1. People do not like to wait in line. Many models have been developed and solved for waiting-line models to assist organizations such as banks, theme parks, airports

(for security, ticket counters, and gate counters), fast-food outlets, movie theaters, and post offices. These models are known as queuing models. Look into organizations that have applied these models and their associated solution methodologies in practice and investigate what kinds of goals and specific decision variables these models incorporate. Visit some organizations where queuing occurs and observe the behavior of the customers and servers. If possible, run a demo of some software and/or create and solve a queuing model. Also investigate behavioral issues about these problems.

These behavioral issues often lead to information about how people waiting in line interpret their experience and are more important than the actual waiting time.

(You may also find information about how theme parks handle this as a revenue management problem.) Write up your results in a report. (This exercise was inspired by B. Hendrick, “Bottom Line: Folks Hate to Wait,”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 13, 2006, pp. A1, A6.)