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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

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 27 cars per hour, and that service times follow an exponential probability distribution. As customers arrive, they place their 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 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 1.25 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 average service time for this alternative is 2 minutes for each server.

Which of the three service alternatives would you recommend and why? Is the option you chose the most efficient in reducing customer wait time? Explain.

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