L4M2 Online Practice Questions

Explanation:
Through-life management is a approach applied to capital asset. According to Ward and Graves, Through-life Management involves the life-cycle management of the products, services and activities required to deliver a fully integrated capability to the customer, while reducing the cost of ownership for the customer.
According to CIPS study guide, through-life management comprises of 6 parts:

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
Reference: CIPS study guide page 137
LO 3, AC 3.2

Explanation:
This questions is intended to ask students about types of waste in Lean principles.
Lean was born out of manufacturing practices but in recent time has transformed the world of knowledge work and management. It encourages the practice of continuous improvement and is based on the fundamental idea of respect for people. Womack and Jones defined the five principles of Lean manufacturing in their book “The Machine That Changed the World”.
The five principles are considered a recipe for improving workplace efficiency and include: 1) defining value, 2) mapping the value stream, 3) creating flow, 4) using a pull system, and 5) pursuing perfection.
Lean principles aim to eliminate waste in processes.
The eight wastes of Lean principles are:
- Defects
- Over-production
- Waiting
- Not using talent
- Transport and handling
- Inventory
- Motion waste
- Excess processing
In the scenario, the component is processed more than necessary. The engineers try to make them as accurate as possible with very little tolerance. In fact, the component does not need to be that precise. This excesses buyer's requirements and incurs costs for both buyer and supplier. The scenario is an example of over processing (or excess processing).
Overprocessing is one of the seven wastes of lean manufacturing (or 7 mudas); Overprocessing is adding more value to a product than the customer actually requires such as painting areas that will never be seen or be exposed to corrosion.
Overprocessing as one of the seven wastes is caused by having unclear standards and specifications, many operators will try to do the best job possible and will not always be aware of what truly adds value to the product or even the end use. They will therefore often expend time polishing and finishing components that do not require it.
Reference: - CIPS study guide page 153-156
- Waste of Overprocessing; causes, costs, examples solutions, symptoms (leanmanufactur-ingtools.org)
LO 3, AC 3.4

Explanation:
Labour variance refers to a situation in which actual costs of labor differ from projected or budgeted labor costs. This concept is most commonly applied in manufacturing environments.
Labour variance either results from efficiency or rate discrepancies. Efficiency variance results when actual time worked is more or less than budgeted time for a project. Rate variance means you paid more per hour worked than expected. This may occur with overtime pay or when you have higher paid employees on a project than projected. Labour variance is fairly typical, but modest variance is usually not a big factor in manufacturing, because materials and other production costs are often much higher.
LO 1, AC 1.4

Explanation:
A rolling budget is continually updated to add a new budget period as the most recent budget period is completed. Thus, the rolling budget involves the incremental extension of the existing budget model. By doing so, a business always has a budget that extends one year into the future.
Think of continuous (rolling) budgets as waves rolling ashore on the beach. A new wave comes in each time, replacing the one that was there before. From a financial perspective, the wave is your budget, and the time between waves is longer! These reporting time frames can be monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.
An incremental budget is a budget prepared using a previous period's budget or actual performance as a basis with incremental amounts added for the new budget period.
Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. The process of zero-based budgeting starts from a "zero base," and every function within an organization is analyzed for its needs and costs. Budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether each budget is higher or lower than the previous one. Activity-based budgeting (ABB) is a system that records, researches, and analyzes activities that lead to costs for a company. Every activity in an organization that incurs a cost is scrutinized for potential ways to create efficiencies. Budgets are then developed based on these results.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 52-59
LO 1, AC 1.4