Free Practice Questions for CIPS L4M7 Exam

Warehouse location selection depends on:

Land cost: Directly affects budget planning and long-term operational expenses.

Nature of items to be stored: Determines special requirements (e.g., climate control).

Access to transport: Proximity to transport hubs reduces logistics costs and improves efficiency.

These considerations are critical for effective whole-life asset management, optimizing operational costs and logistics.

Explanation

Raw materials are basic input materials - they are only processed limitedly or have not been pro-cessed at all. Their values are equal to acquisition cost and are the lowest value of stock held.

Secondary components are the products that are combined with others to produce the finished goods. They are acquired in the processed state. Their value is higher than raw materials, but still at acquisition cost.

Work in progress is the stock part-way through manufacture that has not been finished. It is typically not completed yet, so it doesn't have full value. But the costs of processing already carried out makes it more valuable than materials and components.

Finished goods are completed and ready to be used or sold. Finished goods are the most expensive and need to be stored in good conditions.

Explanation

Cross-docking is the practice of unloading goods from inbound delivery vehicles and loading them directly onto outbound vehicles. By eliminating or minimizing warehouse storage costs, space requirements and inventory handling, cross-docking can streamline supply chains and help them move goods to market faster and more efficiently.

Cross-docking usually takes place in a dedicated docking terminal in a warehouse, where inbound goods are first received at a dock and sorted according to their final destinations. They are then moved to the other side of the dock via forklift, conveyor belt or other equipment and loaded on outbound vehicles.

Cross-docking works best with products that need to be transported quickly, such as food, that have already been sorted and labeled for customers, do not need quality inspections or have steady demand.

Explanation

Kanban (看板) (signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing (JIT).

Poka-yoke (ポカヨケ, [poka yoke]) is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or "inadvertent error prevention". A poka-yoke is any mechanism in any process that helps an equipment operator avoid (yokeru) mistakes (poka). Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur.

Kaizen is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen (改善) is the Sino-Japanese word for "improvement". Kaizen also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logis-tics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain.

Muda (無駄, on'yomi reading) is a Japanese word meaning "futility; uselessness; wastefulness", and is a key concept in lean process thinking, like the Toyota Production System (TPS) as one of the three types of deviation from optimal allocation of resources (the others being mura and muri). Waste reduction is an effective way to increase profitability.

Explanation

Radio frequency identification (RFID) are items which use radio technology to identify itself and its location subject to having appropriate hardware and software.

RFID tags are made of three different components: an RFID chip, which is an integrated circuit (IC), an antenna, and a substrate.

A RFID Reader is a device that uses radio-frequency waves to wirelessly transfer data between itself and a RFID tag/label in order to identify, categorize and track assets. When combined with the right RFID software, a RFID reader can identify objects quicker, more accurately, at a reduced overall cost, and at various points of the object’s lifecycle.

Passive RFID systems use tags with no internal power source and instead are powered by the electromagnetic energy transmitted from an RFID reader. Passive RFID tags are used for applica-tions such as access control, file tracking, race timing, supply chain management, smart labels, and more.

Active RFID systems have three essential parts – a reader or interrogator, antenna, and a tag. Ac-tive RFID tags possess their own power source – an internal battery that enables them to have ex-tremely long read ranges as well as large memory banks.

Leasing allows an organization to predict costs accurately, as installment payments are pre-agreed. This makes financial planning simpler, which is especially beneficial in whole-life asset management where minimizing upfront capital expenditure is often a priority. Leasing also reduces the risk associated with asset obsolescence.