Question: A chemical plant stores spare parts for maintenance in a large warehouse. Throughout the working day, maintenance personnel go to the warehouse to pick up supplies needed for their jobs. The warehouse receives a request for supplies, on average, every 2 minutes. The average request requires 1.7 minutes to fill. Maintenance employees are paid $20 per hour, and warehouse employees are paid $12 per hour. The warehouse is open 8 hours each day. Assuming that this system follows the M/M/s requirements, what is the optimal number of warehouse employees to hire?