The following situation refers to Tom Opim, a first-year MBA student. In order o pay the rent, Tom decides to take a job in the computer department of a local department store. is only responsibility is to answer telephone calls to the department, most of which are inquiries about store hours and product availability. As Tom is the only person answering calls, the manager of the store is concerned about queuing problems. Currently, the computer department receives an average of one call every 3 minutes, with a standard deviation in this interarrival time 3 minutes. Tom requires an average of 2 minutes to handle a call. The standard deviation in is processing time is 1 minute. The telephone company charges $5,00 per hour for the telephone lines whenever they are in use (either while a customer is in conversation with Tom or while waiting to be helped). Assume that there are no limits on the number of customers that can be on of th hold an d that customers do not hang up even if forced to wait a long time. a. For one of his courses, Tom has to read a book (The Pole, by E. Silvermouse). He can read 1 page per minute. Tom's boss has agreed that Tom could use his idle time for studying as long as he drops the book as soon as a call comes in.
b. How many pages can Tom read a. during an 8-hour shift?
Hint: You need to calculate the % of time that Tom is not serving a customer, i. e., idling (think about the meaning of utilization). Then, the total idle time in an 8-hour shift equals (8 hours)*(% of idle time). From there, you can get how many pages on average Tom can read during an 8-hour shift.