Service Management 7th Edition by James Fitzsimmons, Mona Fitzsimmons

Exercise 28

Electronic Car-diagram (ECG), a firm specializing in the diagnosis of automobile engine problems, is planning to open a new service center with two diagnostic bays. Based on the experience at other ECG facilities, it has been found that the diagnostic service time is a uniform distribution between 40 and 60 minutes. Based on its historical experience and the demographics of the new location, ECG believes the average time between customer arrivals will be 60 minutes with a negative exponential distribution. Simulate eight hours (480 minutes) of operations with a two-bay facility, recording the waiting time of customers. ECG expects customers will wait while their cars are being diagnosed and plans to promote an unconditional guarantee that customers who wait more than 60 minutes will receive a gift certificate. From your simulation, how many gift certificates do you expect to give out per day?