Project 2 - Supply and Demand Gap Analysis

Detailed Documentation (Word File)

Aim:

The aim of this project is to analyze the gap between demand and supply in the retail industry, providing actionable insights to help minimize these gaps and ensure better strategic decision-making for resource allocation.

Introduction:

In the retail industry, balancing demand and supply is crucial for profitability and customer satisfaction. A supply-demand gap can lead to stockouts or excess inventory, both of which have financial impacts. By identifying the gap, companies can optimize their supply chains and improve forecasting accuracy.

This project uses retail sales and inventory data to highlight the differences between supply and demand and recommends strategies to close the gap.

Problem Statement:

Retailers face challenges in maintaining an optimal balance between demand and supply. When supply falls short of demand, customers experience stockouts, leading to lost sales and reduced customer satisfaction. Conversely, when supply exceeds demand, excess inventory results in higher carrying costs and potential waste. This project aims to identify patterns and gaps in supply and demand to aid in better inventory management and forecasting.

Methodology:

1. Data Selection and Loading:

   • Select a retail dataset from Kaggle (such as "Retail Sales Data").
   • Load the dataset into Power BI.

2. Data Cleaning and Preprocessing:

   • Remove missing or duplicate data.
   • Create calculated columns for demand and supply metrics if not already present.

3. Data Modeling:

   • Create measures to calculate the total demand, total supply, and gap (difference between demand and supply).
   • Create visuals such as bar charts, line charts, and tables to display demand and supply by category, product, and time period.

4. Analysis:

   • Perform time-series analysis to identify trends in demand and supply over different time periods (e.g., months, quarters, years).
   • Segment the data by product categories or regions to identify areas with the highest gaps.

5. Visualizations:

   • Use card visuals to show total demand, total supply, and total gap.
   • Use bar/column charts to compare demand and supply by product category or region.
   • Use a line chart to show trends in demand vs. supply over time.

6. Insights and Recommendations:

   • Analyze areas with the largest supply-demand gaps.
   • Make recommendations for improving forecasting, inventory management, and resource allocation.