PROBLEM: Teaching Assignment Office Hours

Dr. Konur needs to figure out how to arrange the office hours for EMGT 365 for the next semester. He will have two teaching assistants (TAs). He is considering two options: assign different offices for each TA or assign one office for both TAs. He observed the following from previous semesters.

- Option 1: In this case, each TA will have its own office. Students arrive at the office of each TA every 10 minutes on average and the interarrival time is exponentially distributed.

- Option 2: In this case, both TAs will help students in the same office. Each TA will help one student at a time. Students arrive at the office every 5 minutes on average and the interarrival time is exponentially distributed.

The time it takes to help a student by a TA is exponentially distributed with mean 5 minutes. Answer the following questions. You can use excel templates provided. Please present the excel template results for each option.

a) If Dr. Konur prefers to have less number of students in the deparment (i.e., the ones waiting for the TA plus the ones TAs are helping) on average, which option he should select?

b) If Dr. Konur wants to have at least 75% of the students complete their operation (i.e., the time waiting for TA and the time to ask questions to the TA) within 10 minutes, which option he should select?

c) If Dr. Konur wants have lower number of students waiting for a TA on average, which option he should select?

d) Suppose that each TA is paid $10 per hour and each student's time (including the time to wait and the time to ask questions) costs $8 per hour, which option Dr. Konur should select if he wants to have lower hourly cost?