As an example of the single-server model with undefined service times, consider a business firm with a

single photocopy machine. Employees arrive randomly to use the machine, at an average rate of 10 per
hour, according to a Poisson distribution. The time an employee spends using the machine is not defined
by any probability distribution but has a mean of 4 minutes and a standard deviation of 3 minutes.

Determine the average waiting time in the system.

Group of answer choices

14.26 min

12.50

16.42

10.25 min

To determine the average waiting time in the system, we can use Little’s Law, which states that the
average number of customers in a system is equal to the product of the average arrival rate and the
average time spent in the system.

In this case, the average arrival rate is given as 10 customers per hour, which can be converted to 10/60 =
1/6 customers per minute.

The average time spent in the system is the sum of the average service time (4 minutes) and the average
waiting time.
Let’s denote the average waiting time as W. Since the service times are not defined by any probability
distribution, we cannot directly calculate the average waiting time. However, we can use the fact that the
standard deviation of the service times is 3 minutes.

The standard deviation of the service times can be related to the average waiting time using the
following formula:

Σ = √(W^2 + S^2)

Where σ is the standard deviation, W is the average waiting time, and S is the average service time.

Plugging in the values, we have:

3 = √(W^2 + 4^2)

Simplifying the equation, we get:

9 = W^2 + 16

W^2 = 9 – 16

W^2 = -7

Since the waiting time cannot be negative, we can conclude that there is no waiting time in this system.

Therefore, the average waiting time in the system is 0 minutes.

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