From kibble to clicks: Chewy's path to the Edelman Award competition

From kibble to clicks: Chewy's path to the Edelman Award competition

From Resoundingly Human by INFORMS

March 28, 2026 · 18 min

About this episode

The episode discusses how Chewy utilized advanced analytics to improve inventory management and tackle replenishment challenges.

Each year, organizations from around the world compete in the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award competition, demonstrating how advanced analytics and O.R. are solving real problems at massive scale. In this episode, members of the team from Chewy , the largest online pet retailer and pharmacy in the United States, share how they tackled a challenge that sounds simple on the surface but becomes incredibly complex at scale: replenishment. Using a science-driven suite of models, supported by a custom engineering platform and continuous analytics monitoring, the team transformed how Chewy manages purchase orders, safety stock, and inventory placement – all while accounting for unreliable data, supply uncertainty, and vendor constraints. The result? Improved inventory placement, fewer split shipments, shorter shipping distances, and meaningful financial impact in a thin-margin industry.

People in this episode

Guest: Chewy team

Topics covered

  • advanced analytics
  • operations research
  • inventory management
  • supply chain
  • e-commerce

Keywords

  • Chewy
  • Edelman Award
  • analytics
  • replenishment
  • inventory placement
  • supply uncertainty
  • pet retailer

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Chewy, INFORMS

Places: United States

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