Pass the CIPS Level 4 Diploma in Procurement and Supply L4M7 Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management minimizes stock levels by synchronizing orders with production schedules, which:

Reduces holding costs: Less inventory means lower costs for storage and management.

Increases cash flow: Reduced stock levels free up working capital.

Whole-life asset management supports JIT as a cost-saving measure, focusing on maintaining lean inventories while meeting production needs.

Explanation

Along with Jidoka, Just-in-time (JIT) production is one of the pillars of the two Toyota Production System. It is a production method that fundamentally changed the way large-scale production oc-curred in the 20th century, and is the basis for Lean Manufacturing (Lean for short), which is the school of thought many modern companies have modeled themselves after.

JIT production is often called a pull system because instead of using traditional push production where scheduling is done based on historical data and demand forecasting, production is scheduled based on actual customer orders. Rather than predicting demands from customers, the JIT method requires that actual customer demand exists. Production doesn't begin before an order triggers it. This system not only reduces the amount of extra inventory, but also reduces the amount of work in progress at one time.

Explanation

Calculating Inventory Turnover (Stock Turn)

As with a typical turnover ratio, inventory turnover details how much inventory is sold over a period. To calculate the inventory turnover ratio, cost of goods (COGS) is divided by the average inventory for the same period.1

Cost of Goods Sold ÷ Average Inventory or Sales ÷ Inventory

In this exercise, the stock turn equal to sales divided by inventory, or 1,000,000:250,000 = 4.

Explanation

Typically, ordering costs include expenses for a purchase order, labor costs for the inspection of goods received, labor costs for placing the goods received in stock, labor costs for issuing a supplier’s invoice and labor costs for issuing a supplier payment. These costs are irrelevant from the size of the order and are incurred every time a firm places an order.

The total ordering cost will be equal to ordering cost per order multiply with number of orders.

Holding costs include expenses associated with storing inventory. These typically comprise:

Damaged goods: Losses due to items being stored improperly or deteriorating over time.

Storage space: Costs of renting or maintaining warehouse space.

Insurance: Fees for insuring stored items against potential risks.

These costs are integral to whole-life asset management, as they impact overall inventory and storage expenses.

Including end-of-life packaging costs is essential when dealing with hazardous materials, as they often require special packaging and labeling for safe disposal. Whole-life asset management considers disposal costs in the total lifecycle cost to ensure compliance with regulations and prevent environmental harm.

When selecting a warehouse location, it’s essential to consider:

Cost: The expense of the location directly impacts the budget.

Access to transport networks: Proximity to transportation infrastructure facilitates efficient shipping and receiving.

These factors align with whole-life asset management principles by ensuring cost-effective and accessible storage solutions, contributing to reduced transportation costs and improved logistics.

Explanation

In principle, use of any materials involves an environmental cost. Some packaging materials use a lot of natural resources and energy to produce. The journey taken by packaging from raw material to manufacturing and then to the initial user also incurs a 'carbon footprint'. The weight of packag-ing contributes to the fuel usage of vehicles while the volume used can add up to additional jour-neys or the use of larger vehicles. Finally, the reuse, return, disposal or recycling will also involve additional to the environmental cost.

In this question:

- 'Purchase the packaging materials in bulk' may incur additional fuel and carbon footprint in delivering these materials

- 'Try to reduce the costs of packaging' may prompt the organisation to use less eco-friendly and cheap materials like polystyrene chips

- 'Not use the packaging materials at all' can increase the environmental performance of packag-ing activities, but it also harms the products to be delivered and may cause other environmental problems (i.e. spillage of toxic chemicals into the environment)

So the correct answer should be: 'Adopt international environmental packaging standards'. The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has published several standards regarding packaging and environment, namely ISO 18601, ISO 18602, ISO 18603, ISO 18604, ISO 18605, ISO 18606.

Explanation

Direct and indirect costs of holding inventory include the following:

- Acquisition costs: preparing the requisition, supplier selection and approvals, time and costs of the procurement process, etc.

- Holding costs

- Costs of stockouts

LO 2, AC 2.2