Capacity Planning
Problem Statement
The average arrival rate of customers has reached 20 per hour, and Sunset Airlines must increase the capacity of its check-in system with the addition of one clerk. Based on a customer survey, $15 per hour is considered to be the opportunity cost of waiting in queue. Clerks are paid $10 per hour and still process a passenger in 3 minutes. Evaluate the following check-in system alternatives to find the least expensive arrangement using total hourly costs of clerks and customers waiting in queue.
a. Consider a multiple-queue configuration with separate waiting lines and no customer jockeying. Assuming demand is divided equally among the two clerks, what is the total hourly cost of this arrangement?