CIPS Procurement and Supply in Practice L4M8 Exam Questions

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Question 1

What are the four methods that can be used to try to resolve dispute?

AExplanation:
Conflict or dispute is the final area a procurement professional considers when creating terms for a contract with a supplier. If conflict or dispute arises, there must be a process put in place in the contract to try to resolve it and these includes;
a) Negotiation, b) mediation, c) arbitration and d) litigation.
Negotiation is usually carried out between senior people within organization that are in conflict, if they cannot reach an agreement through negotiation, mediation is the next stage, mediation is when a third party tries to help find a resolution among the parties in dispute. If mediation fails arbitration can start, arbitration involve independent professionals (arbitrators) working with all the party to try to reach an agreement. Parties do not have a formal or legal obligation to follow the arbitrator's recommendation. Arbitration is expensive. If arbitration fails to resolve the conflict, the final stage is litigation, litigation takes time and money, and most people avoid it. It is a legal process where a court decides on the outcome of the dispute. The judge's ruling is final.

Answer : A

Question 2

Explain which factors should be considered when deciding the quantity of a product to order.

AExplanation:
When reviewing supplier's response the procurement professional should consider the right quantity of product or service that has to be ordered at anytime as against the price to decide how to gain the best cost.
Factors to consider include the following
(1)Cost of inventory
(2) cost of insurance
(3) cost of transportation.
These three should be considered against price.
Note: Incoterms are versatile and procurement professionals should understand how they are ap-plied and what point the risk transfers from being the supplier's responsibility to being the buyer's responsibility. It is important to consult the ICC for the most recent definitions, but in the following questions (101-111) you can understand the rules.
Note: sharpen your knowledge on INCOTERMS. Please consider the following Objective Re-sponse questions

Answer : A

Question 3

What advantages could there be to holding excessive inventory?

AExplanation:
Holding excessive inventory can reduce the impact of extended lead time. i.e. by saving the buying organization from downtime, reputation loss, and also it can generate revenue for the organization if there is a sudden increase in demand.

Answer : A

Question 4

What are the two options for the disposal of an asset if resale is not possible?

AExplanation:
Disposal of an asset is the final stage in the decommissioning process of a fixed asset.
When a fixed asset reaches the end of its useful or cost effective life time within an organization, the decision is made as to whether it should be removed from the premises or disposed off.
If the asset is truly at the end of its life, no longer fit for purpose, not cost effective to repair and is not able to be exchanged, then disposal is the only option; there are two options for disposal;
1) Take the asset to land fill site
2) Taking the asset to a recycling plant.

Answer : A

Question 5

In relation to the case study 'Walmart and H&M in spotlight regarding human rights in media ex-plain which human rights are not being granted to the workers.

AExplanation:
Human rights are the statutory ways in which individual expects to and should be treated. Ethical and responsible sourcing includes the protection of human rights, not violating it.
When young women are being bound into contracts where they work for two to three years, they are not being granted the right to freedom from slavery.
Forcing these women to live in hostels under restrictions that prevent them from moving and are denied the opportunity to improve on their living condition is a violation of their right to life, liberty and personal security, also, their freedom from torture and degrading treatment is being violated.

Answer : A

Question 6

How can procurement professionals select suppliers?

AExplanation:
During the sourcing stage of the procurement cycle, the procurement professional needs to identify and select suppliers to fulfill the business needs. Supplier selection involves evaluating suppliers against predetermine criteria to assess their suitability in working with the buying organization. Suppliers can be evaluated according to Carter's 10Cs which are as follows: (1) Competency (2) capacity (3) consistency (4) control (5) cost (6) commitment (7) cash (8) Clean (9) culture (10) communication.
Procurement professionals can decide to evaluate and select suppliers based on the overall strategy and the business objectives. After that, it most suitable suppliers receive the documentation (Invitation to tender/ request for quotation).
*
Refer to the question column for response

Answer : A

Question 7

Describe the seven stages of the Tender Process and explain the reasons why the stages must be followed.

AExplanation:
The purpose of the tendering process is to invite potential suppliers to bid to supply a product or service to the buying organization. Then buying organization select suitable suppliers, award con-tract and manage. The process is selected mostly when the need is a large or complex project or the law mandates it or it is in the company's policies to do so. The stages of the tendering process includes;
Stage 1: decide which style of tender to use. There are four types of tendering used within pro-curement and this include; 1) open 2) Restricted 3) Negotiated 4) Competitive Dialogue
Stage 2: Prepare invitation to tender (ITT): this stage is to prepare the document that will be made available to potential supplier. It should contain everything potential bidders will need to know to fully understand the need and to prepare and send a suitable RESPONSE it may likely in-clude; open letter, company details, overview of a project, evaluation criteria, submission date and so on.
Stage 3: send ITT: With fairness, transparency and equality, buyer will provide the documents to all potential suppliers at the same time and also provide exactly the same information/documents to all suppliers. If after receiving the ITT and some suppliers seek clarifications on anything in the documentation, buyers must give same response to identical questions to keep the process transparent and fair. Also, the response to each query to all bidders in the process.
Failure to this may result in bidders who feel disadvantaged or discriminated in any form to submit a legal challenge. Supplier submitting a Legal challenge may cause delay in the process and eventually increase administrative cost for the buyer.
Stage 4: Buying organization receives responses to the Invitation to tender from suppliers (bids). Suppliers must adhere to the bid submission dead line included in the invitation to tender document. Any bid that arrives after the deadline must be left out of the process, or else this may result to other suppliers legally challenging the process.
Stage 5: Evaluate bid. The buying organization can now evaluate the bids based on the criteria in the ITT document. It is always thorough that cross-functional team evaluates the bids to guarantee complete fairness and ensure that the chosen bid is fit for purpose. In evaluating the bids, the cross-functional team will consider the bids in the following areas; supplier organization, ethics, price, sustainability, quality, payment, disposal, service level, location, warranty and risk.
Stage 6: Award contract and give feedback hence the buying organization wards the contract to the winning supplier. This can take place by a formal communication like a letter or an e-mail.
Stage 7: Contract management. Contracts must be evaluated against the criteria in the invitation to tender.
The reasons why these stages must be followed includes;
1. Knowing the right TYPE of tender to use, reduces administration cost, for example, deciding to do restricted tendering to reduce the interest that are going to be sent in have already cut down on administrative cost.
2. The supplier can know what exactly the buyer's intentions are by developing description and the required specification.
3. To ensure that objectives of resorting to use the tendering style and the tendering process is achieved
4. To ensure that the organization generates added value by going through the stages.
5. To ensure that there are none unethical issues like fraud, bribes etc are not part of the system.
6. To ensure that the tendering process becomes transparent to all suppliers. These stages must be followed for transparency and fairness. Just like in stage 3: buyer send out the ITT to potential suppliers at the same time and providing them same information. Failure to this and bidders who feel disadvantaged or discriminated in any form may submit a legal challenge. Supplier submitting a Legal challenge may cause delay in the process and eventually increase administrative cost for the buyer.

Answer : A