A local grocery store has multiple checkout lanes. Each cashier is trained so that they can handle an average of 18 customers per hour. If they have a bagger, they can handle 28 customers per hour. If the cashier and the bagger each get paid $12/hr(service cost per channel), and it costs an average of $3 per hour for each waiting customers(waiting cost per unit) Use the Single and Multiple files to answer these questions.

1. If a cashier has an average of 15 customers per hour, calculate:

	Cashier	Cashier w/bagger
P(o) =	.1667	.4643
Lq =	4.1667	.6181
L =	5	1.1538
Wq =	.2778	0.0412
W =	.3333	0.0769
Pw =	.8333	0.5357
Total Cost =	$27	$27.46

2. Between the choice of a cashier or a cashier with a bagger, which one would you choose if you wanted to keep costs down?

I would choose just the cashier since the total cost with a Cashier is $27 but with a bagger it is $27.46. The difference is only .46 but it adds up along with having to pay the baggers salary of $12 an hour as well.

3. If there is a mandate that a customer should not have to wait for more than 5 minutes, do you choose to have a cashier or cashier with a bagger and why? ( 2-3 sentences)

I would choose cashier with a bagger. Without a bagger the number of customers waiting in line is approximately 4 but with a bagger the number is approximately .6. Having a bagger increases the amount of customers that can be handled per hour by 10 allowing more customers to get served in a shorter period of time.

4. If cashiers and baggers get paid the same amount, is it economically wise to have both working if they cant

handle twice as many people? ( Give a 3 4 sentence explanation. )

5. Suppose that the scanner crashes. That means the cashier has to enter UPC codes by hand. The cashier still has 15 customers per hour. However, their service rate for a cashier by themselves to 4 customers per hour. With a bagger, its now 6 customers per hour. Calculate:

	Cashier	Cashier w/bagger
P(o) =
Lq =
L =
Wq =
W =
Pw =
Total Cost =

6. Explain in plain English what happened to the numbers above.

7. What do you think the customers will do in this situation?

On the following day, after the scanner is fixed and the service rate per cashier goes back to 18 customers per hour for the cashier alone and 28 people per hour for the cashier and bagger combination.

8. Suppose that the grocery store has 8 checkout lanes. There is a corporate mandate that customers wait less than 6 minutes on average in the queue or 5 minutes in line. If, 152 people get in line per hour, how many cashiers, by themselves, do they need to achieve those numbers? If they use the cashier and bagger combo, how many do they need to achieve their numbers? And what is the waiting time for each situation? (Remember to convert your wait time from hours to minutes.. multiply your number by 60)

# Cashiers	# Cashiers w/baggers
Wait time line
Wait time Queue

9. Did the number of cashiers or cashiers w/baggers exceed the 8 lanes? If so, what is the best you can do?

10. Given your numbers above, can you explain to a manager why they may want to use a cashier and bagger combo, even if they dont double the number of customers handled and they dont have a corporate mandate to keep waiting times down. (3 4 sentences)