Question: Julian Argo is a computer technician in a large insurance company. He responds to a variety of complaints from agents regarding their computers' performance. He receives an average of one computer per hour to repair, according to a Poisson distribution. It takes Julian an average of 50 minutes to repair any agent's computer. Service times are exponentially distributed.
(a) Determine the operating characteristics of the computer repair facility. What is the probability that there will be more than two computers waiting to be repaired?
(b) Julian believes that adding a second repair technician would significantly improve his office's efficiency. He estimates that adding an assistant, but still keeping the department running as a single-server system, would double the capacity of the office from 1.2 computers per hour to 2.4 computers per hour. Analyze the effect on the waiting times for such a change and compare the results with those found in part (a).
(c) Insurance agents earn $30 for the company per hour, on average, while computer technicians earn $18 per hour. An insurance agent who does not have access to his computer is unable to generate revenue for the company. What would be the hourly savings to the firm associated with employing two technicians instead of one?