Some examples include reviewing “item sales by time period by region” (in which there are different types of items, different time period durations, and different levels of granularity for regions) or “product availability by product classification by supplier by location” (in which there are multiple layers of product classifications and different levels of granularity for locations).
The multidimensional analysis provided by OLAP tools helps analysts “slice and dice” relationships between different variables within different levels of their own hierarchies. Multidimensional analysis and online analytical processing (OLAP) add a layer on top of the pivot table approaches used within desktop spreadsheet tools. David Loshin, in Business Intelligence (Second Edition), 2013 Dimensional Analysis
