Goal of the Day

Today you will study inventory management concepts, explore Titan’s Inventory and Sales datasets, and map the connection between inventory management and sales fulfillment rates.
You will prepare to clean and analyze inventory health and its direct impact on customer service levels.

Detailed Tasks with U2xAI Prompts and Interview Preparation Focus

1. Study Inventory Management Concepts and Inventory Flows

  • What to Do:
    Learn about key concepts:
    • Types of Inventory: Raw Materials, Work-In-Progress (WIP), Finished Goods
    • Inventory Flows: Receiving → Stocking → Picking → Shipping
    • Importance of Inventory Accuracy
    • Concepts like Stock Turnover, Safety Stock, Stockouts
  • U2xAI Prompt:
    "Explain inventory flow from receiving to shipping, and define stock turnover and safety stock concepts with simple supply chain examples."
  • How This Helps for Interviews:
    You’ll be prepared for questions like, “Walk me through how inventory management supports fulfillment,” or “What happens when inventory accuracy drops?”
  • Time Recommendation: 1 hour

2. Explore Titan’s Inventory and Sales Datasets

  • What to Do:
    Review:
    • Inventory Levels Dataset: SKU ID, Available Stock, Reorder Point, Safety Stock, Warehouse ID
    • Sales Transactions Dataset: Order ID, SKU ID, Order Date, Quantity Ordered, Fulfillment Status
  • U2xAI Prompt:
    "List typical fields in an inventory and sales dataset and explain how each field is important for inventory health analysis."
  • How This Helps for Interviews:
    You’ll need to recognize immediately what data is useful when given a large, raw inventory dataset in real-life analytics tasks.
  • Time Recommendation: 1.5 hours

3. Map Inventory-Sales Flow

  • What to Do:
    Create a flowchart showing how a sales order moves through the inventory process:
    • Customer Order ➔ Inventory Check ➔ Stock Reservation ➔ Order Fulfillment ➔ Stock Update
  • U2xAI Prompt:
    "Help me create a simple flowchart mapping how inventory stock levels affect order fulfillment in a supply chain."
  • How This Helps for Interviews:
    Shows that you understand the operational connection between physical inventory and order management — a key insight for supply chain analyst roles.
  • Time Recommendation: 1 hour
  • What to Do:
    Understand how inventory directly impacts KPIs like:Link missing inventory to late or unfulfilled orders.
    • Fulfillment Rate = (Orders Fulfilled / Total Orders) × 100
    • Stockout Rate
    • Backorder Rate
    • Inventory Turnover Ratio = (COGS / Average Inventory)
  • U2xAI Prompt:
    "Explain how inventory metrics like inventory turnover and stockout rate impact fulfillment KPIs in supply chain management."
  • How This Helps for Interviews:
    Equips you for higher-level questions like, “How would you improve fulfillment rates by improving inventory practices?”
  • Time Recommendation: 1 hour

5. Document Inventory Processes and Inventory-Sales Linkage

  • What to Do:
    Create a document summarizing:
    • Key inventory processes in Titan’s supply chain
    • How inventory data fields relate to sales fulfillment
    • Potential risks (e.g., stockouts, delays) if inventory is poorly managed
  • U2xAI Prompt:
    "Suggest a documentation format summarizing inventory management flow, important data fields, and their relationship to sales fulfillment performance."
  • How This Helps for Interviews:
    Shows you can structure operational thinking and document it clearly — critical in real analytics projects.
  • Time Recommendation: 45 minutes

6. Plan Inventory Data Cleaning Activities for Day 11

  • What to Do:
    Create a checklist of potential cleaning issues to watch for:
    • Missing SKU IDs or Stock Quantities
    • Negative Stock Quantities
    • Fulfilled orders not reducing inventory properly
    • Date mismatches between sales and inventory records
  • U2xAI Prompt:
    "What common data quality issues would you expect in inventory and sales datasets, and how would you fix them before performing inventory analytics?"
  • How This Helps for Interviews:
    Readies you to answer questions like, “Before doing inventory analytics, what cleaning would you perform?” with clear, real-world examples.
  • Time Recommendation: 15 minutes

Step-by-Step BUILDUP Application for Day 10

  • Breakdown:
    Focus on understanding inventory flows and their impact on fulfillment performance.
  • Understand:
    Study inventory turnover KPIs and how they relate to order management.
  • Implement:
    Map the flow of goods from inventory through fulfillment based on Titan’s datasets.
  • Link:
    Relate inventory movement to fulfillment rates and customer satisfaction metrics.
  • Document:
    Create a clean summary of inventory processes and field linkages to sales and fulfillment.
  • Upgrade Progress:
    Prepare a full inventory and sales data cleaning checklist for tomorrow’s cleaning session.

Deliverables for Today

  • Inventory and Sales Flowchart
  • Inventory Process Summary Document
  • KPI Sheet Connecting Inventory Metrics to Fulfillment KPIs
  • Inventory and Sales Data Cleaning Plan (Checklist)

Practice Interview Questions for Day 10

  1. What are the key stages in the inventory management lifecycle?
  2. How does inventory turnover impact supply chain efficiency?
  3. What fields would you expect in an inventory dataset, and why are they important?
  4. How would you connect stock levels to customer order fulfillment performance?
  5. What risks arise if inventory data is inaccurate or incomplete?

Bonus Task:
Practice answering:
"If you notice fulfillment rates are dropping sharply, what inventory KPIs would you review first, and why?"