Reference no: EM132730051

A fast-food franchise is considering operating a drive-up window food-service operation. Assume that customer arrivals follow a Poisson probability distribution, with an arrival rate of 26 cars per hour, and that service times follow an exponential probability distribution. Arriving customers place orders at an intercom station at the back of the parking lot and then drive to the service window to pay for and receive their orders. The following cost information is available:

- Customer waiting time in the line is valued at $30 per hour to reflect the potential "loss of goodwill".

- The cost of each employee is $12.50 per hour.

The following three service alternatives are being considered:

1. A single-server operation in which one employee fills the order and takes the money from the customer. The average service time for this alternative is 2 minutes.

2. A single-server operation in which one employee fills the order while a second employee takes the money from the customer. The average service time for this alternative is 1.50 minutes.

3. A two-server operation with two service windows and two employees. The employee stationed at each window fills the order and takes the money for customers arriving at the window. The windows are planned to be located on the opposite sides of the food-service building and there is only one lane leading to the building. In front of the building, the lane splits into two sub-lanes, each leading to its dedicated window. The average service time for this alternative is 1.875 minutes for each server.

4. The following cost information is available:

• Customer waiting time in the line is valued at $30 per hour to reflect the potential customer's "loss of goodwill".
• The cost of each employee is $12.50 per hour.

Which of the three design options would you recommend? Fully justify your answer.