Meghan has collected some information, using the Friendly Seas I ship, for you to analyze and to make a recommendation to her. The Friendly Seas I carries 1,250 passengers (1,100 are processed through normal registration with the remaining 150 processed as VIP's). A diagram of the process is available at Embarkation Process. Currently, the company has 12 staff members processing regular registrations and 4 staff members processing VIP's. On average it takes 3 minutes to process a regular guest and 4 minutes to process a VIP guest. Typically the embarkation process requires 6 hours and runs from 12 noon till 6:00 p.m. In addition to the registration procedure, guests also pass through a photographers section and a security check station.

Meghan's figures indicate that on average, about 550 guests arrive between noon and 1:00 p.m., 300 more guests from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., 200 guests between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m., 100 guests arrive between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m., 70 guests between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., and the remaining 30 guests arrive after 5:00 p.m. A portion of these guests (150) are VIP's. Data shows that 50 VIP's arrive between noon and 1:00 p.m., 40 more between 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., 30 more between 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., 20 more between 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. and the remaining 10 between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m.

Meghan would like you to answer the following questions. Assignment Questions for Chapter 9.

Calculate the amount of capacity available to register regular guests and to register VIP guests.

Calculate the average percentage utilization of the servers processing regular guests.

Calculate the average percentage utilization of the servers processing VIP guests.

Meghan believes that she needs a 15% capacity cushion because of the variability in guests' arrivals. Given that cushion, how many servers should Meghan plan to have for registering regular guests?

How many servers for registering VIP guests? What other ideas do you have for smoothing out the guests' arrivals so that the amount of capacity needed can be minimized?