CIPS has released the new syllabus content this year. Students can buy new study guides and e-book from CIPS website since late July 2023. This happens every five years. The change from 2013 syllabus to 2018 one was bigger than this time. You don’t have to worry about the changes. They are minor. You can take your time to finish your Level 4 exams. The only exception is L4M8, which has a lot of revision. We have read the new…
CIPS has announced new study guides that will be effective from March 2024 exams onwards. This has raised a lot of questions and concerns among CIPS students worldwide. In this post, we will compare the content of L4M1 in the 2018 syllabus and the 2023 syllabus. Chapter 1: Some reorganization and addition Chapter 1 of L4M1 has been reorganized, with 1.1 starting with supply chain, supply chain network and tiering. This is a minor change as the content of this part is the…
An invitation to treat is a preliminary step towards making an offer, but it does not lead to the formation of a contract. It is a way of expressing interest or willingness to negotiate, without committing to any specific terms. Judges often have to decide whether a statement or an action is an offer or an invitation to treat, as the distinction can affect the legal rights and obligations of the parties involved. According to the study guide, some examples…
Are you preparing for the CIPS L4M8 exam? If so, you might want to read this post, where I will analyze the main topics that were asked in the exam and give you some tips on how to answer them. Q1: This question tests your understanding of the Defining need stage in the procurement cycle. You need to explain why it is important to have clearly defined requirements for a given scenario. You can use the benefits of Defining need…
The questions on this topic tend to be one of the following: When writing about the Five Rights, you are expected to describe the following: Right quality means that the acquired product/service is fit for purpose. In other words, the product/service effectively solve the problem that the organisation expects it to solve. For example, you are procurement specialist at a toothbrush manufacturer. Your marketing team reports that the customers prefer softer brittles. To push sales and expand the market share,…
If you ever touch CIPS L5M3 study guide, different types of contract breach may confuse you, especially major breach and fundamental breach. In fact, you don’t need to care about fundamental breach anymore as UK’s House of Lord dismissed this doctrine in 1980. However, if you are interested in gaining deeper understanding of ‘fundamental breach’, this blog post is for you! What is ‘fundamental breach’? Aaron Tan, the author of L5M3 study guide, defines fundamental breach as: “A breach so…
Procurement is not only associated with sourcing, but also with supplier relationship, contract management and asset management. Goods and service receiving may sound simple, but it is the first step to check the supplier performance. In this post, we suggest a sample procedure for receiving goods and recording the performance. Goods Receipt An organisation may purchase goods for direct consumption (such as cartridges for photocopying machine) or for stock. In either way, the receiving procedure is not much different from…
Quality is a crucial parameter which differentiates an organization from its competitors. Accroding to American Society of Quality, quality management originated from medieval Europe in the late 13th century In the early 20 century, World War II (1939 – 1945) quickened the quality revolution. Prior to the war, the quality movement had progressed gradually, but that progress was impeded by the lack of communication among companies. World War II affected the approach for the management for quality dramatically. It marked…
What is net present value? Net present value (NPV) is the ‘today’ net value that deprives from ‘future’ cash flow of an investment or a capital purchase. Why does Net Present Value (NPV) matter? Imagine you are buying car for personal use. Would you buy a fresh new car or an used car? Of course, fresh new car is often more expensive than the used one, but its life-time tends to be longer. For example, price for a new car…
Safety stock is an important and interesting concept in inventory management. However, not every procurement professionals can explain this concept clearly. Some mistake safety stock level with reorder level. Even CIPS Study guide L4M7 does not provide any formula to calculate or at least estimate the quantity of safety stock. Fortunately, the resources on Internet are plenty and free. We have done some research and in this post, we will explain the use of safety stock, formulas to calculate the…