L4M6 Practice Exam Questions with Answers Supplier Relationships Certification

Explanation

The 5 Rights of procurement are; place, quality, quantity, time, price. (Price and Cost are not the same thing). See p.38

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘run a restricted competition – send out a PQQ’. This QUESTION NO: tests both your understanding of when to run open and restricted competitions (which is explained on p.75) and your understanding of tender documents. Mandy should run a restricted competition- there are a lot of options in the marketplace and this will allow her to pre-qualify those who best suit her requirements. Running an open competition when there are lots of suppliers would be too time-consuming- you need a way of making a short-list. When you run a restricted competition, the first stage is sending out a PQQ- pre-qualification questionnaire; this document is sent to suppliers asking for necessary information to support their qualification as an approved supplier.

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘The product is easy to source elsewhere’. The other three are given as reasons a marketplace might be restricted on p.138. Other reasons also include; brand loyalty, difficult access to distribution channels, and companies colluding.

Explanation

The first step is to obtain business approval to terminate. If Senior Management don’t give approval, then the rest of the stages can’t happen and Sandra will be stuck with her current banana supplier. There’s a good diagram on p.109 detailing the steps to supplier termination.

Explanation

ABC / Pareto is a "Portfolio Analysis Technique to assess the relationships in a supply chain". This, along with the Kraljic Matrix are two examples of "Supplier Positioning Models". See chapter 2.1 p.17 for more details on this

Explanation

Equity is the fourth E- this means the extent to which the service is available. See p.65 for details on the 4 Es

Explanation

This would reduce inventory (holding stock). Inventory is considered a business waste because it costs money to store stuff (e.g. paying the rent on a warehouse, electricity to light it up etc). If you can reduce the need to store materials and components on site- you reduce costs. You also save time because you get deliveries when you need them- you don’t need to allow for staff unpacking things, storing them away, then going back to them later when they need them. For more information on the 7 Business Wastes see p.70. This comes up in a couple of modules, so it’s worth remembering.

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘The CEO is a key player- so it is important he is involved early in the process’. The CEO has high power and high interest which puts him in the top right-hand corner of Mendelow’s Stakeholder Matrix (p.81). CIPS says Key Players should be involved early in the procurement process (p.82).

Explanation

Richie should do a Force Field Analysis – this is explained on p.86 and is an idea of Kurt Lewin – it identifies the driving forces for a project and the restraining forces (basically who will be for it and who will be against it). The textbook doesn’t go into much detail on this but there are questions on it in the exam- so have a quick google to familiarise yourself with Kurt Lewin’s Force Field Analysis.

Explanation

A PIN is a ‘prior information notice’ – it is sent out before the ITT to let suppliers know that an opportunity is coming up and they should look out for it. See p 72 “supplier identification- public sector” for more details.

Explanation

The logistics risk can be reduced by ‘Sharing up-to-date information’. If the Pub tells the supplier when it’s running low, they can then time the deliveries more accurately. P. 136. A lot of the questions on the ‘Partnerships’ chapters of the book are common-sense questions like this. It involves reading the question and using logic, rather than relying on your knowledge of procurement. If you found this question easy – that’s a good sign for the exam.

Explanation

Unrestricted is not a type of tender. The 5 types are; open, restricted, competitive with negotiation, competitive dialogue and innovative partnership (though this last one is very rare in the public sector). The five types are explained in detail on p.77

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘Intellectual Property Rights’. Grey Stone will need to share its idea for the vaccine with the pharmaceutical company and this is risky if there is no trust between the parties. See p.134 for more information on Risks of Partnerships.

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘It can lead to a lack of trust’ – this is a quote from p.162. The other answers are all incorrect; in a partnership KPIs are joint between the parties– so there wouldn’t be a situation where one party doesn’t fulfil their KPIs. Commitment doesn’t necessarily have a direct correlation with profit so that answer is incorrect. ‘Sufficient time and resources are put in’ is a positive thing, so can’t be a reason who a partnership fails.

Explanation

It can be difficult for buyers in the private sector to build relationships with suppliers because of rules that state competitive tenders must be undertaken every few years (within the EU this is usually every 4). This means that both parties aren’t as invested in developing the relationship as it’s possible the contact will end shortly. Competitive tendering is a requirement in the public sector to ensure value for money for taxpayers. See p.79 for further details. There are no rules stating Public Sector organisations can’t have good relationships with suppliers, and in fact most will have good relationships with their current suppliers- the issue is that neither party can get too invested in the relationship as everyone knows it may end shortly. There are rules, however, against entering into Partnership relationships (which is discussed in chapter 3).

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘Building better relationships with primary stakeholders’. This is a direct quote from the start of chapter 2.2: ‘building better relationships with primary stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers and communities could lead to increased shareholder wealth by developing a competitive advantage’. The other three options wouldn’t give you a competitive advantage; increasing prices would do the opposite, engaging in market research won’t give you a competitive advantage unless you do something with that research such as implement a change to your business, and completing formal tenders for everything would be a waste of time and resources- there’s no need to tender for low value, low risk items. See p.80

Explanation

Tim should do an audit. P.71 of the textbook says “to ensure that a procurement department is achieving value for money, an audit should be undertaken”

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘reduced product life-cycles’. In this example the reason for entering a partnership is to be able to produce new models of phones more quickly- this is likely because consumers are wanting to change mobile phones more often than they did in the past, so in order to keep up with demand, Phone Maker Incorporated need to produce more phones, more quickly. Drivers of Partnership Sourcing is a key topic in the exam – you can revise these by looking at p.127 in the Study Guide

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘items of high value’. This links into the EU procurement principle of ‘Proportionality’ meaning that the procurement process must be proportionate to the value of the contract. Therefore, high value contracts must be procured via competition. What is considered ‘high value’ is decided by ‘thresholds’. These are amended every 2 years to account for inflation etc, but you don’t need to know what the thresholds are for this exam. P.75

Explanation

Value for money is not a principle of EU procurement. The four key principles are; transparency, non-discrimination, proportionality and equality of treatment. The principles are basically about ensuring the procurement process is fair. See p.75

Explanation

The Handfield ESI model is on p.98 and comprises of Black Box, Grey Box, White Box and None. Therefore Red and Blue can be automatically discounted. The correct answer is White Box as the definition given is correct. Grey Box is a formalised supplier integration; joint development activity between buyer and supplier. I have no idea why Handfield calls his system after coloured boxes- but it’s only briefly mentioned in the study guide and is not likely to be a big topic in the exam.

Explanation

This is a leverage supplier on the Kraljic Matrix; high cost impact and low risk impact. The diagram on p.20 gives the example of utility services such as electricity as a common leverage supplier. There are lots of questions on Kraljic in the exam - do revise this topic and ensure you understand each of the four quadrants of the matrix

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘An unexpected incident has occurred beyond anyone’s control’. A good example of this would be the Covid-19 pandemic- neither the buyer nor supplier could have predicted this, and if this means that the contract can’t be completed – then the contract can be terminated (in the UK at least). A way to avoid this would be to include a Force Majeur clause listing possible circumstances that could occur. When there’s a Force Majeur clause, these eventualities are now classed as foreseen rather than unforeseen. See p.108

Explanation

In a 'perfect competition' there are no barriers to entry or exit, and competition is at its highest possible level. For more information on different types of market see p.40

Explanation

The Kraljic model "plays a key part in category management" p.19 of the textbook. Category Management = the spend in an organisation, broken down into categories of related products (e.g. IT, facilities management, marketing). Each of these categories could be plotted on the Kraljic Matrix.

Explanation

The correct answer is ‘greater creativity’. A synergy is the concept that the value and performance of two companies combined will be greater than the sum of the separate individual parts. P.160

Explanation

You would expect a supplier to submit full pricing information, risk assessments and method statements. However, depending on what you’re procuring, you might not need to see risk assessments or method statements. Liquidity and Gearing may be looked at during the Pre-Qualification stage, but wouldn’t form part of a RFP. See p.76

Explanation

In an adversarial relationship "the outcome of the deal… is more important than maintaining the relationship over a long-term period" p.7. They can be characterised by poor communication and can be used for one-off purchases but be careful for words in answers such as 'only' and 'always', as these can be misleading; adversarial relationships aren't always for one-off purchases, and communication isn't always poor. The other answer is incorrect (price is more important) because it doesn't describe the relationship, which is what the question asked.

Explanation

This is one of those questions you have to read carefully- it asks for 'elements of a business'. Cost focus and cost leadership are ways a company can improve their competitive advantage, but they're not elements of a business. The other three options are. Porter created a list of elements of a business that can help a company's competitive advantage- these can be found on p.33-34

Explanation

Supplier development is time-consuming and resource-intensive so should only be done with strategic suppliers. P.14

Explanation

This is a bottleneck supplier- refer to the Kraljic matrix on p.20; these types of supplier hold a monopoly in the marketplace and provide low-value items. There are lots of questions on Kraljic in the exam - do revise this topic and ensure you understand each of the four quadrants of the matrix