Question 2 Little's Law
Passengers at Dubai airport have been complaining that the security scamming process is taking too long, with wait times up to one hour being commonplace. This has led to some passengers missing their flights even though they have arrived early at the airport.
An analysis of the security scanning process is carried out and it is found that throughout a 24 hour working day the average waiting time for passengers is only 10 minutes. However at peak times the waiting times are indeed as much as 60 minutes.
A decision is made to make the waiting time for any passengers, at any time of the day or night, a maximum of 20 minutes. There are 5 scanners available and each scanner can process a passenger in 1 minute 30 seconds, with each scanner requiring a full team of 4 staff (operators) to run it. In time of peak demand there might be a queue of 100 passengers awaiting security scanning.
a. Showing your reasoning, discuss whether it is possible for the airport to keep its promise of passengers never waiting for more than 20 minutes.
b. If 18 operators report for work on one shift, showing your reasoning, what will be the likely effect on passenger waiting times?
c. A new type of wide bodied aircraft increasing passenger numbers is introduced, which has the likely effect of increasing queues to 150. What response would you recommend to management and why?