inventra

Order-driven inventory system for a restaurant (with real-world constraints)

inventra is a modern restaurant operating system, inspired by real-world products used in emerging markets. It models how orders, inventory, and kitchen workflows interact under conditions like unreliable internet and high transaction volume.

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🚀 Overview

inventra is designed to reflect how restaurants actually operate:

• Orders are placed through a POS interface
• Each order triggers automatic inventory deduction based on predefined recipes
• Orders move through a lifecycle: Pending → Preparing → Completed
• The system is built with resilience in mind, simulating offline-first behavior and real-time updates

This project focuses on system behavior, not just UI.

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🧠 Key Concepts Implemented

1. Order-Driven Inventory

Inventory is not manually edited. Instead:

• Each menu item is mapped to ingredients (recipe system)
• When an order is placed, ingredient quantities are deducted automatically

Example:

1 Plate of Jollof Rice → 0.25kg Rice
5 Plates → 1.25kg deducted from inventory

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2. Order Lifecycle (State Machine)

Orders transition through clearly defined states:

PENDING → PREPARING → COMPLETED

• Pending: New order, not yet handled
• Preparing: Kitchen is working on it
• Completed: Order fulfilled

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3. Real-Time System Behavior

• Orders appear instantly after being placed
• UI updates dynamically without page reloads
• State transitions reflect immediately across the system

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4. Offline-First Simulation

Designed with unreliable networks in mind:

• Orders can be created while offline
• Data syncs when connection is restored
• Local storage used as a temporary queue

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5. POS-Centric Workflow

The POS (Point of Sale) acts as the system entry point:

• Staff take orders on behalf of customers
• Orders are sent to the kitchen and inventory system simultaneously

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🧱 Features

• POS interface for order creation
• Inventory dashboard (kg/L based tracking)
• Automatic ingredient deduction via recipes
• Orders management (Pending, Preparing, Completed)
• Real-time UI updates
• Offline-first behavior (planned/implemented)
• Activity tracking (optional extension)

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: React / Next.js
• State Management: (e.g., Zustand / Context API)
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• Data Handling: Local state + mock API / IndexedDB (for offline support)

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🧩 System Design Thinking

This project goes beyond a typical CRUD application by modeling:

• Event-driven updates (orders triggering inventory changes)
• Multi-state workflows (order lifecycle)
• Data consistency challenges (inventory vs concurrent orders)
• Real-world constraints (network instability)

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⚙️ Getting Started

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/tobe01/inventra.git

# Navigate into project
cd inventra

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run development server
npm run dev
📌 Future Improvements
Backend integration (Node.js / Express)
WebSocket-based real-time updates
Payment simulation and transaction logging
Multi-device sync
Role-based access (cashier, manager, kitchen)
🤝 Inspiration

This project is inspired by modern restaurant operating systems and fintech-driven business tools used across emerging markets.

👤 Author

Tobechi Duru
Top-rated Software Engineer

Portfolio: https://tobechiduru.vercel.app
GitHub: https://github.com/Tobe01
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobechiduru
📄 License

MIT License


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