SECTION B

Case study

$\text{'}$It is a real problem for us$\text{'},$ said Adelina, $\text{'}$We now have only ten working days between all the

expense claims coming from the departmental coordinators and authorizing payments on the next

month's payroll. This really is not long enough and we are already having problems during peak

times'. Adelina was the department head of the internal financial control department of a

metropolitan authority in southern Sweden. Part of her department's responsibilities included

checking and processing expense claims from staff throughout the metropolitan authority and

authorizing payment to the salaries payroll section.

She had $12$ staff who were trained to check expense claims and all of them were devoted full$-$time

to processing the claims in the two weeks $(10$ working days$)$ prior to the deadline for informing

the salaries section. The number of claims submitted over the year averaged around $3,200,$ but this

could vary between $1,000$ during the quiet summer months up to $4,300$ in peak months. Processing

claims involved checking receipts, checking that claims met with the strict financial allowances

for different types of expenditure, checking all calculations, obtaining more data from the claimant

if necessary, and $($eventually$)$ sending an approval notification to salaries. The total processing

time took on average $20$ minutes per claim.

QUESTIONS

The questions below relate to the case study and should be answered in the context of the

information provided.

QUESTIONS $(30$ Marks$)$

How many staff does the process need on average, for the lowest demand, and for the highest

demand? $(10$ Marks$)$

If a more automated process involving electronic submission of claims could reduce the average

processing time to $15$ minutes, what effect would this have on the required staffing levels? $(10$

Marks$)$

If department coordinators could be persuaded to submit their batched claims earlier $($not always

possible for all departments$)$ so that the average time between submission of the claims to the