L4M4 Ethical and Responsible Sourcing Questions and Answers

Explanation

ABC should do a 'root cause analysis' to find out where the issue has come about, and why. From there, once they know what the breach is and how serious it is, they can suggest corrective action.

They can't jump straight to terminating the contract or seeking damages as it's not the supplier itself but rather the subcontractor. Also that would be really hasty considering we don't know what the issue is and what the market conditions are like. That supplier may be the only one who can provide the product. We also don't know if the supplier knows about the issue themselves.

Explanation

The correct answer is 'no- quoting in the supplier's currency increases the risk for the buyer'. This questions comes up in a variety of formats in the exam. Remember; if the price is in your own currency (most examples in the exam are given in £) there is less risk than if the prices are quoted in a foreign currency. This is because exchange rates fluctuate; if the price is in £ you always know what you're paying, if it's in another currency the price can change daily depending on if the exchange rate compared to £ has gone up or down.

Explanation

Open tenders should be used when the buyer expects there to be little interest / fewer bids. The opportunity is advertised widely allowing any supplier that wishes to submit a bid the opportunity.

The other options limit the number of suppliers and Ji Yuan doesn't want to do that, because he risks getting no interest and no supplier.

P.23

Explanation

liquid = the ability to pay short and medium term debts. In simple terms do you have more in stuff (money, assets) than you owe in debt?

Understanding Liquidity and How to Measure It (investopedia.com)

This is a hot topic for the exam. Learn everything in this section.

Explanation

The best way to deal with potential Conflicts of Interest is to openly declare these. Just because you have a relationship with someone doesn't mean this is going to be an issue or lead to fraud, but it is a good idea to keep a written record of these.

It wouldn't be a risk register, because how can you rate someone's risk of doing something dodgy? Risk registers are for objective risks such as Health and Safety.

Explanation

The correct answers are; motion, waiting and inventory.

This is part of Ohno's 8 Wastes. You can remember this with the acronym Tim Woods; transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over-production, over-processing, defects, skills.

This is only mentioned briefly in this module but comes up in other modules more in depth, so is worth memorising if you can.

Explanation

weighted points systems for assessments should add up to 100. This is 100%.

An example is how this would work is

Price = 50%

Health and Safety questions= 30%

Qualifications = 20%

Explanation

shareholder equity = the owner/s of the organisation's residual claim once all debts have been paid. What Is Shareholder Equity (SE) and How Is It Calculated? (investopedia.com)

Explanation

the correct answer is 'Yes- a low gearing ratio means the company's finances are made up of equity rather than debt'.

Remember low gearing = good (based on equity), high gearing = bad (based on debt). Anything over 50% is considered high.

The two no answers are therefore incorrect and you can discount these straight away. The other yes answer is one of those answers which COULD be true, but isn't always true, and we'd need more information to know for sure. When you get options like this there will be one that is always right and one which is sometimes right - so always pick the always right one.

Dealing with supply chain disruptions is complex, and depending what the disruption is, how big it is, what the industry is etc determines whether a supplier can handle it or not. Because there's more factors to consider than just gearing, this isn't the right answer.

Explanation

When single sourcing, you should aim to have a collaborative relationship with the supplier. They're the only ones who provide you with glass, which is a vital part of windows. So you need to make sure you have a good relationship with them and work with them to overcome any issues such as supply chain disruptions. If not- you've got no windows to sell!

Explanation

Continuity of supply for the buying organisation is an advantage of TUPE regulations.

TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). It's when the workforce / em-ployees of one company go to work for another one, usually after their company is bought out. They're transferred to the new company along with the furniture and buildings.

TUPE is UK specific. You don't need to know too much details about it for this exam - just what it is and the benefits. The main benefit is people don't lose their jobs when their company gets bought out. Basic guide to TUPE (pinsentmasons.com)

Explanation

Request for Quotations can include more details than just prices. They can include specs and technical drawings and samples. It's like saying 'we can give you this price with these conditions'.

The other no answer is wrong because RfQ don't always include samples. A sample wouldn't be possible for a quote for an IT consultancy piece of work.

Explanation

Incoterms can replace lengthy contract clauses as they replace the need for contracts to detail which party is responsible for organising transport, paying duties, having the insurance etc.

Incoterms is an odd one for exam topics- some students say it was a huge part of their exam and there were many questions on this. Others said there were just one or two. Questions get randomly assigned from the bank so it's completely random how many you'll get on this topic.

Explanation

Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) is the Public Sector's go to evaluation criteria.

NOTE that this is changing from October 2023. Public Sector Procurement is currently based on legislation called PCR 2015 which itself is based on EU Procurement Directives. Now the UK has officially Brexited, we're making our own laws and the new Procurement Bill will be coming into effect in November 2024. One of the major changes is that MEAT is changing to MAT (most ad-vantageous tender - without the economical bit).

If you're sitting this exam until July 2024- you're fine- learn what the study guide says. If you're taking the exam from November 2024 I'm not sure what students are expected to do. The entire section on public sector procurement is incorrect for you. My best guess is CIPS may remove questions this section as the study guide will be wrong, but I really don't know how they plan to handle this.

The new Procurement Bill - MEAT to MAT - Hempsons - Hempsons

Explanation

The correct answer is Invitation to Tender. This is sent out to suitable suppliers inviting them to bidfor the opportunity.

A PQQ - pre-qualification questions naire- is sent to suppliers to see if they are suitable. The QUESTION NO: states these suppliers have already been deemed suitable, so they've already passed PQQ

A RFQ - request for quotation- would be used when the only variable is price, so is not suitable for complex tenders.

RFT isn't a thing. I made the last one up.

Explanation

GDP = gross domestic product = "the monetary value of goods and services manufactured or sup-plied in a financial period". People use it to say whether a country's economy is strong or weak.

Stock markets look at the value of public limited companies within a country.

Commodity indices look at the value of commodities such as steel, oil and wheat at a point in time

Average changes in price over a year can be measured by CPI or PPI

Explanation

Gearing measures how much of an organisation's long-term funding is made up of long term debt and loans. Therefore the correct answers are 'shareholder equity' and 'long term debt'.

There are many question about financial ratios that can come up on the exam. If you're unsure on them I suggest doing further reading outside of the study guide as this will help. I like this youtube video (I'm not associated with the makers of this video but think they're really good at explaining things to beginners) Gearing Ratio explained (youtube.com)

Explanation

ISO isn't an indices- it stands for 'International Labour Association'.

The others are all indices that measure economic data; consumer price index, producer price index and gross domestic product.

Explanation

A cash flow statement shows the money coming in and out. This would therefore show whether a supplier has enough money coming in, to be able to pay some of it out to a subcontractor.

P&L and Balance Sheets look more broadly at finances, rather than saying what's physically in the bank at a specific given time.

Do learn the difference between these three financial documents for the exam.

Balance Sheet: Explanation, Components, and Examples (investopedia.com)

Profit and Loss Statement Meaning, Importance, Types, and Examples (investopedia.com)

Cash Flow Statement: How to Read and Understand It (investopedia.com)

Explanation

The correct answers are innovation, on time in full deliveries and sustainability.

The other options are pricing mechanisms rather than 'added value'. Added Value is giving the buyer something extra that's not necessarily financial. It can be as simple as delivering orders quicker than expected, or having a dedicated customer service phone line. Something that makes their lives a little easier.

Explanation

Intracompany trading is when two departments in the same company do trading. AND when two companies owned by the same parent company do trading.

INTRA means 'within' - so it's doing business with yourself.

Explanation

Robert should look at the supplier's ESG policy. This stands for Environmental Social Governance. So covers both his requirements for community (social) and environmental factors.

ISO 9001 is about Quality Management and ISO27000 about Information Security so these are in-correct answers. An Anti-Slavery Policy would not discuss the environment.

Explanation

The correct answer is 'yes - these can be completed without warning which would give Ali an accurate picture of the supplier's operations'. The other options are incorrect:

1) you can do many types of audit- financial, ethical, Health and Safety etc

2) asking a supplier about their ethical practices isn't likely going to get you accurate information. They'll just tell you what they think you want to hear

3) audits are great- but they don't ALWAYS uncover issues. Always is the key word in that sentence which makes it incorrect.

Explanation

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is about product safety and making sure products sold on the market are fit for purpose. It gives buyers rights and protections. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 - Citizens Advice

There's a long list of legislation on p.105. I wouldn't worry about memorizing them all but just have an idea of what legislation relates to what area. E.g. GDPR is about Data Protection and the Com-petitions Act is about Marketplace competition. Most of them are quite obvious from the name.

Explanation

The Pareto Principle can be used when considering changing a supplier. It helps to categories suppliers by how strategically important the item is that they provide to the business.

Explanation

Greg needs to use a gearing ratio. Gearing is a measure of how the business is being funded and is based on the ratio of debt to equity Gearing comes up a lot in the exam. Also make sure you know what Return on Investment, Acid Test and EBITDA are.

Return on Investment (ROI): How to Calculate It and What It Means (investopedia.com)

EBITDA: Definition, Calculation Formulas, History, and Criticisms (investopedia.com)

Acid-Test Ratio: Definition, Formula, and Example (investopedia.com)

Explanation

This is accommodating: the supplier puts the buyer's interest above his own.

This is from the Thomas Killman model of conflict resolution. There are 5 strategies; competitive, collaborative, avoiding, accommodating and compromising. In the study guide it doesn't mention the name of the model but you do need to know the 5 strategies. The model comes up a lot in other modules so is a good one to learn. Particularly L5M1 which is about management theory.

Explanation

Social value is about benefitting the local community / society. Therefore of those options listed, use of local labour is the most appropriate to consider.

Explanation

gross profit = total revenue - cost of sales.

Learn all you can about financial ratios and financial statements for the exam- it's a very common topic

Explanation

energy, agriculture, metals, livestock are the four trading categories on the stock exchange. Some-times there's a 5th category added which is 'environmental credits'. This is a fairly new thing and you don't need to know anything about this for this exam.

Question no commodities will mainly centre around characteristics of commodities and factors that affect pricing.

Commodities are discussed much more in detail in L5M4. At level 4 you just need a basic overview.

Explanation

If tenders are received by electronic submission exclusively, the buyer can reduce the timescale. On average the time for a standard tender submission can be reduced by 5 days if bids are submitted electronically.

*Note* this is based off current PCR Regs 2015 which are being superseded in October 2024 by new legislation. We currently don't know what the new regs will say on this. If it's different, my best guess is CIPS will remove any question about it from their exam- because the study guide would be wrong and that would lead to complaints.

Explanation

The correct answers are; suspiciously low labour costs, workers living on site and poor quality products (as this signals that the workforce may be unskilled).

A low score on the CPI is a good thing (high scores are more likely to signify slavery concerns) and just because someone speaks English as a second language doesn't mean you automatically need to be suspicious. That would be prejudice.