RISK & RESILIENCE
Joern Foerster, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain & Procurement at Diebold Nixdorf, leads global operations across production sites in Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, India, the US and a joint venture in China. His remit covers production, logistics, procurement, product launches, quality management, supply chain planning and operational excellence.
Joern began his career at the company in 1999 as a Controller. In 2012, he transitioned to Vice President Finance Global Supply Chain, marking his first major focus on supply chain management. Following years of expanding responsibilities, he was promoted to Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain in 2020. Since 2021, he has also led the Paderborn site in Germany, which employs more than 2,000 people.
He spoke to Supply Chain Digital about regionalising global hubs and transforming Diebold Nixdorf’ s supply chain into a resilient, competitive force.
“ It became clear our supply chain needed to be decentralised and fundamentally transformed”
Joern Foerster SVP Diebold Nixdorf
What was the driving force behind the Supply Chain Excellence Program and what improvements have you seen since its implementation? Like many organisations, we have faced significant challenges recently and had to address difficult questions: How resilient is our supply chain? Can we maintain uninterrupted production? Global disruptions, the pandemic, geopolitical tensions and the blockage of critical trade routes have added complexity to a demanding environment. It became clear our supply chain needed to be decentralised and fundamentally transformed. Consequently, we launched our Supply Chain Excellence Program to provide necessary strategies and concrete initiatives.
This has enabled improvements across various areas. A major achievement was transitioning from a centralised manufacturing model to a regionalised setup. This change helped us shorten customer lead times and improve satisfaction.
Additionally, building new supplier partnerships in strategic locations, including our North America hub in North Canton, Ohio, has increased agility. This reduced critical dependencies on individual suppliers and strengthened overall resilience.
We are also continuing to optimise our supply chain footprint to improve flexibility and reduce goods in transit. Our emphasis on regionalisation demonstrates our commitment to adaptability in a dynamic market.
82 May 2026