The general manager at the Grande Hotel is considering how to restructure the front desk to reach an optimum level of staff efficiency. At present, the hotel has five clerks on duty, each with a separate waiting line (similar to a supermarket), during peak check-in time of 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Data on arrivals during this period of time shows that an average of 90 guests arrive each hour. It takes an average of three minutes for the front desk to register each guest.

The manager is considering three other plans to improve guest services. Her objective is to reduce the length of time customers wait for service (waiting time in the queue). Here are the other options under consideration:

Option 1: This option would designate one employee as a quick-service clerk for guest registering under corporate accounts, a market segment that fills about 30% of all occupied rooms. Since corporate guests are pre-registered, their registration takes just two minutes. With these guests separate from the rest of the clientele, the average time for registering a typical guest would climb to 3.4 minutes. Under this plan, non-corporate guests would choose any of the four remaining lines. Assume all the corporate guest suse this service and would not renege into the other lines.

Option 2: The second plan is to implement a single line system similar to a bank operation where all guest form in a single line and are serviced by whichever of the five clerks become available.

Option 3: The third proposal involves use of an automatic clerk machine (ATC). It takes an average of 2 minutes for registration at an ATC. It is estimated that 20% of customers would be willing to use this machine. This option also involves setting up a single queue (bank type operation) for customers who prefer human check in clerks. Each server takes an average of three minutes to register each guest. This line would be serviced by the five remaining clerks.

Which option should the manager select?

Hint: need to calculate aggregate weight time in the queue (in minutes) for each option.

A1) Wait time (in minutes) for Basline	?
A2) Wait time (in minutes) for Opt 1	?
A3) Wait time (in minutes) for Opt 2	?
A4) Wait time (in minutes) for Opt 3	?