Exam 17: Waiting Lines

Scenario B.4 Customers arrive at an airline 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 B.4.What is the average number of customers waiting in line for service?

Scenario B.2 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,and processing rates follow a Poisson distribution. -Use the information in Scenario B.2.What is the average time a customer spends in line?

A bank lobby with six teller windows,each with a separate line,is an example of a:

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

Scenario B.6 The Jackson Machine Company has four cutting tools that need to be refurbished after an average of 30 hours,according to an exponential distribution.The single machine that refurbishes the tools needs 15 hours for each tool on the average,with exponential service times. -Use the information in Scenario B.6.What is the average utilization of the refurbishing machine?

The delivery wagon that the hominy man had used for the last three decades was beyond repair,so he decided to open a hominy stand at a busy intersection in downtown Luther.Customers arrive at the rate of 8 per hour and it takes 5 minutes on average to fill their buckets with hominy. a.What is the likelihood that the line is longer than three people? b.What is the average waiting time in line? c.What is the average number of customers in line?

Scenario B.2 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,and processing rates follow a Poisson distribution. -Use the information in Scenario B.2.What is the probability that a traveler will pull up to the attendant's service window without having to wait for another customer?

What is Little's Law? How might it be applied to determine the average length of time it takes an MBA student to complete the program?

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.

Customers arrive and wait in one line single file as their documents are checked.Then they load their carry-on items on the conveyor belt for inspection.Finally,they walk through a metal detector before retrieving their carry-on items and proceeding to their departure gate.This facility is ________ channel,________ phase.

How many theater patrons are waiting on their favorite octogenarian usher in Scenario B.1?

Scenario B.6 The Jackson Machine Company has four cutting tools that need to be refurbished after an average of 30 hours,according to an exponential distribution.The single machine that refurbishes the tools needs 15 hours for each tool on the average,with exponential service times. -Use the information in Scenario B.6.What is the average waiting time of tools in line?

How many theater patrons from Scenario B.1 are either waiting in line to be seated or being seated by the volunteer octogenarian usher?

Twelve customers arrive at the lunch counter at George's Happy Hog per hour and select the hickory smoked meat du jour along with a side and soda for $5.The server doubles as the cashier and can take and fill an order in three minutes on average.What is the likelihood that there is one person being served and no one in line at the George's Happy Hog if the times can be assumed as exponentially distributed?

Scenario B.4 Customers arrive at an airline 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 B.4.What is the average time spent in the system?

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(n):

A professor's teaching assistants sit in their communal office and answer questions from students the afternoon before the final exam.The class is a mass lecture of 350 students,and the teaching assistants have final exams of their own,so they concentrate on providing explanations as quickly as possible.On average,the three teaching assistants can answer 30 questions an hour and students arrive at their 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 their time do the teaching assistants spend answering questions? b.What is the average number of students waiting outside their office? c.What is the average time a student spends in line outside the teaching assistants' office and having their question answered?

What are the assumptions of the exponential distribution applied to the single server queuing situation? Provide examples of when these assumptions might be violated.

A movie complex experiences its peak ticket sales in the early evening when several movies have about the same start times.The ticket booth can process customers buying tickets at a maximum rate of 45 seconds each (or 80 tickets sold per hour).You arrive to buy your ticket and count 16 people in line ahead of you.How long can you expect to wait in line before getting to the booth to buy your ticket?

A customer support call center grades their employees on how quickly they resolve customer problems (average call time)and how many times the customer request escalates to the point that a supervisor must be summoned to resolve the dispute.What might an employee do to perform well on these metrics without actually providing good customer service? What could management do to prevent such behaviors?