Waiting lines

12. The Peachtree Airport in Atlanta serves light aircraft. It has a single runway and one
air traffic controller to land planes. It takes an airplane 12 minutes to land and clear the
runway. Planes arrive at the airport at the rate of 4 per hour.
a. Determine the average numer of planes that will stack up waiting to land.
. !ind the average time a plane must wait in line efore it can land.
c. "alculate the average time it takes a plane to clear the runway once it has notified
the airport that it is in the vicinity and want to land.
d. The !AA has a rule that an air traffic controller can on the average land planes a
ma#imum of 4$ minutes out of every hour. There must e 1$ minutes of idle time
availale to relieve the tension. %ill this airport have to hire an e#tra air traffic
controller&
'olution
1(. The !irst American )ank of *apid "ity has one outside drive+up teller. It takes the
teller an average of 4 minutes to serve a ank customer. "ustomers arrive at the drive+up
window at the rate of 12 per hour. The ank operations officer is currently analy,ing the
possiility of adding a second drive+up window at an annual cost of -2./.... It is
assumed that arriving cars would e e0ually divided etween oth windows. The
operations officer estimates that each minute1s reduction in customer waiting time would
increase the ank1s revenue y -2/... annually. 'hould the second drive+up window e
installed&
'olution
1$. All truck traveling on Interstate 4. etween Alu0uer0ue and Amarillo are re0uired to
stop at a weigh station. Trucks arrive at the weigh station at a rate of 2.. per 2+hour day/
and the station can weigh/ on the average/ 22. trucks per day.
a. Determine the average numer of trucks waiting/ the average time spend waiting
and eing weighed at the weigh station y each truck/ and the average waiting
time efore eing weighed for each truck.
b. If the truck drivers find out they must remain at the weigh station longer than 1$
minutes on the average/ the will start taking a different route or traveling at night/
thus depriving the state of ta#es. The state of 3ew 4e#ico estimates it loses
-1./... in ta#es per year for each e#tra minute that trucks must remain at the
weigh station. A new set of scales would have the same service capacity as the
present set of scales/ and it is assumed that arriving trucks would line up e0ually
ehind the two set of scales. It would cost -$./... per year to operate the new
scales. 'hould the state install the new set of scales&
'olution
15. The acme 4ache 'hop has five machines that periodically reak down and re0uire
service. The average time etween reakdowns is four days/ distriuted according to an
e#ponential distriution. The average time to repair a machine is one day/ distriuted
according to an e#ponential distriution. 6ne mechanic repairs the machines in the order
in which they reak down.
a. Determine the proaility of the mechanic eing idle.
. Determine the mean numer of machines waiting to e repaired.
c. Determine the mean time machines wait to e repaired.
d. Determine the proaility that three machines are not operating 7are eing
repaired or waiting to e repaired8.
Solution
21. 9ame %ord/ a video game arcade at Tanglewood 4all/ has :ust installed a new virtual
reality attle game. It re0uires e#actly 2.; minutes to play. "ustomers arrive on average
every 2.5 minutes 7Poisson distriuted8 to play the game. <ow long will the line of
customers waiting to play the game e and how long on average must a customer wait&
22. Drivers who come to get their licenses at the Department of 4otor =ehicles have their
photograph taken y an automated machine that develops the photograph onto the license
card and laminates the complete license. The machine re0uires a constant time of 4.$
minutes to prepare a completed license. If drivers arrive at the machine at the mean rate
of 1. per hour 7Poisson distriuted8/ determine the average length of the waiting line and
the average waiting time.
2$. The )ay "ity Police Department has eight patrol cars that are on constant call 24
hours per day. A patrol car re0uires repairs every 2. days on average according to an
e#ponential distriution. %hen a patrol car is in need of repair/ it is driving into the motor
pool/ which has a repair person on duty at all times. The average time re0uired to repair a
patrol car is 12 hours 7e#ponentially distriuted8. Determine the average time a patrol car
is not availale for use and the average numer of patrol cars out of service at any one
time/ and indicate if the repair service seems ade0uate.
25. "akes akes y the !reshfood )akery are transported from the ovens to e packaged
y one of three wrappers. >ach wrapper can wrap an average of 2.. cakes per hour. The
cakes are rought to the wrappers at the rate of $.. per hour. If a cake sits longer than
five minutes efore eing wrapped/ it will not e fresh enough to meet the akery1s
0uality control standards. Does the akery need to hire another wrapper&
(2. The *egency <otel has enough space at its entrance for si# ta#icas to line up/ wait
for guest/ and then for loading passengers. "as arrive at the hotel every 2 minutes? if a
ta#i drives y the hotel and the line if full/ then it must drive on. <otel guests re0uire a
ta#i every $ minutes on average. It takes a ca driver an average of (.$ minutes to load
passengers and luggage and leave the hotel 7e#ponentially distriuted8.
a. %hat is the average time a ca must wait for a fare&
. %hat is the proaility that the line will e full when a ca drives y/ causing it to
drive y&
((. The local )urger Doodle fast+food restaurant has a drive+through window. "ustomers
in cars arrive at the window at the rate of 1. per hour 7Poisson distriuted8. It re0uires an
average of 4 minutes 7e#ponentially distriuted8 to take and fill and order. The restaurant
chain has a service goal of an average waiting time of ( minutes.
a. %ill the current system meet the restaurant1s service goal&
. If the restaurant is not meeting its service goal/ it can add a second drive+through
window that will reduce the service time per customer to 2.$ minutes. %ill the
additional window enale the restaurant to meet its service goal&
c. During the 2+hour lunch period/ the arrival rate of drive+in customers increases to
2. per hour. %ill the two+window system e ale to achieve the restaurant1s
service goal during this rush period&
($. "ustomers arrive to check in at the e#clusive and e#pensive *egency <otel1s loy at
the rate of 4. per hour 7Poisson distriuted8. The hotel normally has three clerks availale
at the desk to check in guests. The average time for a clerk to check in a guest is 4
minutes 7e#ponentially distriuted8. "lerks at the *egency are paid -24 per hour and the
hotel assigns a goodwill cost of -2 per minute for the time a guest must wait in line.
Determine if the present check+in system is cost effective. If it is not/ recommend what
hotel management should do.
45. The Delacroi# Inn in Ale#andria is a small e#clusive hotel with 2. rooms. 9uests can
call house keeping from 2@.. A.4. to midnight for any of their service needs.
<ousekeeping keeps one person on duty during this time to respond to guest calls. >ach
room averages ..; calls per day to housekeeping 7Poisson distriuted8 and a guest re0uest
re0uires and average of (. minutes 7e#ponentially distriuted8 for the staff person to
respond to and take care of. Determine the portion of time the staff person is usy and
how long a guest must wait for his or her re0uest to e addressed. Does the housekeeping
system seem ade0uate&
$.. Aim "arter uilds custom furniture/ primarily cainets/ ookcases/ small tales/ and
chairs. <e works on only one piece of furniture for a customer at a time. It takes him an
average of $ weeks 7e#ponentially distriuted8 to uild a piece of furniture. An average of
14 customers approach Aim to order pieces of furniture each year 7Poisson distriuted8?
however/ Aim will take only a ma#imum of 2 advance orders. Determine the average time
a customer must wait to receive a furniture order once it is placed and how usy Aim is.
%hat is the proaility that a customer will e ale to place an order with Aim&
$1. Audith Bewis is a doctoral student at 'tate Cniversity and she also works full+time as
an academic tutor for scholarshiped student athletes. 'he took the :o hoping it would
leave her free time etween tutoring to devote to her own studies. An athlete visits her for
tutoring an average of every 1D hours/ and she spends an average o 1.$ hours
7e#ponentially distriuted8 with him or her. 'he is ale to tutor only one athlete at a time
and athletes study while they are waiting.
a. Determine how long a player must wait to see her and the percentage of time
Audith is usy. Does the :o seem to meet Audith1s e#pectations and does the
system seem ade0uate to meet the athletes1 needs&
. If the results in 7a8 indicate the tutoring arrangement is ineffective/ suggest and
ad:ustment that could improve it for oth the athletes and Audith.