Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has the following setup for its security processes for the international terminal.
Question:
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has the following setup for its security processes for the international terminal. The departing passengers approach security at a rate of 350 per hour (exponentially distributed) and find 6 security lanes each with its own queue. Each lane is identical so passengers tend to randomly choose a security lane. Once in a lane the passengers load their bags on a conveyor, removing their laptops and shoes, placed also on the conveyor. The passengers are scanned by X-ray as are the bags/laptops/shoes and then reunited with their possessions. The time for the X-raying of the laptop/bags/shoes is around 60 seconds on average (with a standard deviation of 60 seconds!), but is always longer than it takes to X-ray a passenger.
Passengers from the security lanes then proceed to the immigration check stage and join another queue. Each security lane leads to a single queue to see one of three immigration officers (we'll call this a "small pool"). Thus, there are six immigration queues (each leading from one of the six security lanes) leading to small pools of three immigration officers (so there are a total of 18 immigration officers in six pools of three officers). When a passenger reaches the front of the queue, they then visit the next available immigration officer, present their passport and boarding pass, and are photographed. Some passengers are processed quickly and rush on to their departure gate. Others are asked a series of questions, which takes time, making the passenger more anxious, especially if they're running late for their flight. The immigration officers typically take 3 minutes on average (with a 2.5 minute standard deviation).
Under the current situation, as passengers approach security, how long should they expect until they leave the immigration stations?
Group of answer choices
29 minutes
54 minutes
40 minutes
65 minutes
In an attempt to lessen congestion, the system will be reconfigured so that passengers leaving each security lane will now join a single queue leading to a single large pool of 18 immigration officers.
What will the total time be now?
Group of answer choices
40 minutes
54 minutes
65 minutes
29 minutes
In a further attempt to lessen congestion, the security phase will be changed to a single queue leading to the six security lanes (pool of six).
What will the total time be now? (Assume the change in Question B is also implemented.)
Group of answer choices
3 minutes
29 minutes
17 minutes
11 minutes