CIPS Level 6 Professional Diploma study plan
CIPS Level 6 Professional Diploma · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Strategic Supply Chain Management
Map the full scope of strategic supply chain management onto a one-page concept diagram, showing how supply chain strategy links to corporate strategy, competitive priorities and the value proposition.
Explain in writing how the three levels of strategy (corporate, business, functional) cascade into procurement and supply decisions, using one real organisation you can describe from public information.
Compare at least four supply chain structural models (lean, agile, leagile, resilient) and state the demand and supply conditions under which each is appropriate.
Analyse how postponement, modularity and mass customisation shift the decoupling point and what that implies for sourcing decisions.
Your checkpoint
A 1,000-word strategy briefing that cascades corporate strategy into a procurement strategy for one named organisation, with a supporting diagram and a reference list.
Strategic Supply Chain Management
Evaluate the bullwhip effect: identify its causes, quantify the amplification in a worked example, and propose countermeasures a buyer can influence through contracts and information sharing.
Assess supply chain risk and vulnerability using a structured framework, distinguishing disruption, operational, reputational and financial risk categories.
Design a supplier-facing resilience plan covering visibility, redundancy, dual sourcing and inventory buffering, and justify the cost trade-offs.
Interpret the purpose and limits of supply chain performance measurement, and construct a balanced set of KPIs that avoids sub-optimisation.
Your checkpoint
A risk register of at least ten supply chain risks scored on likelihood and impact, each with a mitigation action and an owner, plus a one-page KPI dashboard design.
Strategic Procurement and Contract Management
Distinguish strategic, tactical and operational procurement and justify where each category of spend should be managed.
Construct a contract management plan for a high-value contract, covering performance monitoring, change control, payment, dispute escalation and exit.
Compare contract types (fixed price, cost reimbursable, target cost, framework) and select the appropriate type for three contrasting requirement scenarios.
Explain the principal–agent problem and design incentive mechanisms that align supplier behaviour with buyer outcomes.
Identify the legal and commercial levers available when a supplier underperforms, and sequence them from informal remedy to termination.
Your checkpoint
A complete contract management plan for one high-value, multi-year contract, including a governance calendar, a KPI and remedy schedule, and a change control procedure.
Strategic Procurement and Contract Management
Build a negotiation plan for a complex procurement, setting objectives, walk-away positions, tradeables and concession strategy.
Apply cost breakdown analysis to challenge a supplier's price build-up and identify cost reduction opportunities.
Evaluate supplier relationship management models and place a set of named suppliers into appropriate relationship segments with differentiated treatment.
Prepare a dispute resolution pathway that reflects the applicable legal framework and the commercial relationship.
Your checkpoint
A negotiation pack for one live or simulated procurement: cost breakdown analysis, issue and tradeable matrix, target and walk-away positions, and a concession plan.
Strategic Sourcing and Category Management
Segment an organisation's spend using a recognised portfolio matrix and justify the sourcing strategy for each segment.
Conduct a category analysis for one category, covering spend profile, supply market structure, demand drivers and internal stakeholder requirements.
Construct a category strategy that sets out sourcing options, evaluation criteria, contract strategy and implementation roadmap.
Evaluate sourcing routes (open tender, restricted tender, framework, negotiated, electronic auction) against transparency, speed, risk and value criteria.
Design a supplier evaluation model with weighted criteria, scoring rules and evidence requirements that withstands challenge.
Your checkpoint
A full category strategy document for one real or realistic category, including spend analysis, market analysis, sourcing recommendation and a 12-month implementation roadmap.
Strategic Sourcing and Category Management & Leadership and Management in Procurement and Supply
Draft a sourcing evaluation model with weighted criteria and test it against three supplier profiles to confirm it discriminates fairly.
Analyse stakeholder power and interest for a category project and plan an engagement approach for each group.
Explain how to lead a cross-functional sourcing team, including role clarity, decision rights and conflict handling.
Assess your own leadership style against at least two recognised models and identify development actions relevant to procurement leadership.
Your checkpoint
A stakeholder engagement and team leadership plan for the week 5 category, with a RACI matrix, an evaluation model with test scoring, and a personal leadership development note.
Leadership and Management in Procurement and Supply & Professional Practice, Ethics and Governance
Build a business case for a procurement initiative that quantifies benefits, costs, risks and non-financial value, and defends it against challenge.
Evaluate ethical risks in a supply chain scenario using a recognised decision framework, and set out the actions a procurement leader should take.
Design a governance structure that separates accountability for spend, contract performance and risk, including delegated authority limits.
Explain how codes of conduct, supplier due diligence and whistleblowing mechanisms combine to deter misconduct, and identify their weaknesses.
Analyse how legislation and regulation on bribery, modern slavery, sanctions and data protection affect procurement practice.
Your checkpoint
A governance and ethics pack: a one-page business case, a delegated authority schedule, a supplier due diligence checklist and a written analysis of one ethical dilemma with a justified recommended course of action.
Strategic Supply Chain Management & Strategic Procurement and Contract Management & Strategic Sourcing and Category Management & Leadership and Management in Procurement and Supply & Professional Practice, Ethics and Governance
Synthesise all five domains into an integrated view, showing how a sourcing decision propagates into contract, supply chain, leadership and governance consequences.
Complete timed practice under exam conditions for each domain and mark against the assessment criteria rather than against model answers.
Diagnose your three weakest syllabus areas from practice results and close each gap with targeted revision and note-making.
Rehearse structured written answers that open with a definition, apply a framework, use an example and close with an evaluative judgement.
Consolidate a one-page memory sheet per domain covering frameworks, models and evaluative phrases.
Your checkpoint
A complete timed mock paper across all five domains, self-marked with a gap analysis and a prioritised final-week revision schedule.
Milestones
Week 2: You can explain, without notes, how corporate strategy cascades into a sourcing decision and can name the countermeasures that dampen the bullwhip effect.
Week 4: You have produced both a contract management plan and a negotiation pack, and can justify a contract type choice for three different requirement scenarios.
Week 6: You have a defensible category strategy with a tested evaluation model, and you can articulate how you would lead the cross-functional team delivering it.
Week 7: You can state the delegated authority limits in your governance design and analyse an ethical dilemma using a named framework, reaching a justified recommendation.
Week 8: Mock paper completed under timed conditions with every domain scored, and no more than two syllabus areas remaining without a written revision summary.