Typically, ordering costs include expenses for a purchase order, labor costs for the inspection of goods received, labor costs for placing the goods received in stock, labor costs for issuing a supplier's invoice and labor costs for issuing a supplier payment. These costs are irrelevant from the size of the order and are incurred every time a firm places an order.
The total ordering cost will be equal to ordering cost per order multiply with number of orders.

Delphi method is a structured forecasting technique using a panel of experts and a number of rounds of questioning. Responses are shared after each round and the experts encouraged to recon-sider their own responses. It is intended to achieve a consensus view.
Reference: CIPS study guide 109-111
LO 2, AC 2.3

Economic order quantity (EOQ) model is the method that provides the company with an order quantity. This order quantity figure is where the record holding costs and ordering costs are mini-mized. By using this model, the companies can minimize the costs associated with the ordering and inventory holding. In 1913, Ford W.
Harris developed this formula whereas R. H. Wilson is given credit for the application and in-depth analysis on this model.
If the economic order quantity model is applied, the following assumptions should be met:
- The rate of demand is constant, and total demand is known in advance.
- The ordering cost is constant.
- The unit price of inventory is constant, i.e., no discount is applied depending on order quantity.
- Delivery time is constant.
- Replacement of defective units is instantaneous.
- There is no safety stock level, i.e., the minimum stock level is zero.
- Restocking is made by the whole batch.
Because the demand and lead time are constant, no stockout events can occur.
Reference:
LO 2, AC 2.3

With consignment stocking, the supplier retains ownership until the item is used by the customer. This approach minimizes the customer's holding costs and improves cash flow, as payment is deferred until the item is consumed. It's particularly beneficial in whole-life asset management for inventory flexibility and reduced capital commitment.

Net present value (NPV) is the 'today' net value that deprives from 'future' cash flow of an invest-ment or a capital purchase.
The following formula is used to calculate NPV
Chart Description automatically generated with low confidence

Where:
Rt is the net cash flow (cash inflow - cash outflow) during the period t i is the discount rate t is the number of time periods As you can conclude from the above formula, the net present value increases when the numerators (net cash flows) increase and/or denominators (1+i) decrease. So the correct answer should be "Net cash flow during a time period increases" The purpose of this exercise is to help you identify the factors that influence the net present value and how to increase/decrease NPV in real-world scenario.