Test Online Free CIPS L4M2 Exam Questions and Answers
The questions for L4M2 were last updated On Oct.05 2022 Get L4M2 Full AccessQuestion No : 1
Housing Ltd is inviting a number of contractors to a tender for the construction of a commercial building. In the attachment to the invitation to tender, there is a document which describes the re-quired materials and installation methods.
This document is known as...?
Answer:
Explanation:
This question mentions about specification in construction. In this sector, specifications are written documents that describe the materials and workmanship required for a development. They do not include cost, quantity or drawn information and need to be read alongside other contract documentation such as quantities, schedules and drawings. Specifications vary considerably depending on the stage to which the design has been developed, ranging from performance (open) specifications that require further development by a contractor or supplier, to prescriptive (closed) specifications for which the design is already complete when the project is tendered.
Prescriptive specifications typically contain detailed descriptions of the following components:
- General requirements relating to regulations and standards.
- The type of products and materials required.
- The execution and installation methods required.
Prescriptive specifications give the client much more certainty about the end product when making investment decisions (such as when they appoint the contractor), and place a greater burden on the designer to ensure proper installation rather than the contractor.
Reference:
- CIPS study guide page 116-120
- Prescriptive specification - Designing Buildings Wiki LO 3, AC 3.1
Question No : 2
A charity is reviewing their spend and budget after an operation in flooded areas. They realise that the operators save money against the budgeting plan.
This saving is known as...?
Answer:
Explanation:
The difference between the actual spend and budgeted spend is known as variance.
The formula for variance is:
Variance = Actual spend - Budgeted spend
Variances can be adverse/unfavourable or favourable ie they can be positive or negative.
Be very careful with these terms. A positive or a negative variance may be favourable or it
may be adverse/ unfavourable.
Adverse variances
Adverse variances are those variances that are unfavourable to the firm. Examples would be sales below plan; costs above budget, cash receipts lower than expected, and overtime payment more than forecast.
Favourable variances
Favourable variances are those variances that are beneficial to the business. Examples would be sales ahead of plan, costs below budget, and wages below forecast. Positive variance
A positive variance occurs where 'actual' exceeds 'planned' or 'budgeted' value. Examples might be actual sales are ahead of the budget.
Negative variance
A negative variance occurs where 'actual' is less than 'planned' or 'budgeted' value. Examples would be when the raw materials cost less than expected, sales were less than predicted, and labour costs were below the budgeted figure.
When the operators create saving, it means that the Actual spend is less than Budgeted spend. Therefore the variance is negative.
Reference:
- Variance analysis
- CIPS study guide page 57-59 LO 1, AC 1.4
Question No : 3
Lider Ltd is a leading bathroom furniture manufacturer in India. The company has more than 30 years experience in the market with extended knowledge of engineering and customers' taste. Lider is planning to launch a new type of bath fitting next year which offers Bluetooth connectivity and thermostat display. The company gathers a team of multi-disciplines, including engineering, procurement, sales and marketing. At the first team meeting, the project leader tells the team to discuss which functions will be valued by the customers, and how to deliver those functions with the lowest costs possible.
Which of the following describes the process that the project team is undertaking?
Answer:
Explanation:
From the scenario, you can see that the project team is developing a new product. They start with analysing the functions, and the costs of delivering those functions. This is a typical process of value engineering. You may read more on value engineering from the reference paper.
Reference:
- CIPS study guide page 171-173
- Value Analysis - Norwood Whittle (cimaglobal.com)
- A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VALUE ENGI-NEERING (researchgate.net)
LO 3, AC 3.4
Question No : 4
Andrew is responsible for procurement of capital assets at Lumber Ltd. He is devising new business case for the purchase of a new band saw. The purchase price of the saw is $50,000. Andrew estimates that the machine will generate $10,000 per year of net cash flow.
What is the payback period of this band saw?
Answer:
Explanation:
Payback period is the time in which the initial outlay of an investment is expected to be recovered through the cash inflows generated by the investment. It is one of the simplest investment apprais-al techniques.
Since cash flow estimates are quite accurate for periods in the near future and relatively inaccurate for periods in distant future due to economic and operational uncertainties, payback period is an indicator of risk inherent in a project because it takes initial inflows into account and ignores the cash flows after the point at which the initial investment is recovered.
The formula to calculate the payback period of an investment depends on whether the periodic cash inflows from the project are even or uneven.
If the cash inflows are even (such as for investments in annuities), the formula to calculate payback period is:
Payback Period = Initial Investment / Net Cash Flow per Period
When cash inflows are uneven, we need to calculate the cumulative net cash flow for each period and then use the following formula:
Payback Period =A + (B/C)
Where,
A is the last period number with a negative cumulative cash flow;
B is the absolute value (i.e. value without negative sign) of cumulative net cash flow at the end of the period A; and C is the total cash inflow during the period following period A Cumulative net cash flow is the sum of inflows to date, minus the initial outflow.
Reference:
- Payback Period | Formulas, Calculation & Examples (xplaind.com)
- CIPS study guide page 44-47
LO 1, AC 1.3
Question No : 5
In 2016, ANA Airlines had to cancel some of its flight. The airline said it had discovered the cracks to the jet engine turbine blades.
What should ANA procurement team do next to solve this problem?
Answer:
Explanation:
Cracks on the jet engine is a closed-end problem.
A typical problem solving process has 8 steps:
Step 1: Define the Problem
- What is the problem?
- How did you discover the problem?
- When did the problem start and how long has this problem been going on?
- Is there enough data available to contain the problem and prevent it from getting passed to the next process step? If yes, contain the problem.
Step 2: Clarify the Problem
- What data is available or needed to help clarify, or fully understand the problem?
- Is it a top priority to resolve the problem at this point in time?
- Are additional resources required to clarify the problem? If yes, elevate the problem to your leader to help locate the right resources and form a team.
- Consider a Lean Event (Do-it, Burst, RPI, Project).
- Ensure the problem is contained and does not get passed to the next process step. Step 3: Define the Goals
- What is your end goal or desired future state?
- What will you accomplish if you fix this problem?
- What is the desired timeline for solving this problem?
Step 4: Identify Root Cause of the Problem
- Identify possible causes of the problem.
- Prioritize possible root causes of the problem.
- What information or data is there to validate the root cause? Step 5: Develop Action Plan
- Generate a list of actions required to address the root cause and prevent problem from getting to others.
- Assign an owner and timeline to each action.
- Status actions to ensure completion.
Step 6: Execute Action Plan
- Implement action plan to address the root cause.
- Verify actions are completed.
Step 7: Evaluate the Results
- Monitor and Collect Data.
- Did you meet your goals defined in step 3? If not, repeate th 8-Step Process.
- Were there any unforeseen consequences?
- If problem is resolved, remove activities that were added previously to contain the problem.
Step 8: Continuously Improve
- Look for additional opportunities to implement solution.
- Ensure problem will not come back and communicate lessons learned.
- If needed, repeat the 8-Step Problem Solving Process to drive further improvements. ANA has already known what is going on, the next step they should adopt is collecting more infor-mation on the problem. If the airline is hurry to the solution, it may choose 'Generate options ad-dressing the issue'. The crack on turbine blade can be welded, or the airline replaces a new blade. However, jumping to solution without knowing the root cause does not completely solve the prob-lem. The root cause is unaddressed, then it may occur in the future. Therefore, the airline should still collect information to find the root cause, then remove it.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 13-21
LO 1, AC 1.1
Question No : 6
When procuring an IT equipment, at which stage the buyer’s expectations are translated into a technical specification?
Answer:
Explanation:
IT equipment is typically linked with through-life contracts. This type of contract not only deal with the specification and the price of a machinery, but also other stages such as design, manufacture, installation, in-service support, decommission and disposal. Among these stages, the design stage is when buyer's requirements are translated into technically correct specification.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 131
LO 3, AC 3.2
Question No : 7
Synergy Ltd is a fast-growing tool and hardware retailer. The company's customer services team has been using Excel worksheets to manage customer relationships. When the company is expend-ing its market presence, this way of working leads to poorer customer services as the database is scattered around in spreadsheet, leading to patchy and inconsistent conversations with customers. The company decides to purchase a CRM system.
What requirement should Synergy's procurement team take into account in the specification for CRM system?
Answer:
Explanation:
The purpose of this QUESTION NO: is to test the student's ability to identify the problems and translate those problems to actionable requirements before communicating with the suppliers. The scenario suggests that Synergy Ltd's customer services team is using Excel spreadsheets, they lack a centralised customer database. This leads to problems in communications with customers.
A CRM system can solve the communication problem. But a QUESTION NO: arises: If a CRM system is employed, how will the previous data be imported? If the CRM system can support bulk import from Excel tables, it will save a lot of time.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 10-18
LO 1, AC 1.1
Question No : 8
Which of the following problems may be identified as open-ended problems? Select TWO that apply:
Answer:
Explanation:
Open-ended problem is something stopping the achievement of an objective or blocking progress. To solve this type of problems, procurement professional should find a way to unblock the block-age. In the above question, high logistics cost is an obstacle to cost cutting objective while suppli-er’s incompliance prevents the company to achieve its sustainable objective.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 11
LO 1, AC 1.1
Question No : 9
Which of the following is an assumption of Kano model?
Answer:
Explanation:
Kano model of excitement and basic quality (Kano et al, 1984; Berger et al, 1993; Matzler et al, 1996) brings a different perspective for the analysis of improvement opportunities in products and services because it takes in consideration the asymmetrical and non-linear relationship between performance and satisfaction. The Kano model classifies customers requirements in three categories (figure 3):
a) Basic Requirements. The basic requirements fulfill the basic functions of a product. If they are not present or their performance is insufficient, customers will be extremely dissatisfied. On the other hand, if they are present or have sufficient performance, they don't bring satisfaction. Customers see them as prerequisites. For instance, for luxury automobiles, "air bags" are considered basic. A customer won't feel satisfied if the automobile has "air bag", however he/she will not buy it if “air bag” is not present.
b) Performance Requirements. As for these requirements, satisfaction is proportional to the performance level C the higher the performance, the higher the customer's satisfaction will be and vice-versa. Gas consumption in automobiles is an example of these requirements.
Usually customers explicitly demand performance requirements.
c) Excitement Requirements. These requirements are key to customer satisfaction. If they are pre-sent or have sufficient performance, they will bring superior satisfaction. On the other hand, if they are not present or their performance is insufficient, customers will not get dissatisfied. For instance, a surprise gift at the end of a dinner in a restaurant will certainly bring satisfaction, but it will not cause dissatisfaction if not offered. These requirements are not demanded nor expected by customers.
Two other types of requirements may be identified in the Kano model: neutral and reverse ones. Neutral requirements do not bring either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Reverse requirements bring more satisfaction if absent than if present.
Diagram
Description automatically generated
Reference:
- Integrating Kano model and QFD for Designing New Products
- CIPS study guide page 171-172
Question No : 10
After a project, the procurement team at CLK Ltd meets up and summarises on the performance. They see that they actually spent $5,000 less than planned budget. The team tries to identifies why there is such difference.
This activity is known as...?
Answer:
Explanation:
The procurement team in the scenario is analysing the difference between the plan and actual spend. This activity is known as variance analysis. The sum of all variances gives a picture of the overall over-performance or under-performance for a particular reporting period. For each item, companies assess their favorability by comparing actual costs to standard costs in the industry.
For example, if the actual cost is lower than the standard cost for raw materials, assuming the same volume of materials, it would lead to a favorable price variance (i.e., cost savings). However, if the standard quantity was 10,000 pieces of material and 15,000 pieces were required in production, this would be an unfavorable quantity variance because more materials were used than anticipated.
Reference:
- CIPS study guide page 57-58
- Variance Analysis - Learn How to Calculate and Analyze Variances (corporatefinanceinsti-tute.com)
LO 1, AC 1.4
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