UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, JAMAICA

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

DECISION SCIENCE
TUTORIAL WORKSHEET
QUEUING THEORY: WAITING IN LINE

1. The Reggae Rhythm Electronics Corporation retains a service crew to repair

machine breakdowns that occur on an average of 3 per day (approximately
Poisson in nature). The single-man repair crew can service an average of 8
machines per day, with a repair time distribution that resembles the exponential
distribution.

a. What is the utilization rate for this service?

b. What is the average downtime for a machine that is broken – i.e time from
breakdown to time the machine is fixed?
c. How many machines are waiting to be serviced at any given time?
d. What is the probability that more than one machine is broken and waiting
to be repaired or being serviced? (that is the probability of more than one
machine being in the system)

2. ‘Fridaz Car Wash at the UTech Barn’ estimates that dirty cars arrive at the
rate of 10 per hour all day Friday. With the Hotters’ Girl crew working the
single wash line, it is estimated that cars can be cleaned at the rate of one every
5 minutes. One car at a time is cleaned. Assuming Poisson arrivals and
exponential service times, find the

a. average number of cars in line.

b. average time a car waits before being washed.
c. average time a ca spends in the service system.
d. utilization rate of the car wash.
e. probability that no cars are in the system.

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3. Jucier Foods has just opened a new cafeteria in Papine square just for
university students. This is a self-serve facility in which the students select the
food items they want and then form a single line to pay the cashier. Students
arrive at a rate of about 4 per minute according to a Poisson distribution. The
single cashier ringing up sales takes about 12 seconds per customer, following
an exponential distribution.

a. What is the probability that the system is empty?

b. How long will the average student have to wait before reaching the
cashier?
c. What is the expected number of students in the queue?
d. What is the average number in the system?

4. TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agents at the Tri-Cities

Regional Airport located in Tennessee, USA can check passengers and
process them through the security gate at a rate of 50 per hour (Poisson
distributed). Passengers arrive at the gate throughout the day at a rate of
40 per hour (Poisson distributed).
Determine the average waiting time and the average number of persons
waiting in line.

5. Black Beard’s Barber Shop has one barber. Customers arrive at the rate of
2.2 customers per hour, and haircuts are given at the average rate of 1 per
20 minutes. Use the Poisson arrivals and exponential service times model
to answer the following questions.
a. What is the probability that no units are in the system?
b. What is the probability that 1 customer is receiving a haircut and no
one is waiting?
c. What is the probability that 1 customer is receiving a haircut and 1
customer is waiting?
d. What is the probability that 1 customer is receiving a haircut and 2
customers are waiting?
e. What is the probability that more than 2 customers are waiting?
f. What is the average time a customer waits for service?

6. Avid Interior Design provides home and office decorating assistance to

its customers. In normal operation, an average of 2.5 customers arrive
each hour. One design consultant is available to answer customer
questions and make product recommendations. The consultant can deal
with 3 customers per hour.

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 a. Compute the operating characteristics of the customer waiting line,
assuming Poisson arrivals and exponential service times.

Given customers’ expectations, the store’s manager believes it unacceptable for

a customer to wait for as much time as they currently do both in the line and in
the queue system (this does not include time spent shopping).
The manager wants to test an alternative for reducing customer waiting time,
that is, he wants to add another employee to do background research work.
The addition on an extra employee will cost the store manager $150 per week.
With the help of SOBA’s Marketing research group, the manager has
determined that for each minute that average customer waiting time is reduced,
the store avoids a loss in sales of $75 per week and a new service rate of 40
customers per hour.

b) Determine the NEW average time in the waiting line per customer.

c) How many MINUTES have been saved on the original time from part (a)?

d) Evaluate how much the NET dollar savings for the week will be for Fast

Shop Store.

7. Cars arrive at the drive-through teller at National Quick Service Bank Ltd at
the rate of 4 every 10 minutes. The average service time is 2 minutes. The
Poisson distribution is appropriate for the arrival rate and service times are
exponentially distributed.

a. What is the average time a car is in the system?

b. What is the average number of cars in the system?
c. What is the average time cars spend waiting to receive service?
d. What is the average number of cars in line BEHIND the customer
receiving service?
e. What is the probability that there are no cars at the teller window?
f. What is the percentage of time the teller is busy?
g. What is the probability that there are exactly 2 cars in the system?

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8. McBurger’s fast-food restaurant has a drive through window with a single
server who takes orders from an intercom and also is the cashier. The window
operator is assisted other employees who prepare the orders. Customer arrives
at the ordering station prior to the drive though window every 4.5 minutes
(Poisson distributed), and service time is 2.8 minutes (exponentially distributed).

a. Determine the average length of the waiting line and the waiting time.
b. Discuss the quality of the service.

9. A popular bank in Ligunea has one outside drive-up teller. It takes the teller
an average of 4 minutes to serve a bank customer. Customers arrive at the
drive-up window at a rate of 12 per hour. The bank operations officer is
currently analyzing the possibility of adding a second drive-up window, at an
annual cost of $20,000. It is assumed that arriving cars would be equally
divided between windows. The operations officer estimates that each minute’s
reduction in customer waiting time would increase the bank’s revenue by $2000
annually. Should the second drive-up window be installed?

10. The Peachtree Airport in Atlanta serves light aircraft. It has a single runway
and one air traffic controller to land planes. It takes an airplane 12 minutes to
land and clear the runway. Planes arrive at the airport at the rate of four per
hour.

a. Determine the average number of planes that will stack-up, waiting to land.

b. Find the average time a plane must wait in line before it can land.

c. Calculate the average time it takes a plane to clear the runway once it has notified the
airport that it is in the vicinity and wants to land.

d. The FAA (Flight Aviation Authority) has a rule that an air traffic controller can, on
average, land planes a maximum of 45 minutes out of every hour. There must be 15
minutes of idle time available to relieve the tension.
Will this airport have to hire an extra air traffic controller?

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