Interarrival times will drop from 9.1 minutes (exponentially distributed) to 4 minutes (still exponentially distributed). You know from Part A that you're docks are heavily utilized, and therefore the increased traffic will not likely be possible given the current capacity. Your job is to test three alternatives and recommend which is best:
Alternative 1: Buy new unloading equipment that will increase the throughput at each dock (i.e. decrease the unloading times) to the following:
|
Dock
|
Distribution
|
Minimum
|
Mode
|
Maximum
|
|
1
|
Triangular
|
20
|
23
|
25
|
|
2
|
Triangular
|
18
|
21
|
23
|
|
3
|
Triangular
|
17
|
20
|
22
|
The cost of leasing the new equipment will be $300 per day, and you'll need one for each dock.
Alternative 3: Manage the arrival schedule so that trucks arrive at the same rate, but at specific times (i.e. the interarrival rate is a constant 4 minutes, vs. exponentially distributed...thus removing the variability).