L4M2 Exam Dumps - Defining Business Needs

Explanation

If an organisation doesn't have capability to produce a technical specification, they can draft one based on standards or consulting the suppliers.

Explanation

In marketing, a customer value proposition (CVP) consists of the sum total of benefits which a vendor promises a customer will receive in return for the customer's associated payment (or other value-transfer).

Value analysis is concerned with existing products. It involves a current product being analysed and evaluated by a team, to reduce costs, improve product function or both. Value Analysis exercises use a plan which step-by-step, methodically evaluates the product in a range of areas. These include costs, function, alternative components and design aspects such as ease of manufacture and assembly.

Value engineering is concerned with new products. It is applied during product development. The focus is on reducing costs, improving function or both, by way of teamwork-based product evalua-tion and analysis. This takes place before any capital is invested in tooling, plant or equipment.

In this scenario, the company's objective is cost reduction, then value analysis or value engineering is more likely to be applied. The products are existing, so value analysis is the best option.

LO 3, AC 3.4

Explanation

ISO/IEC 27001 is widely known, providing requirements for an information security management system (ISMS), though there are more than a dozen standards in the ISO/IEC 27000 family. Using them enables organizations of any kind to manage the security of assets such as financial infor-mation, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted by third parties.

LO 3, AC 3.1

Explanation

Over-specification can cause problems to buying organisation, include the following:

- Higher expense due to unnecessary features embedded into the product

- Stifle competition because higher requirements will lead to fewer suppliers in the market are able to supply

- Harder to evaluate the trade-offs between different features and attributes in the specification

Explanation

Statement of Work (SoW) is the document that captures and defines all aspects of your project. You’ll note the activities, deliverables and the timetable for the project. It’s an extremely detailed document as it will lay the groundwork for the project plan.

Project Initial Document is an important document and should precede any specification writing project. It sets out the scope of the project and it is the team's mandate from senior management

Work instructions are also called work guides, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), job aids or user manuals, depending on the situation. In any case, the purpose of work instructions is to clearly explain how a particular work task is performed.

Framework agreements are arrangements between one or more buyers and one or more suppliers that provide the terms governing contracts to be established for a certain period of time, in particular with regard to price and, where necessary, the quantity envisaged.

Explanation

Value Analysis (VA) is concerned with existing products. It involves a current product being ana-lysed and evaluated by a team, to reduce costs, improve product function or both. Value Analysis exercises use a plan which step-by-step, methodically evaluates the product in a range of areas. These include costs, function, alternative components and design aspects such as ease of manufac-ture and assembly.

According to the Value Methodology standard, there are 6 phases to a Value Analysis:

- Information

- Function Analysis

- Creative

- Evaluation

- Development

- Presentation

1. Information

In this first phase, the team attempts to understand why the project exists and who or what it is to produce. They obtain project data, present the original design or product concepts, and understand the project scope. Schedule, costs, budget, risk, and other non-monetary issues are studied until the team is comfortable with the concept of the project, what it is to produce, and who its end users are.

This step also includes things like site visits and meetings with the project team, if required. Project documents like plans, drawings, specifications, and reports are obtained and the value engineering team becomes familiar with them.

2. Function Analysis

This step represents the meat and potatoes (core) of the value analysis. The team attempts to determine the functions the project serves. Functions come in two forms:

- Primary functions are those that represent the reason for the project’s existence, for example, a building project might have adequate plumbing as a primary function.

- Secondary functions are those that the project serves without being core to the project. For example, a building project might have as a secondary function maintaining the view of the neighboring building.

The functions are described in verb/noun pairs, such as “supply water to all suites,” or “Maintain view of adjacent park.” For a project like this, the team should come up with 10 – 15 functions. You might be surprised how many secondary functions exist for most projects. Subject matter experts would be a great resource, but in their absence an appropriate level of brainstorming and analysis are necessary.

The team should also identify value-mismatched functions to focus the improvements on. For ex-ample, maybe a large obstruction is preventing the view of the adjacent park from too many suites resulting in a potential mismatch of the cost vs. functional benefit. This is investigated in the next step.

3. Creative

This phase represents the generation of improvement ideas. The team develops alternative ways that the project can perform the functions that have been identified. At this step, the functions are looked at individually and each one gets a list of alternative ways to perform the function. There is no judging between the importance of the various functions.

4. Evaluation

At this stage, a priority is given to each project improvement idea. The ideas are discussed and potential costs are determined. Once the risk-reward profile of each idea is itemized, the team has determined which ideas are worth implementing into the project or feature.

A few years ago, there was a pedestrian bridge built near my home which was originally designed for emergency vehicles. Although this type of design is standard practice for the bridges of this type, the value engineering team identified that emergency vehicle passage was not needed (verb/noun pair = ‘maintain passage for emergency vehicles‘). Also, a second major outcome of this value analysis was to change the design to an aesthetic, curved bridge because it was in a prominent location. The redesign of the bridge cost some money but this was more than made up by the cost of the bridge construction. Thus, the value analysis paid for itself about 10 times over in the reduced construction cost, and the bridge was significantly more aesthetic.

5. Development

Once the value improvement options have been whittled down to the ones that make sense, the value engineering team develop the options to the point of passing them back to the original project team. They must be clearly written and explained so that the project owner and stakeholders can understand how it benefits the project and act on it. Any potential negative factors are identified. Potential costs and cost savings are itemized.

6. Presentation

This last phase represents the presentation of the alternatives to the stakeholders. Often value engineering represents a change in the normal practices that people are used to, an “out of the box thinking.” Thus the best salesperson on the team is often the best one to do the presentation.

Some typical products of a value engineering analysis are a briefing document, risk analy-sis, present worth analysis, advantages vs. disadvantages, etc.

Explanation

Internet is a great source of information, however, information from the Internet needs to be tested for accuracy and reliability. To check the information from the Internet, a buyer can use the criteria with acronym SAMOA:

Source (of the information)

Audience (intended as the recipient of the information)

Methodology (used to collect and analyse the data)

Objectivity (of the information - there should be no bias)

Accuracy

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.

Explanation

With strategic suppliers, the aim should be to work co-operatively with them to find ways of reducing costs to achieve a target cost. It is necessary to work with the suppliers in carrying out open book costing by having first persuaded them of the need to do it. Open book can be used to establish a Target Cost, a Compensation Event value and can eventually be used to ensure the payment of actual costs to an organization. A number of forms of contract cater for this functionality of which only the NEC goes to into any great depth of methodology.

If the suppliers worry about leak of confidential information, procurement team can suggest them to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The buying organisation should also comply with data protection regulations. The Employer / individual responsible for a project’s costs should ultimately take a pragmatic and sensible approach with regard to commercially or personally sensitive data provided by the contractor. The primary goal of all open book cost management is to provide Employer comfort and security in the accuracy of commercial data; this effectively means striking a balance between undertaking full audits and blind faith.

Explanation

Price Analysis is the process of deciding if the asking price for a product or service is fair and rea-sonable, without examining the specific cost and profit calculations the vendor used in arriving at the price. It is basically a process of comparing the price with known indicators of reasonableness. When adequate price competition does not exist, some other form of analysis is required. Some reasons that could affect adequate price competition are: specifications are not definitive, tolerances are restrictive, or production capacity limits those eligible to bid.

Examples of other forms of price analysis information include:

• Analysis of previous prices paid

• Comparison of vendor’s price with the in-house estimate

• Comparison of quotations or published price lists from multiple vendors

• Comparisons with government agencies (such as GSA in the US) published prices

A strike price is the set price at which a derivative contract can be bought or sold when it is exercised. For call options, the strike price is where the security can be bought by the option holder; for put options, the strike price is the price at which the security can be sold. Strike price is also known as the exercise price.

A cost driver is the direct cause of a cost and its effect is on the total cost incurred. For example, if you are to determine the amount of electricity consumed in a particular period, the number of units consumed determines the total bill for electricity. In such a scenario, the number of units of electricity consumed is a cost driver.

Explanation

Products used in agriculture can be subject to shortage due to natural disasters.

Explanation

In construction, specifications are written documents that describe the materials and workmanship required for a development. They do not include cost, quantity or drawn information but 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 design by a contractor or sup-plier, to prescriptive (closed) specifications where the design is already complete when the project is tendered.

Prescriptive specifications give the client more certainty about the end product when they make their final investment decision (i.e. when they appoint the contractor), whereas a performance specification gives the contractor and suppliers more scope to innovate and adopt cost effective methods of work, potentially offering better value for money.

Typically, performance specifications are written on projects that are straight-forward, standard building types, whereas prescriptive specifications are written for more complex buildings, or buildings where the client has requirements that might not be familiar to contractors and where certainty regarding the exact nature of the completed development is more important to the client.

Performance specification has some disadvantages:

- Well-defined performance metrics are needed to ensure that the specified performance will achieve the desired outcome

- Require reliable, practical, economical tests of performance

- Evaluations are subjective and require additional time and effort to complete

Therefore, if a performance specification is used, the buying organisation will have to ensure that they are able to define and conduct tests on whether supplier's solution can deliver the desired out-come.

Explanation

Risks like natural disasters - fire, flood, or weather-related event, and cyber-attacks can disrupt the supply chain seriously. Threats and disruptions mean a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition. Risks must be identified early and supplier should have a plan that ensures continuous operations during disasters.

There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid business continuity plan. They include:

- Business Impact Analysis: Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time-sensitive. (More on this below.)

- Recovery: In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.

- Organization: A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.

- Training: The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.

Explanation

Writing a high-quality specification is very crucial in every purchase. In through-life management, it is even more important since the assets often have very high value. Defining user requirement is the first step to write a specification. Without doing this right, many problems may arise in later stages.

Explanation

The following are typical social criteria in procurement:

• Reducing unemployment

• Preventing the use of child labour

• Preventing discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, disability, sex or sexual orientation

• Encouraging good employment practice

• Reducing local unemployment

• Reducing social exclusion

• Promoting training opportunities for the young or disadvantaged

• Encouraging access to work for people with disabilities

Explanation

Traditional financial systems operate with a centralised database, usually with a single point of authority. Blockchain technology, on the other hand, allows for a distributed database that holds a growing number of records. Instead of existing in one place, the ledger is continually updated and synchronised across multiple computers in a network. Therefore, any participant in the network with the proper authorisation can view the entire ledger – without relying on an intermediary or any one authority.

Another key feature of blockchain technology is a “smart contract,” which is a self-executing protocol that enforces a previously agreed arrangement. For example, a smart contract could trigger an automatic refund under certain conditions or the automatic payment of an agreed commission after a sale. These smart contracts can eliminate delays in traditional Finance processes, while increasing transparency and reducing reliance on middlemen to follow through on their commitments. Moreover, like other parts of a blockchain, smart contracts are immutable, so they can enhance accuracy in the financial statements.

LO 2, AC 2.1

Explanation

Primary activities consist of inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales & marketing, service.

Second activities consist of firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development and procurement

The following graph illustrate the value chain (Source: Smartsheet)

Graphical user interface, diagram Description automatically generated

Picking and delivery components is inbound logistics.

Maintenance is an example of operations activity.

Sourcing transportation services is an activity of procurement

Assembly design is an activity in research and development (Technology)

Recruiting is an activity of human resource management

Explanation

Break even point = Fixed costs/(Price-variable cost). In this case, break even point = 20,000/(100-60) = 500

Explanation

Copious amounts of waste can occur in the workplace, particularly in a manufacturing process, but do you know what the eight most commons wastes are and how they impact your organization?

Taiichi Ohno, considered the father of Toyota Production System, created a lean manufacturing framework, which was based on the idea of preserving (or increasing) value with less work. Any-thing that doesn't increase value in the eye of the customer must be considered waste, or "Muda", and every effort should be made to eliminate that waste. The following 8 lean manufacturing wastes, mostly derived from the TPS, have a universal application to businesses today. The acro-nym for the eight wastes is DOWNTIME. Downtime stands for:

- Defects

- Overproduction

- Waiting

- Not utilizing talent

- Transportation

- Inventory excess

- Motion waste

- Excess processing

OWN-IT is the acronym for the process of collecting and analysing the data and information needed in any field

SCAMPER is acronym for options addressing the underlying issues and achieving target

VA/VE is value analysis and value engineering

LO 3, AC 3.4

Explanation

ISO 9001:2015 specifies requirements for a quality management system.

ISO 14001:2015 specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an or-ganization can use to enhance its environmental performance. ISO 14001:2015 is intended for use by an organization seeking to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner that contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.

ISO 22000:2018 specifies food safety management systems — Requirements for any organization in the food chain

ISO 27001 provides requirements for an information security management system.

LO 3, AC 3.1

Explanation

According to Investopedia, the financial services sector provides financial services to people and corporations. This segment of the economy is made up of a variety of financial firms includ-ing banks, investment houses, lenders, finance companies, real estate brokers, and insurance com-panies. As noted above, the financial services industry is probably the most important sector of the economy, leading the world in terms of earnings and equity market capitalization. Large conglomerates dominate this sector, but it also includes a diverse range of smaller companies.

According to the finance and development department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), financial services are the processes by which consumers or businesses acquire financial goods. For example, a payment system provider offers a financial service when it accepts and transfers funds between payers and recipients. This includes accounts settled through credit and debit cards, checks, and electronic funds transfers.

Companies in the financial services industry manage money. For instance, a financial advi-sor manages assets and offers advice on behalf of a client. The advisor does not directly provide investments or any other product, rather, they facilitate the movement of funds between savers and the issuers of securities and other instruments. This service is a temporary task rather than a tangible asset.

Financial goods, on the other hand, are not tasks. They are things. A mortgage loan may seem like a service, but it's actually a product that lasts beyond the initial provision. Stocks, bonds, loans, commodity assets, real estate, and insurance policies are examples of financial goods.

Explanation

Composing a compelling business case requires the proposer to write in the language of the approvers. Generally, approvers are business executives or important shareholders whose major interest is the profitability of the firm. Business case proposer may embed the following contents:

- Return on investment: according to Investopedia, Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment, relative to the investment’s cost. A business case would seem more attractive if the proposal is expected to have high ROI.

- Time to market: Time-to-market (TTM) refers to the time from which a company initially con-ceives a product or service idea to the point when the actual product or service is accessible to buyers in the market (Afonso et al., 2008). The speed at which companies can introduce products into the market is critical for sustaining competitive advantage, and the reduction of product development cycle time has become a strategic objective for many technology-driven firms.

- Customer satisfaction: Keeping existing customer to stay in the business can affect greatly on the profit margin of a firm. A new proposal that finds the way to innovate while keeping the current customers satisfied may gain the interest of senior management.

- Improving productivity: Productivity is the measure of how efficient and effective a firm is. Im-proving the productivity means that with the same or lesser input, better output is generated. In-creasing productivity also improves the profitability of a company.

- Risk management: Any business activity contains inherent risks. For example, for a mining company to be truly responsible, it must keep all of its workers safe, healthy and motivated, meet the expectations of the local community and government for the region in which it is operating, ensure it impacts on the environment positively if at all, as well as achieve the financial objectives set by its investors for both the short and long term. Managing risks well improves the production throughput and maintains customer satisfaction.

In the scenario, Robert is trying to convince the senior management to adopt e-procurement system by insisting on potential productivity improvement. This is the right approach. A business plan should engage and please senior management and directors. An appealing business case tells them how important things to the business (such as productivity, return on investment, customer satisfaction or costs) are affected by the plan.

Explanation

Internal stakeholders may contribute to defining needs and drafting the specification by using their technical expertise. In this scenario, IT team may consult procurement team on the technical specification of the software, including compatibility with company's current IT system.

Explanation

Value engineering is often applied to new products or services. Early supplier involvement (ESI) is the involvement of a supplier in the product development process from a very stage in order to use the supplier's experience and expertise. ESI can bring cost reduction opportunities, process improvements, supply chain improvements and reduce supply risk. Both processes focus on development of new product or service. They tend to work the best if they are used together.

LO 3, AC 3.1 & AC 3.4

Explanation

According to Michael Porter, the threat of substitution, is a function of three factors:

• The relative value/ price of a substitute compared to an industry’s product

• The cost of switching to the substitute

• The buyer’s propensity to switch

(Porter, Michael E.. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance (p. 278). Free Press. Kindle Edition.)

Explanation

The buyer won't pay the supplier until next month. This is a liability to the buyer. This amount can be recorded as accrued expense or accounts payable. On the other hand, the supplier has not sent the invoice, so it should be accrued expense.

Both accounts payables and accrued expenses are liabilities. Accounts payable is the total amount of short-term obligations or debt a company has to pay to its creditors for goods or services bought on credit. With accounts payables, the vendor's or supplier's invoices have been received and recorded.

On the other hand, accrued expenses are the total liability that is payable for goods and services that have been consumed by the company or received. However, accrued expenses are those bills in which an invoice or bill has not yet been received. As a result, accrued expenses can sometimes be an estimated amount of what's owed, which is adjusted later to the exact amount, once the invoice has been received.

Conversely, accounts payable should represent the exact amount of the total owed from all of the invoices received.

Explanation

The aim of this question is to check students' understanding of different types of data. There are 2 types of data:

- Primary data is the collection of original or raw data which are generated from field research. In this case, only RFI and surveys from customers are considered as primary data.

- On the other hand, secondary data is public information that has been collected by others. It is typically free or inexpensive to obtain and can act as a strong foundation to any research project — provided you know where to find it and how to judge its worth and relevance. Examples of secondary data are government statistics, industry associations, trade publications, published market reports, etc.

Explanation

Value Engineering (VE) is concerned with new products. It is applied during product development. The focus is on reducing costs, improving function or both, by way of teamwork-based product evaluation and analysis. This takes place before any capital is invested in tooling, plant or equipment.

This is very significant, because according to many reports, up to 80% of a product’s costs (throughout the rest of its life-cycle), are locked in at the design development stage. This is under-standable when you consider the design of any product determines many factors, such as tooling, plant and equipment, labour and skills, training costs, materials, shipping, installation, maintenance, as well as decommissioning and recycle costs.

LO 3, AC 3.4

Explanation

One product substitutes for another if it offers buyers an inducement to switch that exceeds the cost or overcomes the resistance to doing so. A substitute offers an inducement to switch if the substitute provides the buyer with more value relative to its price than the product currently being used. There is always some cost of switching to a substitute because of the disruption and potential reconfiguration of buyer activities that must result, however. The threat of a substitute will vary depending on the size of the inducement relative to the required switching costs.

In addition to relative value to price and switching cost, the pattern of substitution is influenced by what I term the buyer’s propensity to switch. Faced with equivalent economic inducements for substitution, different buyers will often evaluate substitution differently. The threat of substitution, then, is a function of three factors:

• The relative value/ price of a substitute compared to an industry’s product

• The cost of switching to the substitute

• The buyer’s propensity to switch

Porter, Michael E.. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance (p. 278). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

The price-to-book ratio compares a company's market value to its book value. The market value of a company is its share price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares. The book value is the net assets of a company.

The price-to-earnings ratio (P/E ratio) is the ratio for valuing a company that measures its current share price relative to its earnings per share (EPS). The price-to-earnings ratio is also sometimes known as the price multiple or the earnings multiple.

The reserve ratio is the portion of reservable liabilities that commercial banks must hold onto, rather than lend out or invest. This is a requirement determined by the country's central bank, which in the United States is the Federal Reserve. It is also known as the cash reserve ratio.

LO 2, AC 2.2

Explanation

Risk control is the process by which an organization reduces the likelihood of a risk event occurring or mitigates the effects that risk should it occur. Our preferred way to determine your risk control strategy is to use the four T’s Process:

Transferring Risk can be achieved through the use of various forms of insurance, or the payment to third parties who are prepared to take the risk on behalf of the organization

Tolerating Risk is where no action is taken to mitigate or reduce a risk. This may be because the cost of instituting risk reduction or mitigation activity is not cost-effective or the risks of impact are at so low that they are deemed acceptable to the business (such as some trivial annoyance). Even when these risks are tolerated they should be monitored because future changes may make it no longer tolerable.

Treating Risk is a method of controlling risk through actions that reduce the likelihood of the risk occurring or minimize its impact prior to its occurrence. Also, there are contingent measures that can be developed to reduce the impact of an event once it has occurred.

Terminating Risk is the simplest and most often ignored method of dealing with risk. It is the ap-proach that should be most favored where possible and simply involves risk elimination. This can be done by altering an inherently risky process or practice to remove the risk. The same can be used when reviewing practices and processes in all areas of the business.

If an item presents a risk and can be changed or removed without it materially affecting the busi-ness, then removing the risk should be the first option considered; rather than attempting the treat, tolerate or transfer it.

Explanation

Regression refers to a quantitative measure of the relationship between one or more independent variables and a resulting dependent variable. Regression is of use to professionals in a wide range of fields from science and public service to financial analysis.

To perform a regression analysis, a statistician collects a set of data points, each including a com-plete set of dependent and independent variables. For example, the dependent variable could be a firm’s stock price and the independent variables could be the Standard and Poor’s 500 index and the national unemployment rate, assuming that the stock is not listed in the S&P 500. The sample set could be each of these three data sets for the past 20 years.

On a chart, these data points would appear as scatter plot, a set of points that may or may not appear to be organized along any line. If a linear pattern is apparent, it may be possible to sketch a line of best fit that minimizes the distance of those points from that line. If no organizing axis is visually apparent, regression analysis can generate a line based on the least squares method. This method builds the line which minimizes the squared distance of each point from the line of best fit.

Line of best fit is one of the most important outputs of regression analysis.

Explanation

In this scenario, the final product has vast range of parts. The second problem is lacking any part can cause disruption to the production process. So GE has 2 things to do: to reduce the part varie-ties, and secure the supply. Part standardisation is the best option here. It can simplify the range of parts or materials used, and simultaneously, it expands the supply base of GE. If a supplier fails to deliver the part, the company always has other options to replace.

Costs are also a concern, but bottleneck in production imposes a serious risk to the organisation. Driving down costs using market competition cannot be a foremost priority.

Increasing production may help to reduce bottleneck. However, it will also increase the inventory of finished products and unnecessary upkeep costs.

LO 3, AC 3.4

Explanation

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a method to transform qualitative user demands into quantitative parameters, to deploy the functions forming quality, and to deploy methods for achieving the design quality into subsystems and component parts, and ultimately to specific elements of the manufacturing process.

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 five categories: basic requirements, performance requirements, attractive requirements, indifferent requirements and reverse requirements.

Mendelow’s Matrix is a tool that may be used by an organisation to consider the attitude of their stakeholders at the start of a project or when they are setting out strategic objectives.

The Thomas Kilmann model identifies two dimensions when choosing a course of action in a con-flict situation, these are assertiveness and cooperativeness. Assertiveness is the degree to which you try to satisfy your own needs. Cooperativeness is the degree to which you try to satisfy the other person’s concerns.

Explanation

ISO 9001:2015 specifies requirements for a quality management system.

ISO 14001:2015 specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an or-ganization can use to enhance its environmental performance. ISO 14001:2015 is intended for use by an organization seeking to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner that contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.

ISO 22716:2007 gives guidelines for the production, control, storage and shipment of cosmetic products. These guidelines cover the quality aspects of the product, but as a whole do not cover safety aspects for the personnel engaged in the plant, nor do they cover aspects of protection of the environment.

ISO 13485:2016 specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to provide medical devices and related services that consistently meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements.

Explanation

A conformance specification is a specification that defines the technical and physical characteristics and/or measurements of a product, such as physical aspects (e.g. dimensions, colour, and surface finish), design details, material properties, energy requirements, processes, maintenance requirements and operational requirements.

On the other hand, performance specification typically includes list of output or outcome or func-tional requirements. Brand name can be a part of performance specification because brand is a re-minder of quality that customers remember. For example, when talking about Roll Royce, people will think about an elegant car.

Explanation

There are many factors that need to be considered when making a business decision. Costs and benefits are among those factor. To estimate the length of time in which an investment reaches a break-even point, businesses often use the payback period. The payback period refers to the amount of time it takes to recover the cost of an investment.

'Yes, because it takes everything into account': It ignores the time value of money (TVM), unlike other methods of capital budgeting such as net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and discounted cash flow.

'No, because payback period doesn’t take into account price fluctuations': Though it doesn't take into account price fluctuation, payback period is still useful in financial and capital budgeting.

'No, because payback period can be only used to calculate the depreciation of a fixed asset': Payback period only calculates the length of time in which the benefits of a charge repay its costs.

LO 1, AC 1.3

Explanation

Functional benchmarking is a comparison to similar or identical practices (e.g., the picking process for assembling customer orders, maintaining inventory controls of spare computer parts, logistics to move operational forces, etc.) within the same or similar functions outside the immediate industry. Functional benchmarking might identify practices that are superior in your functional areas in whatever industry they may exist. Functional benchmarking would be accomplished at the federal level by comparing the IRS collections process against those of American Express. Comparing copper mining techniques to coal mining techniques is an example in the private sector.

Benefits

- Provides industry trend information

- Quantitative comparisons

- Better improvement rate

Challenges

- Diverse corporate cultures

- Great need for specificity

- Not invented here. syndrome

- Common functions can be difficult to find

- Takes more time than internal or percent

- Must be able to visualize how to adapt the best practices

Source: USN Benchmarking Handbook

LO 1, AC 1.3

Explanation

Value Engineering (VE) is concerned with new products. It is applied during product development. The focus is on reducing costs, improving function or both, by way of teamwork-based product evaluation and analysis. This takes place before any capital is invested in tooling, plant or equipment.

This is very significant, because according to many reports, up to 80% of a product’s costs (throughout the rest of its life-cycle), are locked in at the design development stage. This is under-standable when you consider the design of any product determines many factors, such as tooling, plant and equipment, labour and skills, training costs, materials, shipping, installation, maintenance, as well as decommissioning and recycle costs.

The Kano model is a theory for product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano, which classifies customer preferences into five categories. Both Kano model and Value Engineering aims at optimising new product, so they can be combined to-gether. CIPS L4M2 study guide consider Kano model is a tool of Value Engineering

Example of Kano model (source: Wikipedia)