Simulation Problem (to be done in MS Excel):

EasyB&B.com is a start-up dot-com company that provides a network for bed and breakfasts and guest houses in the UK. This network makes guest reservations and provides technical support for the managers of these properties. To begin operations, one customer service representative has been hired to answer phone calls. It is estimated that on average a call will take about 10 minutes to answer and the time between customer calls follows a discrete probability distribution:

When the service representative is busy, the caller can wait on the line. 1. Determine appropriate intervals for the random numbers that can be used to generate the time between customer calls. 2. Use the following random numbers: 0.53933, 0.71344, 0.83459, 0.37075, 0.00997, 0.31444, 0.48636, 0.12296, 0.09736 and 0.28647 to simulate time between customer calls of the first 10 iterations. 3. Using your answers for question 2, Use a spreadsheet model to calculate the call arrival time for each customer, their waiting times the total time they spent in the system and the total average time spent by all ten customers (Scenario 1).

After few weeks of operation, EasyB&B.com management thinks that demand is exceeding their estimation. Time between call arrivals follows an exponential probability distribution with mean of 9 minutes. An extensive study of time required to answer calls with a single customer service representative let to the following probability distribution of service times:

In case customer waiting times prove too long with a single service representative, the management is considering hiring a second service representative. As a guideline, they require the average waiting time to be less than 3 minutes.

4. Develop and run a spreadsheet simulation model for each of the following scenarios to calculate the call arrival time for each customer, their waiting times and the total time spent in the system for the first 100 customers. Note that no call is in the system at time t = 0. a. Scenario 2: one customer service representative. b. Scenario 3: two customer service representatives. The service time is exactly the same for both service representatives. Assume that when a new call arrives it will be answered by the next available service representative. When the simulation begins, the first call is answered by service representative 1.

5. Discussion a. Identify and calculate any relevant statistics for each of the scenarios from question 4 (i.e. scenarios 2 and 3). Note that customer service opening hours are from 8:00 to 14:00. b. Compare the two scenarios c. Make any recommendations regarding the best staffing plan for and performance of EasyB&B.com.