Shrinkage

 At the time when I was working for ICL in East Anglia the primary focus of my support role was to explore with my customers opportunities for introducing stock control and production control systems. One of my customers, a small manufacturing company, was seriously interested and we were successful in helping them install and operate a stock control system, with a concomitant requirement for additional computer equipment.

All went well, except that there was a small but persistent difference between the stock levels forecast by the system and those revealed by a stock check, and I was much exercised by the task of tracking it down.

One Friday afternoon I was chatting with the computer manager about plans for the weekend. I explained that I was fitting out a cupboard in my new home so that we could use it as a wardrobe. The problem was, I explained, that I couldn’t find a piece of metal tube long enough to serve as a hanging rail. “I can probably help,” he said, “come with me.” We walked across to the stock shed, which was surrounded by a high fence with a locked gate. He produced a key and opened the gate; we went into the shed and found the length of tube I needed and locked the gate. “How do you come to have a key to the stock shed?” I asked. “Oh, all managers have them, and we can go and take anything we need.” “How do you record this on the stock control system?” I asked. They didn’t, of course. Problem solved.