Exam 22: Waiting Lines

In a waiting-line problem,increasing advertising expenditures,increasing the number of promotions,or changing the price of a service is most likely to affect

Create a table that lists any three performance measures for a service system in the left column.In the center column,indicate what steps management can take to improve system performance on those metrics.In the rightmost column indicate what steps management can take to improve customers' perceptions of performance on those metrics.

Which of the following is LEAST likely to benefit from waiting line analysis?

Management,servers,and customers would all be happy if,in a single-server situation,the parameter ? is much greater than $\lambda$

What are priority rules? Provide examples and indicate why a manager would choose to adopt one over another.

Customers arrive at the one remaining full-service gas station in the country at the rate of 45 per minute and are served by the first available of three pump jockeys who can dole out gas and check oil at the rate of 20 customers per minute. Both service and interarrival times are governed by the exponential distribution. The probability that no pump jockey is busy is 0.0748. -Use the information in Scenario C.3.What is the average time a customer spends in the system?

Long lines always mean long waiting times.

Operations time refers to a time to complete a subset of activities at a workstation.

Customers arrive at a ticket counter at the rate of 50 customers per hour, according to a Poisson distribution. There are three ticket agents. Customers select the first available agent from one line. Each agent can process 20 customers per hour with exponential service times. -Use the information in Scenario C.4.What is the average number of customers waiting in line for service?

Waiting Line specifically refers one customer or item waiting for service.

Customers are serviced at a rate of four customers per hour according to an exponential distribution.What is the probability that customer service will require fewer than 30 minutes?

Weary travelers arrive at Will Rogers International Airport, pick up their luggage, stumble to their cars, and proceed to the parking lot attendant to pay for their parking. Traveler interarrival times are exponentially distributed, as are the service times of the attendant. On average, travelers arrive every 25 seconds. The attendant can process three travelers per minute. -Use the information in Scenario C.2.What is the average time a customer spends in line?

A harvesting crew that follows the wheat harvest has six combines,each requiring service at an average rate of once every 40 hours,according to an exponential distribution.The firm has a mechanic who needs four hours to complete the average repair with exponential service times. a.What is the average utilization of the mechanic? b.What is the average number of combines in the system? c.What is the average number of combines in line? d.What is the average time spent being repaired and waiting? e.What is the average time spent in line waiting for repair?

Customers arrive according to a Poisson distribution.The average number of customer arrivals per hour is two.The probability that five customers will arrive in the next three hours is

The distinction between an infinite customer population and a finite customer population is

With a single-server model,increasing the arrival rate by 10 percent and also increasing the service rate by 10 percent will result in

A professor sits in his plush office and patiently answers questions from his students the afternoon before the final exam.His class is a mass lecture of 350 students,so he keeps socialization to a minimum and concentrates on providing explanations as quickly as possible.On average,he can answer 60 questions an hour and students arrive at his office every five minutes.Student arrivals are Poisson distributed,each student has only one question and answer times are exponentially distributed. a.What fraction of his time is the professor spending answering questions? b.What is the average number of students waiting outside his office? c.What is the average time a student spends in line outside the professor's office?

An operations manager organizes a process improvement team and the resulting process has a lower ?.Which statement is the best description of this change?

A homemade-ice cream shop owner has noticed that,often,potential customers will stop outside the store,assess the wait in line,and then pass by.The shop has a(n)

With a multiple-server model,increasing the arrival rate by 10 percent and also increasing the service rate of each server by 10 percent will result in