RELEX Retail and Supply Chain Award 2019 Granted to Research on Improving Inventory Replenishment for Animal Pharmaceutical Products Distributors

RELEX Solutions’ annual Retail and Supply Chain Award is given to the best European master’s thesis in the field of retail and supply chain planning. The award has been handed out since 2014 and is given to the best master’s thesis with a focus on retail and supply chain planning.

This year, the Retail and Supply Chain Award and reward of 2000 euros were granted to Samuel Labrecque from Vienna University for his research “Improvement of Inventory Replenishment Decisions as a Value-Added Service for Distributors: a solution method adapted for distributors in the animal pharmaceutical industry”.

The jury found Labrecque’s thesis successful in validating a solution method that is simple and generally applicable to a large number of distributors with deficient inventory keeping practices.

The jury consisted of Prof. Dr. Kai Förstl from the German Graduate School of Management & Law, Prof. Jan Holmström from Aalto University, Prof. Gyöngyi Kovács from Hanken Univesity, RELEX Solutions Co-founder and CMO Johanna Smaros, Emeritus Chairman Andrew Blatherwick, and leading logistics and supply chain scientists Janne Nissi, Tuomas Viitanen and Timo Idänheimo.

“Receiving this award is an honor,” says Labrecque. “To me, it shows the interest in tackling complex supply chain challenges with simpler, faster, but often overlooked, approaches. Sometimes, looking back at older and broader methods allows for a fresher perspective”.