Inventory Analysis with Tableau

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Iason Prassides

Content Developer, DataCamp

What is a case study?

  • Examination of a particular real-world problem
  • Practice your skills
  • No new Tableau concepts

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Prerequisite courses

  • Calculations in Tableau

Cartoon image of a piece of paper with insights, being examined by a magnifying glass.

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Steps of the analysis

Data analysis process, showing the five steps in the analysis process.

1) Verify the necessary data is present and clean

2) Explore the data

3) Analyze and visualize information

4) Create dashboards and report insights

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

The problem

Help a management team make the best decisions.

  • Acropolis Retail Ltd.
  • Objective: to communicate insights for the renewal of items

Cartoon images of different elements involved in the storage and transportation of inventory.

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

What is inventory analysis?

  • Optimizing the management of inventory

  • Some benefits of inventory analysis:

    • Reduction of storage expenses
    • Reduction of purchase costs
    • Reduction of unused goods
    • Helps to increase profit

Cartoon image of a an employee dealing withe the storage, delivery, and analysis of inventory.

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Starting with inventory analysis

Calculations:

  • Revenue
  • Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
  • Profit

 
Factory worker inspecting warehouse with inventory analysis showing up along shelves holding products.

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Calculating revenue

Revenue is the money generated from normal business operations, calculated as the sales price times the number of units sold

 

${Revenue = quantity\;of\;units\;sold\;\times\;selling\;price}$

1 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/revenue.asp
Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Cost of goods sold

Cost of producing or acquiring products that a company sells, including:

  • Raw materials
  • Labor
  • Factory overhead or costs related to production facilities

 

Example

${Wooden\;chair\;COGS = (wood + glue + wood\;finishers + labor)\times\;units\;sold\;}$

1 https://www.irs.gov/publications/p535
Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Exploring gross profit

Profit a company makes after deducting the costs associated with making and selling its products

 

Simplified formula

${Gross\;Profit = Revenue - COGS }$

1 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/grossprofit.asp
Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Dataset

Two tables with information on item description, initial stock, orders, dates, countries, and prices.

Image showing the two dataset tables that will be used as part of the case study.

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

Let's practice!

Case Study: Inventory Analysis in Tableau

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