Ba excel modelling | Operations Management homework help

The Students’ Union Shop is trying to work out how many cashiers it needs to employ in

order to provide an adequate service level. Customers at the shop line up in a single queue

and are called forward to pay for their purchases when a till becomes free. To help determine

the busy times of the day, the shop has recorded the number of customers arriving at the tills

in each 5-minute interval during the shop’s opening hours, from 8am until 6pm (N.B. this

is the number who actually make a purchase and does not include customers who are just

browsing). Records for a period of 5 weeks are available. All the data were collected during

term time.

The shop usually functions with just three cashiers but it has the capacity to support up to

6. An extra cashier costs $20 an hour. The shop is open for approximately 50 weeks each

year. The management has also collected data about the time it takes for cashiers to take

payment. These data come from term time and 1000 records are available. Management are

concerned that customers wishing to buy food, in particular, may be going to other outlets

within the university such as the Big Ears Sandwich Shop or the Noddy Bar. Management are

also concerned about the turnover of their sta and would like to reduce their stress and also

stop them getting bored. They would be interested to hear about any innovative operating

strategies for doing this.

You have been employed as a consultant for the Students’ Union Shop and should

Report on their current business, pointing out any existing problems;

Suggest improvements to their current strategies;

Provide them with an ecient tool for easily evaluating their current performance using

the data provided or new data in a similar format.