The Flu Shot Service Operations at RedPharm

For RedPharm, a pharmacy located on a college campus, fall is the busy flu shot season. The manager of the pharmacy wants to improve the customer experience because there have been a lot of complaints regarding the waiting time.

Table 1 shows the average number of customers arriving to the get a flu shot per hour. The coefficient of variation of the time between arrivals is 1.

Time Block	Average number of arrivals per hour
07:00-10:00	23
10:00-15:00	10
15:00-18:00	15

Table 1. Average number of arrivals per hour and average number of customers at RedPharm

RedPharm currently has four nurses who provide, explain, fill and collect the corresponding signed forms from the customers, and administer the immunizations. Data indicates that on average a nurse spends 10 minutes with a customer. The coefficient of variation of the service time is 1.

You can assume once a customer enters RedPharm's immunization are, they only leave after getting a flu shot.

The suggestion box has received notes, including one from a frustrated operations professor telling RedPharm management that they needed to redesign their flu shot service, starting with the implementation of an appointment policy, as well as one from an angry customer demanding nurses get their own waiting line so "customers can identify and join the one who is faster."