ensuring value creation and innovation while maintaining strong ethical standards and sustainability practices.
It supports Merck Electronics' broader goal of “Advancing digital living”, that is, providing solutions that enable the electronics industry to reach the next level in digitization and Artificial Intelligence.
Advancing procurement for a better tomorrow and a thriving Merck, which is our vision for the Merck entire procurement. We call it “Northstar 2030”. We are convinced that a future oriented Procurement organisation including the diverse Procurement options in all our categories can drive the entire company forward.
Put into practice, we are collaborating closely with our internal partners in the business to meet their sourcing needs with a focus on consistent supply, quality and cost-effectiveness. We provide vital cost information to support discussions with customers on pricing. We are committed to drive business and customer requirements to our suppliers, emphasising sustainability, quality, and cost.Contribute value by fostering resilient supply chains, supporting profitable growth through savings, we support R&D with innovative solutions, and enhancing operations and sustainability.
With such an extensive portfolio of interests at Merck - does that present challenges for a procurement team?
Certainly, the extensive portfolio of interests at Merck does present unique challenges. Our procurement team navigates the complexities of sourcing for diverse business needs and a global network. We balance the multidimensionality of our organisation by ensuring we stay in close touch with our businesses. Our approach is to be ambidextrous, juggling business focus with market expertise to meet global priorities. It's essential to maintain flexibility and avoid rigidity, allowing for responsive support across teams to effectively manage this extensive portfolio.
How are you integrating sustainability considerations into your procurement and supply chain?
Sustainability is a cornerstone of our procurement and supply chain strategy. We are committed to incorporating sustainable practices throughout our sourcing strategies and procurement processes. We engage with stakeholders, and aim to shape sustainability standards and approaches together with peers and industry associations such as TfS-Together for Sustainability for future readiness, fostering a culture of collaboration.
We actively partner with suppliers to find sustainable solutions, prioritise sustainable sourcing, and strive to minimise our environmental impact.
What strategies have you used to balance traditional procurement performance with meeting sustainability targets?
Just to name a few approaches that have worked well within our relationship with our partners: Sustainability aspects have become a regular exchange topic in our relationship with key suppliers alongside the classical procurement subjects. This is a two-way conversation and there is benefit on both sides. We have signed contracts with suppliers that include sustainability related clauses to reach mutual goals. Furthermore we have embedded sustainability elements into our requests for proposals and consider the responses as part of the selection process.
How do you try to make sure your procurement operation stays at the cutting edge of technology to maximise performance?
To ensure our procurement operation at Merck remains at the leading edge, we partner with technology innovators and industry thought leaders to remain up to date with the latest advancements. By prioritising the strategic utilisation of big data, we augment data from various solutions and contextualise it within a procurement domain specific data ontology, all managed under a stringent data governance framework. This strong foundation empowers us to leverage advanced analytics, to deploy AI-driven tools, and to integrate state-of-the-art procurement solutions effectively and with speed.
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