Exercise 1: QueueExercise - Fast Food Franchise

A fast-food franchise is considering operating a drive-up window food-service operation.

Assume that customer arrivals follow a Poisson probability distribution, with an arrival
rate of 18 cars per hour, and that service times follow an exponential probability distribu-
tion which is 3 minutes per car. Management wants to know if a second employee
should be added so that one employee fills the order while the second employee re-
ceives the money from the customer. The average service time for this alternative is 2
minutes per car. Determine the answer by computing the following operating character-
istics:

K=1 w/ 2nd employee

Operating Characteristics K= 1 λ = 18/hr μ=60/3=20
λ = 18/hr μ=60/2=30

Probability that there are

18 18
no customer at the fast P0=1− =0.10 P0=1− =0.40
20 30
food?

18 2 18 2
Ave. number of customers Lq= Lq =
20 ( 20−18 ) 30 ( 30−18 )
in the waiting line? ¿ 8.1 customers ¿ 0.90 customers

18 18
Ave. no. of customers in L=8.1+ L=0.9+
20 30
the system? ¿ 9 customers ¿ 1.50 customers

18
Ave. time a customer will 18 W q=
W q= =0.45∨27 minutes 30 ( 30−18 )
spend waiting in line? 20 ( 20−18 )
¿ 0.05∨3 minutes

Ave. time a customer will 1 1

W= W=
spend in the system? 20−18 30−18
¿ 0.50 minutes∨30 minutes ¿ 0.83∨5 minutes

Probability that an arriving

18 18
customer would wait for Pw = =0.90 Pw = =0.60
20 30
service?
 Probability that there are 3
18 3 18 3
cars in the system? Pn=( ) .10 0.0729 Pn=( ) .40=0.0864
20 30

If the goal is to have a customer spend no more than 5 minutes in the system, what
would you recommend to be made available?

 I would recommend the alternative 2 with 2 employees to be made available.

Because it achieves the goal with lower costs as can be seen in the table.

L = Lq + λ / μ

Lq=λ^2/μ(μ-λ)

Pn=[(λ/μ)^n]Po

Wq = Lq/λ

W= Wq + 1/ μ

Pw= λ/μ

Po=1- (λ/μ)

2. The following cost information is available for the fast-food franchise in Prob.1

• Customer waiting time is valued at $25 per hour to reflect the fact that waiting
time is costly to the fast-food business
 K=1

$25 x 0.45 = $11.25

K=1 w/ 2nd employee

$25 x 0.05 = $1.25

• The cost of each employee is $6.50 per hour

K=1

$6.50 x 0.90 = $5.85

K=1 w/ 2nd employee

$6.50 x 0.60 = $3.90

• The account for equipment and space, an additional cost of $20 per hour is at-
tributable to each channel.
What is the lowest cost design for the fast-food business?

TC = (L x Cw)+(Cs x #of emp.)+(Ce&s x k)

K=1

TC = (9 x 11.25) + (5.85 x 1) + (20 x 1) = 127.10

K=1 w/ 2nd employee

TC = (1.5 x 1.25) + (3.9 x 2) + (20 x 1) = 29.68