HOME ASSIGNMENT 4

Model 1

1. The men’s department of a large store employs one tailor for customer fittings. The number
of customers requiring fittings appears to follow a Poisson distribution with mean arrival rate
24 per hour. Customers are fitted on a first-come, first served basis, and they are always willing
to wait for the tailors service, because alternations are free. The time it takes to fit a customer
appears to be exponentially distributed, with a mean of 2 min.

i) What is the average number of customers in the fitting room?

ii) How much time a customer is expected to spend in the fitting room?
iii) What percentage of the time is the tailor idle?

2. A firm is engaged in both shipping and receiving activities. The management is always
interested in improving the efficiency by new innovations in loading and unloading
procedures. The arrival distribution of trucks is found to be Poission with arrival rate of
two trucks per hour. The service time distribution is exponential with unloading rate of
three trucks per hour. Find the following :
a) Average no. of trucks in waiting line.
b) Average waiting time of trucks in line.
c) The probability that the loading and unloading dock and workers will be idle.

3.Customers arrive to a haircut salon according to a Poisson process with a mean arrival rate
of 5/hr. Because of the reputation of the salon, customers were always willing to wait.
Customer processing time was exponentially distributed with an average of 10 min. Answer
the following questions
i) Average no. of customers in the shop and average no. of customers waiting for haircut.
ii) How much time customers spend waiting in the queue?

4.List out the performance measures of M/M/1/N/FCFS in Queuing model.

5.Classify the states of following Markov chains.

0 1 0
a) (0 0 1)
1 0 0
1 1 1
0
2 4 4

b) 0 0 1 0
1 1 1
0
3 3 3
(0 0 0 1)
5.A maintenance service facility has Poisson arrival rates, negative exponential service times,
and operates on a first-come first-served queue discipline. Breakdowns occur on an average of
three per day with a range of zero to eight. The maintenance crew can service on an average
six machines per day with a range from zero to service. Find the
i) utilization factor of the service facility,
ii) mean time in the system,
iii) mean number in the system in Break down or repair,
iv) mean waiting time in the queue,
v) probability of finding two machines in the system.
vi) expected number in the queue.

6. A bank has one drive-in-counter. It is estimated that cars arrive according to Poisson
distribution at the rate of 2 for every 5 minutes and that there is enough space to
accommodate a line of 10 cars. Other arriving cars can wait outside this space, if necessary.
It takes 1.5 minutes on an average to serve a customer, but the service time actually varies
according to an exponential distribution. You are required to find:
i) the proportion of time the facility remains idle;
ii) the expected number of customers waiting but currently not being served at a
particular point of time;
iii) The expected time a customer spends in the system and,
iv) The probability that the waiting line will exceed the capacity of the space leading to
the drive-in counter.

7. A stenographer has 5 persons for whom she performs stenographic work. Arrival rate is
Poisson and service times are exponential. Average arrival rate is 4 per hour with an average
service time of 10 minutes. Cost of waiting is Rs. 8 per hour while the cost of servicing is Rs.
2.50 each. Calculate:
i)The average waiting time of an arrival

ii) The average length of the waiting line,

ii) The average time which an arrival spends in the system

Model 3:

8. A railway goods traffic section has 4 claims Assistants. Customers with claims against the
railway are observed to arrive in a Poisson fashion at an average rate of 24 per 8 hour day for
6 days. The amount of time the claims Assistant spends with the claimant is found to have an
exponential distribution with a mean service time of 40 min. Service is given in the order of
appearance of the customers.
(i). How many hours/week can a claims Assistant expect to serve the claimant?
(ii). How much time does a claimant on the average spend in the goods traffic office.
9. A general insurance company has three claims adjusters in its branch office. People with
claims against the company are found to arrive in Poisson fashion, at an average rate of 20 per-
8hour day. The amount of time that an adjuster spends with a claimant is found to have a
negative exponential distribution, with mean service time 40 minutes. Claimants are processed
in the order of their appearance.
(a). Obtain the number of hours a week can adjuster expect to spend with claimants?
(b). Obtain the required time, on an average, does a claimant spend in the branch office.

10. A petrol pump has two pumps. The service time follows the exponential distribution with
a mean of 4 minutes and cars arrive for service in a Poisson process at the rate of ten cars per
hour. Obtain the probability that a customer has to wait for service. Determine the proportion
of time the pumps remain idle?

Stochastic process
11. An engineering professor acquires a new computer once every two years. The Professor
can choose from three models: M1, M2 and M3. If the present model is M1, the next computer
can be M2 with probability 0.2 or M3 with probability 0.15. If the present model is M2, the
probabilities of switching to M1 and M3 are 0.6 and 0.25 respectively. And if the present model
is M3, then the probabilities of purchasing M1 and M2 are 0.5 and 0.1 respectively. Represent
the situation as a Markov chain.

12. Customers tend to exhibit loyalty to product brands but may be persuaded through clever
marketing and advertising to switch brands. Consider the case of three brands: A, B and C.
Customer “unyielding” loyalty to a given brand is estimated at 75%, giving the competitors
only a 25% margin to realize a switch. Competitors launch their advertising campaigns once a
year. For brand A customers, the probabilities of switching to brands B and C are 0.1 and 0.15
respectively. Customers of Brand B are likely to switch to A and C with probabilities 0.2 and
0.05 respectively. Brand C customers can switch to brands A and B with equal probabilities.
Express the situation as a Markov chain
In the long run, determine the market share for each brand?