A chemical plant stores spare parts for maintenance in a large warehouse. Throughout the working day, maintenance personnel go to the warehouse to pick up supplies needed for their jobs. The warehouse receives a request for supplies, on average, every 2 minutes (Poisson distributed). The average request requires 1.7 minutes to fill (exponential service times). Maintenance employees are paid $20 per hour, and warehouse employees are paid $12 per hour. The warehouse is open 8 hours each day. What is the optimal number of warehouse employees to hire? (Hint: Time spent by maintenance workers waiting in line for supplies should be considered an expense.) What is the total cost per hour (waiting plus warehouse employee labor cost) of your solution?
A chemical plant stores spare parts for maintenance in a large warehouse.
Throughout the working day, maintenance personnel go to the warehouse to pick up supplies needed for their jobs. The warehouse receives a request for supplies, on average, every 2 minutes (Poisson distributed). The average request requires 1.7 minutes to fill (exponential service times). Maintenance employees are paid $20 per hour, and warehouse employees are paid $12 per hour. The warehouse is open 8 hours each day. What is the optimal number of warehouse employees to hire? (Hint: Time spent by maintenance workers waiting in line for supplies should be considered an expense.) What is the total cost per hour (waiting plus warehouse employee labor cost) of your solution?
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