At the Smalltown post office, patrons wait in a singleline for the first open window. An average of 100 patronsper hour enter the post office, and each window can servean average of 45 patrons per hour. The post office estimatesa cost of 10¢ for each minute a patron waits in line andbelieves that it costs $20 per hour to keep a window open.Interarrival times and service times are exponential.a To minimize the total expected hourly cost, howmany windows should be open?b If the post office’s goal is to ensure that at most 5%of all patrons will spend more than 5 minutes in line,how many windows should be open?

Practical Management Science
6th Edition
ISBN:9781337406659
Author:WINSTON, Wayne L.
Publisher:WINSTON, Wayne L.
Chapter2: Introduction To Spreadsheet Modeling
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At the Smalltown post office, patrons wait in a single
line for the first open window. An average of 100 patrons
per hour enter the post office, and each window can serve
an average of 45 patrons per hour. The post office estimates
a cost of 10¢ for each minute a patron waits in line and
believes that it costs $20 per hour to keep a window open.
Interarrival times and service times are exponential.
a To minimize the total expected hourly cost, how
many windows should be open?
b If the post office’s goal is to ensure that at most 5%
of all patrons will spend more than 5 minutes in line,
how many windows should be open?

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