Suppose a supermarket uses a system in which allcustomers wait in a single line for the first available cashier.Assume that the service time for a customer who purchasesk items is exponentially distributed, with mean k seconds.Also, a customer who purchases k items feels that the costof waiting in line for 1 minute is $k1. If customers can beassigned priorities, what priority assignment will minimizethe expected waiting cost incurred by the supermarket’scustomers? Why would a customer’s waiting cost per minutebe a decreasing function of k?

Practical Management Science
6th Edition
ISBN:9781337406659
Author:WINSTON, Wayne L.
Publisher:WINSTON, Wayne L.
Chapter2: Introduction To Spreadsheet Modeling
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Suppose a supermarket uses a system in which all
customers wait in a single line for the first available cashier.
Assume that the service time for a customer who purchases
k items is exponentially distributed, with mean k seconds.
Also, a customer who purchases k items feels that the cost
of waiting in line for 1 minute is $
k
1
. If customers can be
assigned priorities, what priority assignment will minimize
the expected waiting cost incurred by the supermarket’s
customers? Why would a customer’s waiting cost per minute
be a decreasing function of k?

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