Question

Problem 1 REGIONAL AIRLINES Regional Airlines is establishing a new telephone system for handling flight reservations. During the 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. time period, calls to the reservation agent occur ran- domly at an average of one call every 3.75 minutes. Historical service time data show that a reservation agent spends an average of 3 minutes with each customer. The waiting line model assumptions of Poisson arrivals and exponential service times appear reasonable for the telephone reservation system. Regional Airlines' management believes that offering an efficient telephone reserva- tion system is an important part of establishing an image as a service-oriented airline. If the system is properly implemented, Regional Airlines will establish good customer relations, which in the long run will increase business. However, if the telephone reservation system is frequently overloaded and customers have difficulty contacting an agent, a negative customer reaction may lead to an eventual loss of business. The cost of a ticket reservation agent is $20 per hour. Thus, management wants to provide good service, but it does not want to incur the cost of overstaffing the telephone reservation operation by using mo agents than necessary ore At a planning meeting, Regional's management team agreed that an acceptable cus- tomer service goal is to answer at least 85% of the incoming calls immediately. During the planning meeting, Regional's vice president of administration pointed out that the data show that the average service rate for an agent is faster than the average arrival rate of the telephone calls. The vice president's conclusion was that personnel costs could be mini- mized by using one agent and that the single agent should be able to handle the telephone reservations and still have some idle time. The vice president of marketing restated the importance of customer service and expressed support for at least two reservation agents. The current telephone reservation system design does not allow callers to wait. Callers who attempt to reach a reservation agent when all agents are occupied receive a busy signal and are blocked from the system. A representative from the telephone company suggested that Regional Airlines consider an expanded system that accommodates waiting. In the expanded system, when a customer calls and all agents are busy, a recorded message tells the customer that the call is being held in the order received and that an agent will be available shortly. The customer can stay on the line and listen to background niusic while waiting for an agent. Regional's management will need more information before switching to the expanded system. Managerial Report Prepare a managerial report for Regional Airlines analyzing the telephone reservation system. Evaluate both the system that does not allow waiting and the expanded system that allows waiting. Include the following information in your report: 1. A detailed analysis of the operating characteristics of the reservation system with proposed by the vice president of administration. What is your recom- one agent as mendation concerning a single-agent system? 2. A detailed analysis of the operating characteristics of the reservation sys- tem based on your recommendation regarding the number of agents Regional should use. 3. A detailed analysis of the advantages Discuss the number of waiting callers the expanded system would need to accommodate. 4. This report represents a pilot study of the reservation system for the 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. time period during which an average of one call arrives every 3.75 minutes; however, the arrival rate of incoming calls is expected to change from hour to hour. Describe how your waiting line analysis could be used to develop a ticket agent staffing plan that would enable the company to levels of staffing for the ticket reservation system at different times during the day. Indicate the information that you would need to develop this staffing plan. or disadvantages of the expanded system. provide different Can you piea se Show how 4a 2 got the answer t heips me. understand H better Thank you SO much

Answer 1

1. Single-Channel Waiting Line Analysis The investigation that takes after is based upon the suspicions of Poisson entries and exponential administration times. With one call at regular intervals, we have a landing rate of Ar 60/3.75 16 calls for each hour So also, with a normal administration time of 3 minutes, we have an administration rate of 60/3 20 calls for every hour The working qualities of a solitary channel framework with Ar 16 and u = 20 are as per the following: Hours (12 minutes) Hours (15 minutes) Working the phone reservation benefit with just a single ticket operator seems unsatisfactory With 80% of approaching calls holding up (Pw 0.80) and a normal holding up time of 12 minutes (Wq 12), the organization plainly needs to consider utilizing at least two specialists

4.

The following data will be required:

• Customer arrival rates
• Type of service to be provided
• Changing the number of phases: use a multi-phase system where servers specialize in a portion of the total service rather than needing to know the entire service provided. Since a server has fewer tasks to learn, the individual server proficiency should improve. This goes back to the concept of division of labor.
• Server efficiency: improve server efficiency through process improvements or dedication of additional resources.The two methods which can be used in this regard are scanners and dedicating additional resources
• Changing the priority rule: The priority rule determines who should be served next.There are priority rules other than first-come, first-served. If you want to change priority rules, consider the impact on those customers who will wait longer
• Changing the number of lines: Changing to a single-line model from a multi-line model is most appropriate when the company is concerned about fairness for its customers. A single line ensures that customers do not jockey in an attempt to gain an advantage over another customer. Multi-line models easily accommodate specialty servers (express lanes)