A pharmacy's minimum/maximum inventory level of a medication is 6/12. The pharmacy technician notices that there are five bottles on the shelf. How many bottles should the technician order?

To determine the number of bottles that should be ordered, we first need to understand the minimum and maximum inventory levels of the medication. In this case, the minimum is 6 bottles, and the maximum is 12 bottles.

The pharmacy currently has 5 bottles on the shelf. Since the minimum level is 6, the pharmacy is below this minimum and needs to increase its stock to at least that level. The gap between the minimum inventory level and the current inventory is calculated as follows:

Minimum inventory level (6) minus current inventory (5) equals 1 bottle.

While ordering, the pharmacy's goal is to reach the maximum level of 12 bottles. Therefore, the calculation to find out how many more bottles are needed from the current 5 is:

Maximum inventory level (12) minus current inventory (5) equals 7 bottles.

Given that the pharmacy needs to order enough bottles to reach the maximum level, the technician should order 7 bottles. This ensures that the stock is not only brought up to the minimum required level but also fulfills the maximum capacity as outlined in the inventory plan.