Public accounting firms are sometimes called on to perform operational audits, where the operational effectiveness and efficiency of some process of an organization is studied. Consider the following independent situations where a public accounting firm might be asked to perform an operational audit.

a. A not-for-profit agency wants to gain more productivity from its telemarketers.

b. A large automobile service operation wants to improve its customer service by improving turnaround times on repairs and by formalizing its customer contact procedures and protocols.

c. A regional snack food firm wants to improve the efficiency of its rack jobbers, who stock the shelves of thousands of small convenience and grocery stores, but without increasing the number of times that stock is unavailable to consumers.

d. A large automotive manufacturer wants to decrease the number of people who perform the accounts payable function from 50 to 15 but without compromising control or missing purchase discounts.

e. An insurance company wants to decrease the average time it takes to underwrite an application for life insurance from 30 days to 15 days without adding staff.

f. In an attempt to gain market share, a fast-food restaurant chain wants to improve the time it takes to serve an average customer.

g. The athletic association of a major university wants to improve the efficiency of its ticket operations both to save money and to decrease the incidence of alumni complaints.

h. The police department of a major metropolitan area wants to decrease the resources it dedicates to procedures for recording arrests and to improve the accessibility of information on open investigations to officers in the field.

For each of the preceding, 

(1) discuss which procedures the public accountant might perform 

(2) discuss whether there are more appropriate benchmarks available (for example, existing standards or standards issued by peer organizations).