Or, we have played with the idea here of taking a 'day forward' approach; i.e. when you assign the new component its current location, enter a Location Remark something like "for previous location/inventory history see component 'a' ".  Combine that with a distinct Location Purpose - something like New Component Added - so you can easily spot and search on the 'fork in the road.'  If at some point later you come across a distinct need to report the full location history of one or more individual components, you could enter the retroactive histories if/when needed.