INGMAR MESTER
RISK & RESILIENCE
visibility , have naturally assumed heightened importance during this ongoing era of disruption .
With Hapag-Lloyd ’ s business activities taking place all over the world , Ingmar looks after a not -insignificant procurement team of more than 150 people , who each deal with severalhundred suppliers .
“ It ’ s absolutely critical for us to know as much as possible about our suppliers ,” he says . “ In one of my previous roles , we would say you need to know more about your supplier than your supplier ’ s key account manager .”
However , when dealing with a vast pool of suppliers , Ingmar calls this “ an impossible task ” – unless procurement teams have the required technological tools at their disposal to gain transparency , collate useful information , create supplier profiles and provide crucial updates .
Fortunately , interest in supply chain risk management has grown largely in parallel with the remarkable rise of AI and its more advanced offshoots , not to mention big data .
Ingmar adds : “ For Hapag-Lloyd , a global company with a supplier base that extends into nearly every country in the world and a limited group of procurement , you need to rely on tools that help you manage the supply chain , create transparency and eliminate the false positives .”
INGMAR MESTER
TITLE : DIRECTOR SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
COMPANY : HAPAG-LLOYD
INDUSTRY : SHIPPING & TRANSPORTATION
Ingmar Mester serves as Director Supplier Management and Sustainability at shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd . He joined the company in 2020 after more than two decades in the FMCG industry .
Working with Craft In a bid to obtain enhanced supply chain visibility , Hapag-Lloyd is working closely with Craft , an intelligent supply chain resilience solution enabling organisations to make smarter supplier decisions and protect against disruptions .
Having undertaken a thorough analysis , the shipping giant is continuously monitoring risk and compliance around 1,800 of its major suppliers via the Craft platform .
“ You have your tail-end suppliers , which are not considered critical to your business , but then there are those where any kind of interruption would have a detrimental effect on Hapag-Lloyd – they are all covered ,” Ingmar explains .
On a relatively basic level , Craft collects data , facts and figures via the internet and third-party sources to which it is subscribed and makes them available to Hapag-Lloyd , saving category managers hours of precious time .
82 January 2025