what is performance audit? how can it be undertaken in any department? is it differnt from SWOT analysis?

Answer 1

A performance audit has to do with adherence to the performance metrics that were set up for each fucntion or department (# calls answered per hour, # units produced, quality yields, etc.) Usually a performance standard is established ("the call center should process 50 calls per hour") and an audit is conducted to compare the performance to go ("the call center currently handles an average of 53 calls per hour")

A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis is often part of a company's strategic plan and looks at a company's strengths (high quality, broad customer base), weaknesss (no presence in Asia market), opportunities (successful bid to customer A could result in 48% gross margin) and threats (competitor B is well-positioned to take customer A away.) It has more to do with the company's overall performance as compared to competition, although it is not unheard of for a SWOT analysis to be performed at a departmental level - what strengths, weaknesses, etc. does the manufacturing group have?