5. Omega Airlines wants to make sure its check-in process is efficient, to keep staffing at appropriate levels to meet customer needs while still keeping costs low. Currently, Omega staffs the check-in counter with two employees who sometimes work together to help one passenger but may also serve two passengers simultaneously - for the purposes of this assignment, we will call this a single-channel operation. We can expect Poisson arrivals of passengers at the check-in counter at each airport with an arrival rate of 36 passengers per hour (many passengers use a check-in kiosk and bypass the check-in counter, although many want to get bag tags to put their carry-ons in the nose of the plane for free). The process has a fairly constant (exponentially distributed) check-in time of about 3 minutes per passenger but split between two employees we can say check-in time is constant at 1.5 minutes per passenger to simplify our calculations. We also expect unlimited potential queue length (the check-in/ticketing counter will often simply see a steady stream of passengers as some flight times are similar or overlap). In other words, we'll call this is a single-channel, single-service operation, for which we want to analyze time in line (in the queue), and time in line plus getting the service (getting checked in for the flight) = we can use our Model 1 calculations from the queue analysis models.

In your Excel file, develop a table that includes the following (hint, all calculations in hours):

Arrival rate ()

Service rate ()

Average utilization (p)

Average # of passengers in the waiting line (Lq)

Average # of passengers in the system (Ls)

Average time a customer spends waiting in line (Wq)

Average time a customer spends in the system (Ws)

In your Excel file, articulate a few sentences expressing your passenger numbers in discrete

values and expressing wait times in MINUTES. Think about what the average utilization (p) means as you contemplate whether or not Omega can be more efficient or serve its customers better.

HINT: Sample table for queue analysis - see below
Operating Assumptions
Arrival rate, l		people/hour
Service rate, m		people/hour
Operating Characteristics
Average utilization, r			[mins]
Average number of customers in the waiting line, Lq		people
Average number of customers in the system, Ls		people
Average time a customer spends in the waiting line, Wq		hours
Average time a customer spends in the system, Ws		hours