On Inventory Record Accuracy

Abstract

An inventory stock record is in error when the information on the stock record is not in agreement with the actual state of affairs. We address the questions of what is meant by inventory record accuracy as reported in the literature and in official documents and what should be meant by this term, in the context of the inventory record accuracy problem defined by the Naval Supply Systems Command. The need for, and suggestions of, operational definitions of error measures are demonstrated in terms of the reporting of accuracy statistics, the formulation of inventory record accuracy goals, and the determination of correlative measures.