Help Me Out: An Inventory Paradox Results

The Original Question was:

Let suppose we have a limitation to physically move products from location A to B and we have to balance this inventory by making a system transaction.

The question is what transfer you have to make on system to balance this inventory?

Location A				Location B
	Physical	System	Difference		Physical	System	Difference
Product X	2	4	-2	Product X	6	4	+2
Product Y	4	2	+2	Product Y	2	4	-2

And Choices were:

·         Product X from Location B to A and Product Y from Location A to B

·         Product X from Location B to A and Product Y from Location B to A

·         Product X from Location A to B and Product Y from Location B to A

·         Product X from Location A to B and Product Y from Location A to B

 

The right answer is: Product X from Location A to B and Product Y from Location B to A

The survey results have shown that only 25% of participants come up with the right answer.

The key to solve this kind of problem when adjusting an inventory is that a difference of Positive means that you have to transfer  that item to this location to balance the inventory while a difference of negative means that you have transfer that item from that location to balance the inventory. You can easily remember this by a simple pneumonic mentioned below

“Positive is to attract and Negative is to repel”