The task and original case
Create an inventory-spend concentration table before assigning review categories. The three invented items make a clear Pareto-style calculation, but any ABC cutoffs are your declared policy. A category letter should not hide the amount or share that produced it.
| Case element | Value or requirement |
|---|---|
| Inputs | Annual item spend A 600,B 300,C 100. |
| Build | A concentration table, cumulative shares and a chosen review cutoff. |
This is an original invented exercise. It is independent practice, with no employer assessment or open-vacancy claim. Download the inputs, attempt your own result, then open the separate answer key.
Data and worked inputs
Build a result another person can follow
Use one row per item with annual spend: A600, B300 and C100. Confirm that values use the same currency and period. Sort descending by spend, calculate the overall total, then compute each item's share and running cumulative share.
Show spend, individual share and cumulative share together. A PivotTable can summarize item spend; inspect its aggregation using Microsoft's field guidance. For this practice report, choose the first items reaching at least 90% of spend for initial review. That is a declared exercise cutoff, not a universal ABC standard or a complete supplier-risk ranking.
Sources[1]
Check the worked result
Total annual spend is 1000. A contributes 60%, B30% and C10%. Cumulative shares are 60%,90% and 100%. The first two items account for 90% of this invented spend and meet the chosen review cutoff.
A high spend share suggests where an arithmetic review may matter, but does not establish operational criticality. A low-spend item could still halt work if unavailable. Keep the report's stated purpose limited to concentration and explain what additional fields a broader review would require.
Make the failure visible
Add a negative spend value and decide whether it represents a valid credit or an invalid import before ranking it. Also test ties: an arbitrary row order can change which tied item crosses a cutoff, so disclose a tie policy. Check that cumulative share ends at 100% when the included population has a positive valid total.
Revise it and ask someone to reproduce it
Ask a peer to change C's spend from 100 to 600 and recompute the ranked table. Total becomes 1500; A and C each contribute 40%, B20%. The old two-item 90% statement no longer holds. Save both versions and explain why a policy based on current shares must be revisited when inputs change.
- Included spend reconciles to the reported total.
- Individual and cumulative shares stay visible beside categories.
- Ties, credits and changed populations have declared treatment.
Describe the work accurately
After completing your own version, you could adapt this project bullet: “Created an independent spend-concentration register with cumulative shares, declared review cutoffs and visible ranking assumptions.”
Use Projects or Independent practice as the heading. Keep the input files, result and revision together. Describe only your own completed work; the invented numbers are model outputs, not employer results or measured business impact.