Assignment task:
A ski area in Europe was connected with a village base / lodging area by a gondola lift. The gondola made the 2.3 mile trip from the village to the ski base in about 16 minutes. Each gondola held up to 4 people, and could not be overloaded for safety reasons. When running at normal speed, a gondola left the station once every 20 seconds. The gondola could be slowed down when there was a problem, but could not run at a speed faster than its normal speed. The gondola was the only way method of transportation from the village base to the ski area. Skiers and snowboarders could take a trail back down the mountain to the village on their way out, although the trail was seldom used by anyone not on their way out of the ski area (in other words, skiers and snowboarders did not take the trail for fun).
Skiers and snowboarders needed to have an electronic lift ticket cards to ride the gondola. The ski area issued customers electronic lift ticket cards at a number of ticket windows and an electronic self-service kiosk. Touching the card to a sensor allowed customers to go through gates in front of each lift line in the ski area. This allowed the ski area to consistently check that all riders had valid lift tickets without having to hire dedicated lift ticket checkers. Many skiers and snowboarders used discounted, multi- day lift tickets.
Operating the gondola required the following personnel. At least one person was required to sell lift ticket cards at the village station. One employee watched the line of customers to make sure that each customer properly entered through the ticket checking gates, and also helped customers form groups of four as they neared the lift loading area. Two other employees helped skiers and snowboarders get their equipment onto the gondola at the bottom, while two others helped users unload at the top. In the afternoon, additional employees helped skiers and snowboarders taking the gondola back down. Finally, a lift operator was needed to man the control room. The control room operator was effectively the manager in charge of monitoring the day-to- day operations.
The gondola opened at 9am and operated until 5pm. Between 9am and 10am was the busiest time of the day. On weekdays, an average of 700 skiers and snowboarders an hour arrived at the village gondola station during this period. From 11am to noon was a slow time, when an average of 230 skiers and snowboarders arrived at the village station on weekdays.
1. Calculate the average utilization of the gondola, average number in line and average waiting time for the period 9am - 10am. Calculate these same statistics for the period between 11am and noon. Report your results and explain how you calculated them. Please show how you calculated
2. Describe the queueing system of skiers and snowboarders arriving at the village station using queueing theory terminology.
3. On weekends and holidays, the resort frequently had much higher arrival rates than those shown above. Recently, management had been receiving complaints from customers about long lines to get on the gondola during early to mid-mornings on these days.
A: Provide three options that would improve the situation without decreasing the profitability of the operation.
B: Discuss the pros and cons of each of the three options.
C: Select one option and make a recommendation to implement it. Argue why this option is best for management.