After reviewing your report, Tech has decided to improve the checkout process through training, clearer signage about prices, and bar code stickers on the most popular items purchased. With the improvements in place, it now takes an average of 1.5 minutes to check out a customer from the food court. As a result of the shorter checkout lines, more students are visiting the food court on weekends, arriving at an average rate of 30 customers per hour. Recalculate the measures above (a through d in Problem 5.47). Has customer service improved in the new system?

In problem

a. The average number of students in the system

b. The average number of students in the waiting line

c. The average time a student spends in the line

d. The probability that the cashier would be busy and thus the student would have to wait

e. What assumptions about the distribution of arrival rates and service rates are you making in deriving the above values? Are the student complaints valid? Discuss.