Deck 5: Service Design

Question 1

It is widely accepted that the effective design and the efficient operation of services are paramount to the health of the U.S. and Canadian economies.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

In general, services are acts, deeds, or performances that provide a customer time, place, form, or psychological utility.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

When designing a service, performance specifications are converted into design specifications, and finally, delivery specifications.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The mixture of physical items, sensual benefits, and psychological benefits provided to a customer with a service is known as the service package.

Question 5

The negative exponential distribution is the probability distribution most commonly used to describe service times.

Question 6

The service concept defines how a service differs from other similar products and how it will compete in the marketplace.

Question 7

Relate numerous statistics that demonstrate the predominance of services in the Canadian and the global economy.

Question 8

Service processes can be classified by the degree of labour intensity and customization.

Question 9

Define services and their characteristics such that they are distinguishable from manufacturing. Services represent the fastest growing sector of the global economy and account for over 60% of global output and 45% of global employment. In Canada, services account for 76% of the labour force and 72% of GDP. The world's most industrialized nations are predominantly service economies.

Question 10

Explain the key aspects of the service design process and describe how they are affected by varying degrees of customer/service provider contact.

Question 11

Service design and improvement techniques cannot be applied to societal problems, such as education, health care, and government services.

Question 12

Describe several tools used for service design including blueprinting and servicescapes.

Question 13

The mixture of physical items, sensual benefits, and psychological benefits provided to a customer with a service is known as quality function deployment.

Question 14

The service-process matrix is based on two characteristics: labour intensity and volume.

Question 15

A service package defines the target market and the desired customer experience.

Question 16

In general, a service and its delivery system are inseparable.

Question 17

Service companies are centralized and geographically concentrated.

Question 18

The service sector accounts for over 70 percent of the employment in both the United States and Canada.

Question 19

Almost all consumer products consist of some combination of facilitating both goods and services.

Question 20

Use waiting line analysis to improve service.

Question 21

Waiting lines form because customers arrival times and service times are not always equal.

Question 22

The constant average values of operating characteristics that a system attains after a long time is referred to as a steady state.

Question 23

A single-server waiting line model can be applied to every type of waiting line system.

Question 24

Waiting lines form only when service operations are understaffed.

Question 25

The trade-off between the cost of improved service and the cost of making customers wait provides the basis of waiting line analysis.

Question 26

Waiting line analysis should be applied only to situations with an infinite calling population.

Question 27

Channels refer to the number of parallel servers in a waiting line system.

Question 28

The number of arrivals per unit time to a service facility is often described by a Poisson distribution.

Question 29

Mathematical formulas used in waiting line analysis provide only optimal solutions.

Question 30

If the average service rate is smaller than the average arrival rate, an infinitely large waiting line (queue) will form.

Question 31

Balking occurs when a customer waiting in a line moves from one line to another because he believes it is moving faster.

Question 32

Service quality in waiting line systems sometimes depends on the psychology of waiting.

Question 33

If service times are exponentially distributed then service rates are normally distributed.

Question 34

The number of parallel servers in waiting line analysis is referred to as the number of phases.

Question 35

As the level of service improves in a waiting line system, the cost of service usually increases.

Question 36

A waiting line system is said to have a finite calling population if the size of the population of customers from which arrivals originate is known.

Question 37

One of the basic assumptions for the single server model is that the calling population is finite.

Question 38

Queue discipline specifies the order in which waiting customers are served.

Question 39

Which of the following is a major societal problem that depends on complex customer-focused processes that can benefit significantly from an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to its study and analysis?

A) education.
B) health care.
C) disaster relief.
D) all of the above.

Question 40

The calling population is the source of customers used in waiting line analysis.

Question 41

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the rate of 20 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a mean service time of 2 minutes per customer. What is the service rate per hour for the espresso stand?

A) 30 customers
B) 20 customers
C) 15 customers
D) 2 customers

Question 42

An airline is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional services.

Question 43

If the average time to serve a customer is 3 minutes, then the service rate, µ, is ___.

A) 3 per hour
B) 12 per hour
C) 16 per hour
D) 20 per hour

Question 44

The number of channels in a queuing process

A) denotes the number of servers in sequence a customer must go through.
B) denotes the size of the calling population.
C) denotes the number of parallel servers for servicing customers.
D) denotes the average queue length.

Question 45

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that the server is busy and a customer will have to wait is

A) 0.20.
B) 0.60.
C) 0.80.
D) 1.00.

Question 46

A grocery store is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional services.

Question 47

A dentist office is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional services.

Question 48

The ___ refers to the order in which waiting customers are served.

A) calling population
B) queue discipline
C) number of channels
D) service rate

Question 49

A teacher is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional services.

Question 50

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a service?

A) tangible
B) variable output
C) easy to emulate
D) perishable

Question 51

In general, as the number of servers in a waiting line system increases

A) service cost increases and waiting cost decreases.
B) service cost decreases and waiting cost increases.
C) both service cost and waiting cost increase.
D) both service cost and waiting cost decrease.

Question 52

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a service?

A) centralized
B) geographically dispersed
C) consumed more often than products
D) service and service delivery are inseparable

Question 53

The service-process matrix is based on the following two characteristics

A) degree of customization and labour intensity.
B) design specifications and delivery specifications.
C) performance specifications and degree of customization.
D) labour intensity and delivery specifications.

Question 54

The ___ is the source of customers for a waiting line system.

A) calling population
B) arrival rate
C) service line channel
D) service line phase

Question 55

Which of the following in not a basic element of a waiting line?

A) arrivals
B) servers
C) cost of waiting
D) waiting line structure

Question 56

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a service?

A) intangible
B) variable output
C) difficult to emulate
D) perishable

Question 57

If, on average, it takes 90 seconds to serve a customer, then the hourly service rate, µ, is ___.

A) 90 per hour
B) 40 per hour
C) 30 per hour
D) 1.5 per hour

Question 58

A service blueprint contains which of the following elements

A) influence and physical evidence.
B) customer actions.
C) support processes.
D) all of the above.

Question 59

In a waiting line system, the ___ reflects the probability that the server is busy and the customer must wait.

A) utilization factor
B) queue discipline
C) average number of customers in the system
D) probability the system is idle

Question 60

The number of arrivals per unit of time at a service facility can frequently be described by a

A) normal distribution.
B) Poisson distribution.
C) binomial distribution.
D) beta distribution.

Question 61

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that there are more than 2 customers in the system is

A) 0.128.
B) 0.488.
C) 0.512.
D) 0.640.

Question 62

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per minute. If the arrival rate remains at 28 customers per hour and the stand's manager wants to have the average time a customer spends in the system (i.e., wait line time and service time) to be a maximum of 6 minutes on average, then the service rate must

A) decrease by 2 to 33 customers per hour.
B) decrease by 3 to 32 customers per hour.
C) increase by 3 to 38 customers per hour.
D) increase by 2 to 37 customers per hour.

Question 63

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the probability that the diner is full and an arriving customer does not enter?

A) 0.8333
B) 0.1667
C) 0.2067
D) 0.0481

Question 64

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average time a customer spends in the diner?

A) 3 minutes
B) 5.975 minutes
C) 6.44 minutes
D) 8.94 minutes

Question 65

A service counter employs two servers. On average a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The average amount of time, in minutes, spent in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) is approximately

A) 0.237 minutes.
B) 14.22 minutes.
C) 22.20 minutes.
D) 33.30 minutes.

Question 66

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The average time in minutes a customer spends waiting in line for service is

A) 0.114 minute.
B) 0.143 minute.
C) 6.84 minutes.
D) 8.58 minutes.

Question 67

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average number of customers waiting (average queue length)?

A) 2.0420
B) 2.8364
C) 3.9785
D) 5.9782

Question 68

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The average number of customers waiting in line for service is

A) 4.0.
B) 3.8.
C) 3.5.
D) 3.2.

Question 69

A service counter employs two servers. On average a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. On average, the total number of customers in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) would be

A) 1.600.
B) 2.844.
C) 3.200.
D) 4.444.

Question 70

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average time a customer spends waiting?

A) 2.5 minutes
B) 3.0 minutes
C) 6.44 minutes
D) 24 minutes

Question 71

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the probability that there are no customers in the diner?

A) 0.2068
B) 0.7933
C) 0.8333
D) 0.1667

Question 72

A service counter employs two servers. On average a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The probability that there are no customers in the system is

A) 0.800.
B) 0.536.
C) 0.369.
D) 0.111.

Question 73

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per minute. The average time in minutes a customer spends in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) is

A) 0.114 minute.
B) 0.143 minute.
C) 6.84 minutes.
D) 8.58 minutes.

Question 74

A service counter employs two servers. On average a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The probability that an arriving customer must wait for service is

A) 0.7111.
B) 0.8000.
C) 0.8576.
D) 0.9327.

Question 75

A service counter employs two servers. On average a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The service rate per server for this system is

A) 3.75 customers per hour.
B) 7.75 customers per hour.
C) 8 customers per hour.
D) 16 customers per hour.

Question 76

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that the server is idle and a customer may be served is

A) 0.20.
B) 0.60.
C) 0.80.
D) 1.00.

Question 77

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average number of customers in the diner?

A) 2.0432
B) 2.8352
C) 3.7536
D) 5.4837

Question 78

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The average number of customers in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) is

A) 4.0.
B) 3.8.
C) 3.2.
D) 2.0.

Question 79

A service counter employs two servers. On average a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The average number of customers waiting to be served would be

A) 4.444.
B) 2.844.
C) 1.600.
D) 0.893.

Question 80

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that there are exactly 3 customers in the system is

A) 0.0000.
B) 0.1024.
C) 0.4096.
D) 0.5120.