Question: Consider the NYPD case. Assume, the managers decide to devise a performance metric that considers the i) waiting time before a patrol car is dispatched, and ii) the size of the precinct at the same time. More specifically, they would like to minimize the sum of the weighted time in queue as the metric for allocation, wherein the size of the precincts are used as weights.
(a) Set-up a Solver model to find the best way to allocate 20 cars across 6 precincts, solve the model to find the optimum allocation, and send the Excel file you use to solve the problem by e-mail. (Assume all calls are responded to in a FCFS manner.)
(b) Repeat part (a), but this time, assume the emergency (i.e., high-priority) calls are assigned patrol cars with priority. Also assume that the waiting times for high-priority calls are 300 times as important as the regular calls.