Benchmarking is the process of comparing a function, process or performance with another which is best-in-class. Benchmarking is either internal or external. External benchmarking has three types; 1) Competition benchmarking, 2) Functional 3) Generic Company Toyota with the Porsche a competition in the same industry and by suggesting that drives will find the cars performances comparable with that of Porsche Cayman sports car, suggest think it is an external competitive benchmark.

By using STEEPLE and SWOT analysis, the organization can reach out to the following strategic decision in how it will engage with its external environment, and utilize it strength to cover up for its weakness and achieve its strategic goals;
1) STEEPLE can aid an organization to come up with informed decision by understanding when is the right time to procure goods or services?
2) STEEPLE and SWOT analysis can uncover the quantity that could be most economical to ac-quire at the point in time.
3) When an organization want to decide on the currency that could be most favorable for the buy, it will analyze the countries involved and the strength of their currency and make its decisions on which currency that the supplier should be paid that will not make the organization to lose unnecessary money to exchange.
4) Should the product or services be made or bought?
5) Should the product or services be resourced?
6) Should the product or services be placed?
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Refer to the question column

An offer is created when one party communicates to another or to multiple parties that they wish to enter into a legal binding agreement in accordance with the terms stated, for example; a company in promotion advertising for buyers to buy one and get one free, an offer is a buying organization communicating to a supplier to supply X number of goods and be paid x amount upon delivery at company premises, an offer is when a football club proposes to pay X amount to a player if agrees to play for them for a month. An offer can be legally banded if accepted, whereas invitation to treat does not. An invitation to treat is just an invitation from one party to another to begin negotiations with the intention of creating an offer. If an offer is made without stating terms, this becomes an invitation to treat, for example, an invitation to treat is when a pharmacy displays a drug in its shelf. An invitation to treat can be linked to a request a buyer send to suppliers asking them for specific information.

Pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) is often standard forms that buyers send to potential suppli-ers. The purpose is to ensure that these potential suppliers could, if they win the contract, supply the product or service to the standard required. PQQ includes requesting details from the potential suppliers on the following information
1. Company Details
2. Environment policies
3. Trading history
4. Ethical policies
5. Financial information
6. Health and safety policies
7. Quality standards
8. References
9. Insurance.

The purpose of the tendering process is to invite potential suppliers to bid to supply a product or service to the buying organization. Then buying organization select suitable suppliers, award con-tract and manage. The process is selected mostly when the need is a large or complex project or the law mandates it or it is in the company’s policies to do so. The stages of the tendering process includes; Stage 1: decide which style of tender to use. There are four types of tendering used within pro-curement and this include; 1) open 2) Restricted 3) Negotiated 4) Competitive Dialogue Stage 2: Prepare invitation to tender (ITT): this stage is to prepare the document that will be made available to potential supplier. It should contain everything potential bidders will need to know to fully understand the need and to prepare and send a suitable RESPONSE it may likely in-clude; open letter, company details, overview of a project, evaluation criteria, submission date and so on.
Stage 3: send ITT: With fairness, transparency and equality, buyer will provide the documents to all potential suppliers at the same time and also provide exactly the same information/documents to all suppliers. If after receiving the ITT and some suppliers seek clarifications on anything in the documentation, buyers must give same response to identical questions to keep the process transparent and fair. Also, the response to each query to all bidders in the process.
Failure to this may result in bidders who feel disadvantaged or discriminated in any form to submit a legal challenge. Supplier submitting a Legal challenge may cause delay in the process and eventually increase administrative cost for the buyer.
Stage 4: Buying organization receives responses to the Invitation to tender from suppliers (bids). Suppliers must adhere to the bid submission dead line included in the invitation to tender document. Any bid that arrives after the deadline must be left out of the process, or else this may result to other suppliers legally challenging the process.
Stage 5: Evaluate bid. The buying organization can now evaluate the bids based on the criteria in the ITT document. It is always thorough that cross-functional team evaluates the bids to guarantee complete fairness and ensure that the chosen bid is fit for purpose. In evaluating the bids, the cross-functional team will consider the bids in the following areas; supplier organization, ethics, price, sustainability, quality, payment, disposal, service level, location, warranty and risk.
Stage 6: Award contract and give feedback hence the buying organization wards the contract to the winning supplier. This can take place by a formal communication like a letter or an e-mail.
Stage 7: Contract management. Contracts must be evaluated against the criteria in the invitation to tender.
The reasons why these stages must be followed includes;
1. Knowing the right TYPE of tender to use, reduces administration cost, for example, deciding to do restricted tendering to reduce the interest that are going to be sent in have already cut down on administrative cost.
2. The supplier can know what exactly the buyer’s intentions are by developing description and the required specification.
3. To ensure that objectives of resorting to use the tendering style and the tendering process is achieved
4. To ensure that the organization generates added value by going through the stages.
5. To ensure that there are none unethical issues like fraud, bribes etc are not part of the system.
6. To ensure that the tendering process becomes transparent to all suppliers. These stages must be followed for transparency and fairness. Just like in stage 3: buyer send out the ITT to potential suppliers at the same time and providing them same information. Failure to this and bidders who feel disadvantaged or discriminated in any form may submit a legal challenge. Supplier submitting a Legal challenge may cause delay in the process and eventually increase administrative cost for the buyer.

Human rights are the statutory ways in which individual expects to and should be treated. Ethical and responsible sourcing includes the protection of human rights, not violating it.
When young women are being bound into contracts where they work for two to three years, they are not being granted the right to freedom from slavery.
Forcing these women to live in hostels under restrictions that prevent them from moving and are denied the opportunity to improve on their living condition is a violation of their right to life, liberty and personal security, also, their freedom from torture and degrading treatment is being violated.

Damages are ‘sum of money that the supplier pays if it fails to carry out its contractual obligation.
When creating terms for damages in the contract, it should be considered that Damages are categorized into two types (liquidated and un-liquidated). And which or if both are applicable to the contract in hand.
Liquidate Damages are fixed amount of money agreed between the parties that is payable if a contract is breached. For example, knowing that supplier not being able to install a device properly in a power transformer may destroy the device and going ahead to include a fee in the contract if the device was destroyed.
Un-liquidated damages are unfixed amount of money. It is used when the amount of money that will compensate the injured party cannot be known in advance. A court decides the amount when the damages occur. For example, knowing that supplier not being able to install a device properly in a power transformer may destroy the device, other appliances and equipment unknown, cause the buyer delay in the process and reputational damage as in customer dissatisfaction. Yet, unquantifiable as both parties are unable to fix a fee in advance on the damages and leaving it to the court to decide the damage if it may occur.

When evaluating potential suppliers, procurement professionals can carry out benchmarking. Benchmarking is the process of comparing a function, a process performance with another which is best in-class.
Other factors, apart from price that can be considered to find the total cost of acquisition include the product or service quality, lead time, supplier culture, its environmental awareness and sustainability.
Case study:
Tetsuya Tada, Chief engineer of the Toyata Supra Sports car has revealed how the process of benchmarking contributed to the car’s design.
Tada has worked by comparing the Supra to other cars. For example, it has been intentionally designed with a shorter wheelbase, than the Toyata 86 to make it more suitable for track racing. Furthermore, Tada has benchmarked the Supra against competition by suggesting that drivers will find the car’s performance comparable with that of Posche’s Cayman sports car.
Tada’s knowledge of the features belonging to different sports cars in his industry shows how benchmarking can be used by companies to successfully differentiate their products and remain competitive through awareness of their competitor’s activities.

Continuous improvement relates to removing waste from the supply chain and improving processes to increase efficiency within whole life asset management in a full power project (a flour producing firm) can benefit from continuous improvement in the following ways;
1) Reduce cost of spears by recondition parts, instead of disposing them out rightly.
2) Can reduce down time by conducting routine maintenance after hours.
3) Can reducing accident by up skilling operators on safety
4) Can reduce waste oil by following owner’s manual instead of relying on experience.
5) Create efficiencies by operating a 24/7 shift pattern.

Factors that contribute towards value for clothe gum in a fashion firm;
1) How much money does the gum cost?
2) How much is the benefits of using the clothe gum?
3) Does customers prefer clothe gum at the bottom of their garment?
4) Is the clothe gum difficult to use?
5) Does the clothe gum beautifies the fabric when placed properly?
6) Does it give a better finishing?
7) Is it ethical to use?
8) Is it from a sustainable source?
9) is it environmental friendly?
10) Does using clothe gum suggest innovation in fashion?

Carters outsource matrix is a useful tool that procurement professionals uses to decide which products or services has a high or low contribution to the organization operation performance and its strategic importance. The matrix segments products/services into four quadrants. These are Eliminate, outsource, strategic alliance and retain.
According to Carters outsource matrix, all product/services that has a high strategic importance should not be outsourced. They should rather be retained in house or carefully chose suitable sup-pliers and go into strategic alliance.

At the early stages In procurement and supply cycle, buyers begin segmenting current supplies in the categories, depending on their level of integration into the organization. To help get this done, the buyer may use the Kraljic portfolio matrix. The kraljic portfolio matrix segment suppliers into four categories, which are;
1) Routine 2) Bottleneck 3) Leverage 4)strategic supplier

Disposal of an asset is the final stage in the decommissioning process of a fixed asset.
When a fixed asset reaches the end of its useful or cost effective life time within an organization, the decision is made as to whether it should be removed from the premises or disposed off.
If the asset is truly at the end of its life, no longer fit for purpose, not cost effective to repair and is not able to be exchanged, then disposal is the only option; there are two options for disposal;
1) Take the asset to land fill site
2) Taking the asset to a recycling plant.

The abuse of power within the supply chain can be linked to corruption. If individuals with seniority favor one supplier over another, they can exercise their power to award the contract to whoever they wish. According to CIPS code of conduct, this is not acceptable.
According to French and Raven, there are five types of power (Legitimate power, Reward, Expert, Referent and Coercive), and these powers can most likely be used in corruption.

Fullpower projects is a training firm that trains on project management and procurement. It has the following values and ethical code of practice
1) Accountability
2) selflessness
3) openness
4) integrity
5) objectives
6) Honesty
7) Leadership