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Problem 8.2
Merging the two departments will
a. Decrease the proportion of callers getting a busy signal.
b. Decrease the average flow time experienced by the callers.
Problem 8.3
John Doe has promised a total service time of 20 minutes. The processing time at the oven is 15 minutes
with 2 minutes for preparation. This leaves at most 3 minutes in waiting time before the pizza has to be
given away for free. The average demand is anticipated to be 20 pizzas per hour. Since John plans to get 5
ovens (each with a capacity of 60/15 = 4 pizzas per hour) there is no safety capacity. Any variability in
arrival rate (or service time) will lead to a build up of queues and waiting time in excess of 3 minutes,
resulting in John giving up many free pizzas. Thus the potential partner should either get John to buy
more ovens or get out of the business, or stop giving the service guarantee.
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Hourly wages of CSR = $20 / hour,
Line charge = $5 / hour (for all lines used),
Customer waiting cost = Average number waiting in queue 60$2 = 2.25120 = $270.
Hence, the total hourly cost = $20 + $5 + $270 = $295/hour.
b. With only four lines and one CSR, we have
Average arrival rate Ri = 1/4 per minute,
Service rate capacity of each server 1/Tp = 1/3 per minute,
Number of servers c = 1,
Maximum queue capacity (buffer size) K = 3.
Using the spreadsheet Queue.xls we get
Average waiting time Ti = 3.45 mins,
Average # of customers waiting in queue Ii = 0.77,
Average number of customers in system I = 1.44,
Probability that system is full (probability of blocking) = 0.104.
In this case the costs incurred are the CSR wages, the cost of waiting (line charge + waiting cost for
customers) and the lost business because of blocked calls. We have
Hourly wages of CSR = $20 / hour,
Line charge = $5 / hour,
Customer waiting cost = Average number waiting in queue60$2 = .77120 = $92.4,
Cost of blocking = Calls blocked per hour$100 = Probability that system is full Average arrival
rate$100 = 0.10415$100 = $156.
This implies that
Total hourly cost = $20 + $5 + $92.4 + $156 = $273.4.
c. Upon adding another telephone line, we have
Average arrival rate Ri = 1/4 per minute,
Service rate capacity of each server Rp =1/Tp = 1/3 per minute,
Number of servers c = 1,
Maximum queue capacity (buffer size) K = 4.
Using the Queue.xls spreadsheet we get
Average waiting time Ti = 4.33 mins,
Average # of customers waiting in queue Ii = 1.005,
Average number of customers in system I = 1.70,
Probability that system is full (probability of blocking) = 0.072.
In this case the costs incurred are the wages of the CSR, the cost of waiting (line charge + waiting
cost for customers) and the lost business because of blocked calls. We have
Hourly wages of CSR = $20 / hour,
Line charge (of existing lines) = $5 / hour,
Customer waiting cost = Average number waiting in queue60$2 = 1.005120 = $120.6,
Cost of blocking = Calls blocked per hour$100 = Probability that system is fullAverage arrival
rate$100 = 0.07215$100 = $108.
Excluding the cost of the new line we have
Total cost per hour = $20 + $5 + $120.6 + $108 = $253.6.
As long as the cost of the new line is less than $273.4 (cost with 4 lines) - $253.6 (cost with 3
lines) = $19.8 / hour, it pays to install the new line.
d. Upon adding another server (assuming that the fifth line has been added) we have
Average arrival rate Ri = 1/4 per minute,
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Thus hiring 11 servers achieves a turnaround time of 36.46 minutes on average. This is under the
desired target of 40 minutes. The hourly cost of this system is $1,100.
b. Now consider the case where the service time is reduced to 20 minutes but the cost of the
equipment and radiologist is $150 per hour. In this case:
Average arrival rate Ri = 18 per hour = 0.3 per minute,
Service rate capacity of each server Rp =1/Tp = 3 per hour = 1/20 per minute,
Number of servers c: To be determined,
Cost per server = $150 per hour,
Desired average time in system = 40 minutes.
To plan staffing, we know that we should have a utilization of less than 100%, thus:
76 Chapter 8
Utilization = inflow/capacity = 18/hr/(c*3/hr) < 1 so that c > 6
Increasing the number of servers from 7 upward, we have the following results: (using the
spreadsheet (using the spreadsheet with K=100)
Number of Servers (c)
Avg. Number in System (I) Avg. Time in System (T)
6
Large
Large
7
9.7
32.28
The cost of hiring seven servers = 7150 = $1,050. Thus it is advantageous to lease the more
sophisticated equipment. It reduces the cost and reduces the overall time spent in the system.
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To plan staffing, we know that we should have a utilization of less than 100%, thus:
Utilization = inflow/capacity = 52/hr/(c*20/hr) < 1 so that c > 52/20.
Increasing the number of servers from 3 upward, we have (in the spreadsheet, set buffer capacity
K =100):
Number
of
Servers c
3
4
5
Server cost
per hour
Average Queue
length Ii
Average
waiting time Ti
Total cost
per hour
$60
$80
$100
4.95
0.66
0.16
5.71
0.76
0.19
$297
$39.6
$9.6
$357
$119.6
$109.6
Thus Global should staff with 5 agents. Hiring a sixth agent will raise the agent cost to $120 per hour and
is not worthwhile.
The industry norm of averaging under 3 minutes of waiting can be achieved using only 4 agents.
Arrival
Rate
Service
Time
# of
Servers
Buffer
Capacity
Average
Utilization
Probability
that system
is full
(probability
Average
queue
length
78 Chapter 8
of blocking)
Part
A
B
Ri
Tp
4
4
1
1
5
6
10
9
79.00%
66.50%
Pb
1.25E-02
2.48E-03
II
1.58
0.51