Auditing & Assurance Services 6th Edition by Timothy Louwers

Exercise 46

Operational Auditing. Bigdeal Corporation manufactures paper and paper products and is trying to decide whether to purchase Smalltek Company. Smalltek has developed a process for manufacturing boxes that can replace containers that use fluorocarbons for expelling a liquid product. The price may be as high as $45 million. Bigdeal prefers to buy Smalltek and integrate its products while leaving the Smalltek management in charge of day-to-day operations. A major consideration is the efficiency and effectiveness of Smalltek's operations. Bigdeal wants to obtain a report on the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the Smalltek sales, production, and research and development departments.
Required:
Who can Bigdeal engage to produce the report resulting from this operational audit? Several possibilities exist. Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages in choosing from among them?