The paper concludes by demonstrating that the use of K-curve as a MRP management tool is a significant advance since the effective management of MRP parameters is simplified to an easily made business judgement. Application of the technique within business has enabled inventory reductions of 25% and significant improvements in the effectiveness of MRP operations.
The paper will first review the results of a survey in the use of inventory management tools in MRP systems (Relph, 2006). Second it explains the limitations of Pareto and EOQ, two of the most popular inventory management tools when applied in a business context, through case examples. Third the paper then outlines the basis of the K-curve theory as described by (Shah,1992), and how it was further developed by (Dupernex, 1993) and (Relph, 2006) into a business tool. Finally the paper will conclude with case examples of the application of the tool in a business setting.