Free CIPS L4M2 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 9

Explanation

With strategic suppliers, the aim should be to work co-operatively with them to find ways of reducing costs to achieve a target cost. It is necessary to work with the suppliers in carrying out open book costing by having first persuaded them of the need to do it. Open book can be used to establish a Target Cost, a Compensation Event value and can eventually be used to ensure the payment of actual costs to an organization. A number of forms of contract cater for this functionality of which only the NEC goes to into any great depth of methodology.

If the suppliers worry about leak of confidential information, procurement team can suggest them to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The buying organisation should also comply with data protection regulations. The Employer / individual responsible for a project’s costs should ultimately take a pragmatic and sensible approach with regard to commercially or personally sensitive data provided by the contractor. The primary goal of all open book cost management is to provide Employer comfort and security in the accuracy of commercial data; this effectively means striking a balance between undertaking full audits and blind faith.

Explanation

Functional benchmarking is a comparison to similar or identical practices (e.g., the picking process for assembling customer orders, maintaining inventory controls of spare computer parts, logistics to move operational forces, etc.) within the same or similar functions outside the immediate industry. Functional benchmarking might identify practices that are superior in your functional areas in whatever industry they may exist. Functional benchmarking would be accomplished at the federal level by comparing the IRS collections process against those of American Express. Comparing copper mining techniques to coal mining techniques is an example in the private sector.

Benefits

- Provides industry trend information

- Quantitative comparisons

- Better improvement rate

Challenges

- Diverse corporate cultures

- Great need for specificity

- Not invented here. syndrome

- Common functions can be difficult to find

- Takes more time than internal or percent

- Must be able to visualize how to adapt the best practices

Source: USN Benchmarking Handbook

LO 1, AC 1.3

Detailed Explanation:

Procurement teams bring valuable market insights, helping stakeholders understand supplier capabilities, potential risks, and alternative solutions. This knowledge ensures that specifications are both realistic and aligned with market conditions. Reference: CIPS Level 4, Specification Development and Supplier Collaboration.

Detailed Explanation:

A fixed price with adjustment for inflation provides cost predictability while accounting for potential increases due to inflation. This strikes a balance between fixed costs and market realities. Reference: CIPS Level 4, Pricing Strategies.

Explanation

Internal stakeholders may contribute to defining needs and drafting the specification by using their technical expertise. In this scenario, IT team may consult procurement team on the technical specification of the software, including compatibility with company's current IT system.

Detailed Explanation:

1 (Make in-house): The ability to produce in-house reduces dependency on suppliers, strengthening buyer power.

4 (High spend proportion): A high proportion of spend gives buyers leverage over suppliers who are reliant on their revenue.Limited suppliers (2) and high switching costs (3) reduce buyer bargaining power. Reference: CIPS Level 4, Market Power Analysis.

Explanation

Closed problem is something happens that should not have happened. To solve this type of prob-lem, procurement professional should find a way to correct the situation or try to adapt to it. On the other hand, open ended problem is a obstacle to your short-term objective. You will need to overcome this obstacle.

Shortage of key medicines is a situation in which procurement must find a substitution or try to save the current stock.

In case of cyber attack, procurement should find a way to recover the IT system as soon as possible.

Otherwise, 'There are not enough data for procurement analytics' is an open-ended problem be-cause it prevents company to conduct procurement analytics (an objective).

'Logistics costs incur a large portion in wholesale prices': In this situation, logistics costs are hur-dles that prevent companies to reach lower wholesale.

'The suppliers don’t comply with the company’s policy on underage labour': In this situation, pro-curement should seek ways to help supplier comply with the company's labour policy.

LO 1, AC 1.1