Finnish Association of Purchasing and Logistics, LOGY, recognized again the best Dissertation, best Master’s thesis and best Bachelor’s thesis in the field of purchasing and logistics. Winners were announced and awarded with scholarships at the annual members´ meeting on the 23^rd  of November 2017.

International Business and Logistics alumnus Maria Yakovleva was awarded for the best Bachelor’s thesis 2017 with her thesis ”Managing Last Time Buy Components”. The thesis was instructed by the Head of Degree Programme and Senior Lecturer, Kaija Haapasalo, from Metropolia Business School.

Maria Yakovleva´s thesis was commissioned by an international company in the field of electronics. In her thesis, she studies procurement process of End-of-Life products (EOL).  These products are often components, which are becoming old and should be changed to the new ones or components that are at the end of their lifecycle and should be substituted. Maria analyses systematically the main differences of EOL and normal purchasing process as well as supply chain risks of this last-time-buy situation.

The topic of the thesis is interesting and important to certain industries and companies and yet not studied in a large extent. Theoretical background and analysis of the results give a good introduction to the problematic of EOL procurement. The model of managing the last-time-buy process of these products is been described in a profound way. Therefore, the results of the thesis are applicable and useful to other companies as well. It is essential to understand what needs to do differently in comparison to normal procurement processes.

Huge congratulations to Maria!