Chapter 3

Question 1

Remember, engineering drawings as part of tender spec are often legally binding as they are understood worldwide, thus have little ambiguity.

Question 2

What’s the difference between functional and nonfunctional requirements?

Answer 2

Functional - describe what a product or service should do

Nonfunctional - describe how a product or service should operate

Question 3

Remember, performance specifications come in 3 major types

Answer 3

Outcome specs
Output specs
SoW specs

Capability –> Inputs–>Outputs–>Outcomes

Question 4

What is the starting point of writing a specification?

Answer 4

Start with the Business Requirements Definition BRD, which sets out what service or product needs to be delivered to satisfy all stakeholders.

One to model for identifying business requirements is the RACSCI model.

Regulatory
Assurance of supply
Quality
Service
Cost
Innovation

Then use Starburst model, which entails taking one element of the RAQSCI model in a six pointed star and rather than think of six idea, simply answer 6 questions - who, what, how, why, when, where. Questions must be exhausted before they are answered.

Question 5

Remember, outcomes should be at the heart of any good specification, however, there are three major difficulties with them:

Answer 5

1 - how to measure them - complexity

2- time delay between supplier taking action and the achievement of results

3 - more than one output can affect the outcome - supplier cannot control all varibale. for example, if the outcome is to maintain office building heat and outcome is a temperature control unit then the outcome is achived, but is subject to staff not messing around with control unit, which would undermine the outcome.

Question 6

Remember, …

Outcome spec - performance spec which describes the function/performance that a product/ service must fulfil

Output spec - specific deliverables that can be measured in terms of time, quality and cost. Often conformance

Outcomes are delivered by outputs, which are the result of inputs

Outcome spec enables suppliers to utilize their skills by not stifling innovation

Outcome spec can be difficult to measure success.

** both output and outcome spec can be supported by SoWs**

Question 7

How many types of SOWs are there?

Answer 7

Design - how the work should be done, quality levels and materials to be used.

Level of effort/ material/ unit rate - short term contracts which specifies the unit of delivery as an hour of work

Performance - supplier is supplied with the purposed of the project, not how to deliver it. Supplier is given free reign.

Question 8

Which agency provides international standards?

Answer 8

International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)

Question 9

What is a Technical Specification?

Answer 9

One which is based on standards and have a clear spec to meet. if it fails, it is said to be out of spec. e.g. ISO spec or BSIin UK

Question 10

What model can be used to vet the accuracy/ reliability of information sourced from the internet?

Answer 10

SAMOA

Source
Audience - who is intended
Methodology - how is data gathered and organised
Objectivity - no bias
Accuracy

Question 11

What is Market Sounding?

Answer 11

Approaching suppliers to seek level of interest they would have towards an upcoming tender. Usually performed when buying organisation is uncertain that the market suppliers have what it needs

Question 12

What is Early Supplier Involvement?

Answer 12

Involvement of suppliers in product development process from an early stage in order to use the supplier’s experience/ expertise.

Advantages include:

Cost savings
Process improvements
Supply chain improvements
Reduced supply risk

ESI also helps ensure that cost are not embedded into product design which cannot then be removed at later stage of its life cycle. this can help ensure that fixed cost are reduce from product introduction and remain low through to decline.

Over the life cycle of a product, the longer the time goes on, the more embedded costs become and harder to reduce.

Question 13

What are the key stages of ESI?

Answer 13

1 - establish customer need
2-identify project
3-develop target costs
4-prepare project plans
5-collaborate with operation
6-produce list of potential suppliers
7-engage in supplier workshops
8-conduct value engineering

Question 14

What is the definition of Through Life Contract?

Answer 14

Contract that gives a contractor sole accountability for support after the purchase/ acquisition

Typical part of through life contracts include:

Design
Manufacture
Installation
In service support
Decommission and disposal

Typically associated with purchase of capital asset. Think of machinery on a production line

Question 15

What are the 6 components of a through life specification?

Answer 15

1 - Scope - what is the purpose of the spec?

2 - Definition - produce a user requirements document (URD) - statement of customer expected outputs, statement of expected limitation of liability, insurance warranty and other important definition to outline.

3 - Description of requirements - detailed requirements

4 - Testing and acceptance - acceptance testing is where you ask the question did we build the right thing? Functional testing is where you ask the question did we build a correctly working product? BOTH ARE NECESSARY! There are 5 main types of acceptance testing:
Alpha - during development stages to continually tweak spec to ensure it complies with spec. performed by supplier
Beta- testing product in real life environment performed by the customer on their customer premises. They are also referred to as field test. Customer provides supplier with feedback to again ensure it complies with spec
Contract acceptance - tested against spec criteria ana standards. Most basic of types
Regulation acceptance - tested against standard and regs such as ISO, law or health and safety standards
Operational acceptance - additional testing following both or either Alpha & Beta, to enable all operational functions of the product test it for any final feedback. Acceptance here leads to go live!
Black box - most common in software testing. Focuses on inputs and outputs without consideration for internal workings of the product.

5 - change control mechanisms and remedies - there are various reasons to change the spec of a project, however, you do not simple change and proceed. you must review the options available. to identify and approve changes to a spec:
Describe the change
Review the change
Look at options
Final approval

Sponsor - person who assumes accountability for the project

6 - Social and environmental criteria - Social capital/ value is network of relationships people work and the environment, for example a group of workers can band together to drive business growth which in turn employs more people locally which then raises standard of living and health - environmental - damage/ impact on environment

Question 16

How can risk of over, under or misinterpreted specifications be identified?

Answer 16

4 phases

1 - Identify the possible risk - make a list of all risk the team can identify
2 - Assess the risks - based on impact, detection and eliminations
3 - Control the risks - can they be mitigated and if yes, how?
4 - Monitor the risks - Has the situation changed? Have any new risk been identified

Prioritising the risk can be done by either:

Risk identified need to be plotted a graph, axis likelihood of eliminating the risk and likelihood of detecting the risk. Bigger the risk, bigger significance of the impact.

or,…

rank them from 1-10 to give a total score. 1 bring low and 10 being high. Criteria would be:
the effect the risk could have
likelihood of detecting the risk
likelihood of eliminating the risk

Multiple scores to get an answer of 1 - 1000. Score of each risk can be sorted in descending order and prioritise those at top of list.

Question 17

What are the 4 ways to mitigate risks?

Answer 17

Tolerate - allow low risk event to occur

Treat - take action to reduce the risk. Most risk fall into this category

Transfer the risk - transferring the risk back to a supplier or insurer

Terminate - if the risk cannot be mitigated with any of the following steps then avoid it altogether

Question 18

Remember, risk register is used to help mitigate risks. they often utilize a RAG status

Question 19

What is a Project Initiations Document?

Answer 19

PID is an important document which should precede any specification writing. It sets out the scope of the project and act as a vehicle to collect necessary approvals. Finally, it is the team mandate from senior management.

Question 20

Standardisation of product manufacture can happen at which 3 levels?

Answer 20

Individual part and components
End product they are used in
Processes used to make them

Benefits of standardisation include:

Cost reduction
Quality
Flexibility
Responsiveness

Question 21

What type of manufacturing process types exist with to level of standardization?

Answer 21

Job Shop - made to order
when there a vast array of end products that could purchased, thus difficult to store all the necessary materials.

Production cell - splitting an end product into sub-assemblies to enable batch productions

Flexible manufacturing system - method to produce goods which are readily adaptable to volume or physical changes, so they may be used elsewhere with little effort, thus production cells can be set up last minute to meet demand

Mixed lines - production lines where small quantities of different products are made, but each product changeover set up is minimal between production runs. this increases efficiency and reduces need for varied stock

Note production cells, FMS and mixed lines are collectively referred to as batch production as they are made in small quantities at a time, where job shop which is one off

Dedicated lines - mass production- allows manufactures to significantly lower the cost per unit due to significantly increase volume Set up cost are very high and are only small numbers of products to make

Question 22

What is the technique referred to as Lean?

Answer 22

Make processes more efficient by eliminating non value added activities/ avoiding waste

There are said to be 8 wastes

DOWNTIME

Defects
Over production
Waiting
Not using talent
Transport
Inventory
Motion
Excess processing

Question 23

What is the definition of Learning Curve?

Answer 23

Graphical representation of how unit costs reduce the greater the number of those unit produced.

In terms of service supply, the more a person performs a task, the quicker they become

Question 24

What is the definition of Zero Based approach?

Answer 24

Refers to parts standardisation, the idea is to remove everything from a product and rebuild it which its must have. Trying to consider removing one part, in an already complex unit can be difficult, so Zero Base approach suggest starting from scratch

Question 25

What is Value Analysis?

Answer 25

Systematic process to improve the perceived value of a product or service, by determining the value of components used, then find cost reduction by optimising components used.

Its about removing or adding what components are necessary to either reduce cost or increase benefit.

if cost increases and benefits do not, then value decreases.
If cost decrease and benefits remain the same, then value increase.
If cost increase but benefits increase enough, then value increases.

Linked to Porters Generic Strategies

Question 26

What is Target Costing?

Answer 26

Where the market dictates price rather than the seller (Porters Generic Strategies), you take the market selling price and subtract the target margin/ profit to give you the target cost. Then start a project to further reduce costs so increase margin. profit.

Question 27

Remember, functional (value) analysis comes in two forms:

Primary - reasons for product to exist a.k.a its primary use i.e. clock tells the time

Secondary - functions in additions to primary, such as the clock also having an alarm function

its purpose it to assess the value its functions create and whether the functions are necessary and should be removed.

As well as QFD being a way to assess, Pugh Analysis can used. It assesses functions against a baseline of current functions, and by marking the options against the baseline you can answer the question, which solutions are better or worse.

Question 28

What model can be used to look at requirements from different perspectives?

Answer 28

4Ps

Product perspective
Planning perspective
People perspective
Potential perspective

The model encourage you to look at a problem from different perspective, knowing that everyone views solutions different. The idea to answer the current question from 4 perspectives by brainstorming questions each group might need answering. to create a solution.

Question 29

What mnemonic should be used to evaluate options?

Answer 29

Opportunities - look for the positives of the option, what benefit might exist?
Risks - now consider negative consequences of persuing that option
Alternative and improvements - can the option be improved?
Past experience - has anyone attempted this option? what was their feedback? did they fail and why?
Analysis - find gaps in knowledge to answer them and test all assumptions
People - consider views of other stakeholders
Alignment and ethics - does the option fit is with organisations mission and vision statement? does it need amending to fit?

Question 30

What is Value Engineering?

Answer 30

Similar to Value analysis but focuses on new product, where’s value analysis focuses on existing products (such a simple explanation must mean CIPS aren’t going to test you on the differences)

A helpful tool used in value engineering is KANO model. It states that a product or service is much more about just functionality as it is customers emotions. it manages to deliver functions which delight customers to go beyond their expectations without adding undue costs from having too many functions.

For example, standard car warranties are 3 years, but customers may be delighted to find that a car come with 5 years.

Kano does this by identifying 5 types of requirements:

Attractiveness
one dimensional or performance
Mandatory
Indifferent - factors which customers do not care for
Reverse - factors which customer hate, thus have negative affect

In practice to operate Kano method, you need to survey customers. Ask them two questions per function - rate it if it had this function and rate it if it hadn’t had this function. From this, the rating should advise which function to keep and which to bin. You could also ask customer to state how much they are willing to pay for a function which would help decision making.