Reference no: EM132714245

Question -

A. The registration advisers at a small university (SU) help 4,000 students develop each of their class schedules and register for classes each semester. Each advisor works for 10 hours a day during the registration period. SU currently has 10 advisors. While advising an individual student can take anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes, it takes an average of 12 minutes per student. During the registration period, the 10 advisors see an average of 300 students a day.

Required -

1. Calculate how long the average student will have to wait in the adviser's office before being advised.

2. The head of the registration advisers would like to increase the number of students seen each day, because at 300 students a day it would take 14 working days to see all of the students. This is a problem because the registration period lasts for only two weeks (10 working days). However, they want to make sure that the waiting time is not excessive. What would be the average waiting time if 400 students were seen each day?

3. SU wants to know the effect of reducing the average advising time on the average wait time. If SU can reduce the average advising time to 10 minutes, what would be the average waiting time if 400 students were seen each day?

B. The head of the registration advisers at SU has decided that the advisers much finish their advising in two weeks and therefore must advise 400 students a day. However, the average waiting time given a 12 minute advising period will result in student complaints, as will reducing the average advising time to 10 minutes. SU is considering two alternatives:

a. Hire two more advisers for the 10 working day period. This will increase the available number of advisers to 12 and therefore lower the average waiting time.

b. Increase the number of days that the advisers will work during the two-week registration period to 6 days a week. If SU increases the number of days worked to six per week, then the 10 advisers need only see 350 students a day to advise all the student in two weeks.

Required -

1. What would the average wait time be under each alternative described above?

2. If advisers earn $100 per day, which alternative would be cheaper for SU (assume that if advisers work 6 days in a given work week, they will be paid time and a half for the sixth day)?

3. From the student satisfaction point of view, which of the two alternatives would be preferred? Why?