Introduction to Management Science 12th Edition by Bernard Taylor

Exercise 21

Amanda Fall is starting up a new house painting business, Fall Colors. She has been advertising in the local newspaper for several months. Based on inquiries and informal surveys of the local housing market, she anticipates that she will get painting jobs at the rate of 4 per week (Poisson distributed). Amanda has also determined that it will take a four-person team of painters an average of 0.7 week (exponentially distributed) for a typical painting job.
a. Determine the number of teams of painters Amanda needs to hire so that customers will have to wait no longer than 2 weeks to get their houses painted.
b. If the average price for a painting job is $1,700 and Amanda pays a team of painters $500 per week, will she make any money