How would you solve the inventory issues with Uber Grocery?

I would ask some clarification questions to understand who is driving the issues, if it is one-time or presistent issues, if it is a process or technology issue.

Then I would come up a set of hypothesis to identify the root cause of the problem and figure out a solution to solve the problem.

Clarification questions: 

Candidate: I would like to understand the segment that drive the inventory issues a) store owner b) picker

Interviewer: Both

Candidate: I would like to understand if it is a recent issue or if the issue exists from the start.

Interviewer: The issue exists from the start.

Candidate: That means it is a persistent design issues, not related to any updates we made to the product.

Candidate: Is it just technology issues or both technology and product issue?

Interviewer: It is a technology issue.

Hypothesis to identify the root cause:

I would define the workflows that are involved in fulfilling the grocery orders and identify any issues with it and make recommendations to fix it.

Store owner gets the supply of items to the store, verify the item quantities and record the inventory in the system. If there is mismatch here, it will lead to inventory issues.

Picker selects the items and quantity based on the customer order and record the information in the system. If the picker records the inaccruate value, it will to lead to inventory issues.

A) Mix up the items- store owner driven: While recording the inventory in the system, store owner mix the items, and records the inventory for item a into item b and inventory for item b into item a.

B) Inventory issues- picker driven: When picker is fulfilling the order, picker is not updating the item that is picked or incorrectly updating the quantity or item itself.

C) Location issues- Same item can be present in multiple locations; some times, pickers or store owners migh capture the item and quantity accurately in the system but not the location. It will lead to inventory accuracy issues.

D) Items whose unit of measurement is measured in pounds as opposed to units: Some times, the store owner or the picker might not accurately wiegh the items such bean, onion, that will lead to inventory issues.

E) Unreserved inventory: If the same inventory pool is access by in-store customers and pickes from multiple channels, it will lead to inventory issues. Because items that the customers picked up will be updated in the system only at the checkout, introducing the time lag in updating the inventory into the system that cause the inventory accuracy issues.

Solutions:

I would prioritize the initiaves that generate the highest ROI for the customers a) location issues, b) unreserved inventory c) items measured in pounds.

Location consolidation: I would consolidate the item into a single location, it will reduce the burden for the operators as they are required to update only quantity, item but not the location.

Unserved inventory: When the store is using multiple channel to sell the inventory, I would reserve the invetory for Uber grocer delivery that others cannot access. This will ensure to avoid the inventory that arise because time lag in updating the inventory details in the system.

Standardize the unit of measurement for the items that are measured in weight: I would pre-package the items such as tomato, onion in a standard units as 1 pound, 2 pound, 5 pound. This standaradization will help to reduce the inventory accuracy issues.

Conclusion:

We identified the operators that drive the inventory issues, how long the issues are present and nature of the issues.

We then found that process and technology related root causes and suggested recommendations to fix them.