Introduction to Management Science 12th Edition by Bernard Taylor

Exercise 59

Norfolk, Virginia, a major seaport on the East Coast, has a ship coal-loading facility. Coal trucks filled with coal arrive at the port facility at the mean rate of 149 per day (Poisson distributed). The facility operates 24 hours a day. The coal trucks are unloaded one at a time, on a first-come, firstserved basis, by automated mechanical equipment that empties the trucks in a constant time of 8 minutes per truck, regardless of truck size. The port authority is negotiating with a coal company for an additional 30 trucks per day. However, the coal company will not use this port facility unless the port authority can assure it that its coal trucks will not have to wait to be unloaded at the port facility for more than 12 hours per truck, on average. Can the port authority provide this assurance