Problems in Queuing Theory

Q1. A self service store employs one cashier at its counter. 8 customers arrive on an average every 5 minutes while the cashier can serve 10 customers in the same time. Assuming poisson distribution for arrival and exponential distribution for service rate, determine: (a) Average number of customers in the system (b) Average number of customers in the queue (c) Average time a customer spends in the system (d) Average time a customer waits before being served (e) Probability that there is no customer at the counter (f) Utilization factor (g) Probability that there are more than 2 customers in the system (h) Probability that there are equal to or more than 3 customers in the queue (i) Probability that an arrival finds that 2 persons are waiting for their turn (j) Average length of non-empty queue (k) Probability that there is no customer waiting to be served (l) Probability that a customer is being served, but nobody is waiting (m) Probability that the server is idle (n) Average time the server is free in a 10 hour working day (o) Probability that a customer shall spend more than 6 minutes for cashiers service (p) Probability that there a customer spends less than 10 minutes in the system (q) For what percentage of time the server will be busy? (r) What is the chance that a new customer will straightway see the server without having to wait? (s) What is the probability of having less than 3 customers with server at any time? Q2. A self-service store employs one cashier at its counter. Nine customers arrive every five minutes, while the cashier can serve ten customers in five minutes. Assuming poisson distribution for the arrival rate and exponential distribution for the service time, find the following: (a) (b) (c) (d) The average number of customers in the system The average number of customers in the queue or the average queue length The average time a customer spends in the system The average time a customer waits before being served

Q3. A TV repairman finds that the time spent on his job has an exponential distribution with mean 30 minutes. If he repairs sets in the order in which they are come and if the arrival of sets is approximately poisson with an average rate of 10 per 8-hour day (a) What is his expected idle time each day? (b) How many jobs are ahead of the set just brought in? Q4. A foreign bank is considering opening a drive-in window for customer service. Management estimates that customers will arrive for service at the rate of 12 per hour. The teller, whom it is

considered to staff the window, can serve customers at the rate one every three minutes. Assuming Poisson arrivals and exponential service, find (a) utilisation of teller (b) average number in the system (c) average waiting time in the line (d) average waiting time in the system. Q5. Arrival rate of telephone calls at a telephone booth are according to poisson distribution with an average time of 9 minutes between two consecutive arrivals. The length of telephone call is assumed to be exponentially distributed with mean 3 minutes. a) Determine the probability that a person arriving at the booth has to wait. b) Find the average queue length that is formed from time to time. c) Telephone company will stall a second booth when convinced that an arrival would expect to have to wait at least 4 minutes for the phone. Find the increase inflow of arrivals which will justify a second booth. d) What is the probability that an arrival have to wait for more than 10 minutes before the phone is free? e) What is the probability that he will have to wait for more than 10 minutes before the phone is available and the call is also complete? f) Find the fraction of the day that the phone will be in use. Q6. A repair shop attended by a single mechanic has an average of 4 customers an hour who bring small appliances for repair. The mechanic inspects them for defects render a diagnosis. This takes him 6 minutes, on an average. Arrivals are poisson and service time has the exponential distribution. You are required to a) Find the proportion of time during which shop is empty. b) Find the probability of finding at least one customer in the shop. c) What is the average number of customers in the system? d) Find the average time spent including service. Q7. On average, five customers reach a telephone booth every hour to make a call. (a) Determine the probability that exactly three customers will reach the telephone booth in a 30 minute period, assuming that the arrivals follow the poisson distribution. (b) What is the probability that up to three customers will reach the telephone booth in a 30minute period? (c) What is the probability that above three customers will reach the telephone booth in a 30minute period? Q8. The manager of a retail store observes that on average 16 customers are serviced by a cashier in an hour. Assuming that the service time has exponential distribution, what is the probability that (a) The customer will be free in 3 minutes and (b) The customer will require more than 10 minutes to be serviced?

Q9. A repairman is to be hired to repair machines that breakdown, following a Poisson process, with an average rate of four per hour. The cost of non-productive machine is Rs 9 per hour. The company has the option of choosing either a fast or a slow repairman. The fast repairman charge Rs 6 per hour and will repair machines at an average rate of 7 per hour. The slow repairman charges Rs 3 per hour and will repair machines at an average rate of 5 per hour. Which repairman should be hired? Q10. In a clinic, on an average 6 patients arrive per hour. The doctor in the clinic takes 6 minutes on an average to attend a patient. Assuming that arrival follows a Poisson distribution and doctors inspection time follows an exponential distribution, determine (a) the percent of times a patient can walk right inside the doctors cabin, without having to wait. (b) the average number of patients in the clinic (c) the average number of patients waiting for their turn (d) the average time a patient spends in the clinic Q11. At a petrol pump, vehicles arrive at a mean rate of 25 per hour. A vehicle, on an average takes 2 minutes in taking the petrol. The arrival rates and service time rate are assumed to follow Poisson and exponential distributions, respectively, and there is only one booth for providing the petrol. (a) Find out the mean time a vehicle will have to wait in the queue for getting the petrol. (b) What other information you can obtain by analysing the above queuing system? Q12. A repair shop attended to by a single mechanic has an average of four customers an hour who bring small appliances for repair. The mechanic inspects them for defects and quite often can fix them right away or otherwise render a diagnosis. This takes him six minutes, on the average. Arrivals are Poisson and service time has exponential distribution. You are required to: (a) Find the proportion of time during which the shop is empty. (b) Find the probability of finding at least one customer in the shop. (c) What is the average number of customers in the system? (d) Find the average time spent, including service. Q13. Arrivals at the enquiry counter of Roshanara Transport Company are Poisson distributed with an average of six per hour. The time that the customers spend in seeking information from the clerk stationed at the counter is known to be exponentially distributed with an average of three minutes. Using this information determine (a) the probability that a customer reaching the counter shall have to wait for getting the needed information. (b) the probability that a queue shall be formed. (c) the expected time that a customer shall wait in the queue to obtain information. Q14. In a bank with a single server, there are two chairs for waiting customers. On an average one customer arrives every 10 minutes and each customer takes 5 minutes for getting served. Making suitable assumptions, find (a) the probability that an arrival will get a chair to sit down, (b) the probability that an arrival will have to stand, and (c) expected waiting time of a customer.