Inventory Record Accuracy (IRA) Calculator

How this is calculated

IRA is a hit-or-miss measure at the location level. A location either matches the system record within your counting tolerance or it does not; there is no partial credit.

The at-risk figure is a rough estimate only. It assumes inaccuracy is spread evenly across your inventory value, which is rarely exactly true; in practice fast movers are often counted more and matched more. Treat it as a conversation starter, not an audit number.

What good looks like, and the caveats

• IRA counts locations, not dollars. A bin of washers and a bin of servo motors weigh the same in the percentage. Dollar-weighted accuracy is a separate, complementary measure.
• Tolerance matters. Many plants count a location as accurate within a small tolerance for cheap, high-volume parts and zero tolerance for critical or serialized items. State your tolerance when you quote your IRA.
• Common reference ranges. Roughly 95% and above is commonly cited as a workable target, and 97% and above is often described as world-class. These are ranges, not guarantees, and definitions vary by tolerance policy.
• Low IRA compounds. Planners buffer against records they do not trust, which inflates stock, expediting, and stockouts at the same time.

Record accuracy usually breaks where transactions happen on paper and get keyed in later, or never. Moving issues, moves, and counts into a single live system is the structural fix; see what a manufacturing operating system is. To size the cost of the extra stock that inaccuracy forces you to hold, use the inventory carrying cost calculator and the safety stock and reorder point calculator.