The purpose of realizing zero inventory management is to reduce the social labor occupation (mainly to reduce the capital occupation) and improve the economic benefits of logistics movement. If zero inventory is only regarded as the decrease or change trend of the quantity of goods stored in the warehouse, and other material factors are ignored, then the above objectives will be difficult to achieve. Due to the unreasonable inventory structure and layout, some enterprises have no inventory even if the inventory quantity tends to zero or equal to zero. However, from the perspective of the whole society, due to the repeated existence of storage facilities, the amount of funds used to set up and maintain warehouses has not decreased.

Therefore, from the perspective of rationalization of logistics movement, zero inventory management should include the following two meanings:

(1) The quantity of goods in stock tends to zero or equal to zero;

(2) Inventory facilities and equipment quantity and inventory labor cost tend to zero or equal to zero at the same time. Zero inventory in the latter sense is actually a reasonable adjustment of social inventory structure and a manifestation of inventory centralization.