Reference no: EM132836463

W.L. Brown, a direct marketer of women's clothing, must determine how many telephone operators to schedule during each part of the day. W.L. Brown estimates that the number of phone calls received each hour of a typical eight-hour shift can be described by the probability distribution:

Distribution of number of calls

Calls Prob.

80 0.10

120 0.40

160 0.30

200 0.15

300 0.05

Each operator can handle 15 calls per hour and costs the company $20 per hour. Each phone call that is not handled is assumed to cost the company $6 in lost profit. Considering the options of employing 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 operators, use simulation to determine the number of operators that minimized the expected hour cost (labor costs plus lost profits).

The simulation software is Palisade DecisionTools.