CIPS L4M6 - Supplier Relationships

Leverage products are characterized by high spend and low complexity, giving buyers the ability to negotiate favorable terms due to supplier competition and standardization.

For partnership sourcing to succeed, senior management buy-in is essential. Selling the idea internally ensures commitment of resources, trust, and long-term strategy alignment. Options A and D undermine partnerships, while B contradicts the open and collaborative nature of partnership sourcing.

Supplier pre-qualification is used to assess the suitability, capacity, and stability of suppliers before awarding contracts. While financial stability is important, CIPS emphasizes that it is not the only factor. Other considerations include technical capability, quality assurance, compliance with legislation, and sustainability of supply. Profitability ratios alone cannot determine suitability.

In the context of the IT equipment industry,Technologicalfactors are paramount. The rapid pace of technological advancement influences product development, supply chain processes, and market competitiveness. Utilizing the STEEPLED framework, technological considerations would significantly impact the company's supply chain strategy.

As per the CIPS Intelligence Hub:

"STEEPLED analysis is a strategic planning methodology that can be used across all business functions to discover, evaluate, organise, and track external risk."

— CIPS Intelligence Hub: Using STEEPLED analysis to develop your supply chain

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

Bottleneck suppliers often control critical or scarce resources. Developing relationships with these suppliers is crucial to mitigate risks and ensure continuity of supply, per procurement best practices.

Partnership sourcing improves efficiency through cost reduction and ensures continuity of supply by fostering long-term, collaborative relationships with key suppliers, as highlighted in CIPS guidelines.

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 withdemand, 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

In Tuckman’s model of team development, the Forming stage occurs at the outset. Team members meet, roles are unclear, and there is little conflict. Stakeholder teams will be in this stage initially before moving into storming (conflict), norming (agreement), and performing (high productivity).

Explanation

Request for Information and Pre-Qualification Questionnaire can be used for short-listing suppliers. Request for Quotation is used when the only variable is price and you would like suppliers to submit a price for you. Invitation to Tender would be the next stage after RFI / PPQ- this is sent out to those suppliers who have passed selection, and details the second stage of the competition. See p.75 for more details.