Deck 5: Service Design

Question 1

The service-process matrix is based on two characteristics: labor intensity and volume.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

In general, a service and its delivery system are inseparable.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A service package defines the target market and the desired customer experience.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The service concept also defines how a service differs from other similar products and how it will compete in the marketplace.

Question 5

It is widely accepted that the effective design and the efficient operation of services are critical to the health of the U.S. economy.

Question 6

In general, services are acts, deeds or performances that provide a customer time, place, form or psychological utility.

Question 7

The tradeoff between the cost of improved service and the cost of making customers wait provides the basis of waiting line analysis.

Question 8

Almost all consumer products consist of some combination of facilitating goods and facilitating services.

Question 9

Service design and improvement techniques cannot be applied to societal problems such as education, healthcare and government services.

Question 10

Waiting lines form because customers arrival times and service times are not always equal.

Question 11

A single waiting line model can be applied to every type of waiting line system.

Question 12

Service processes can be classified by the degree of labor intensity and customization.

Question 13

The number of arrivals per unit time to a service facility is often described by a Poisson distribution.

Question 14

When designing a service, performance specifications are converted into design specifications, and finally, delivery specifications,

Question 15

Waiting lines form only when service operations are understaffed.

Question 16

The service sector accounts for over 80 percent of employment in the United States.

Question 17

The calling population is the source of customers used in waiting line analysis.

Question 18

Service companies are centralized and geographically concentrated.

Question 19

Balking occurs when a customer waiting in a line moves from one line to another because he believes it is moving faster.

Question 20

The negative exponential distribution is the probability distribution most commonly used to describe service times.

Question 21

A dentist office is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional service.

Question 22

A grocery store is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional service.

Question 23

A teacher is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional service.

Question 24

The constant average values of operating characteristics a system attains after a long time is referred to as a steady state.

Question 25

Channels refers to the number of parallel servers in a waiting line system.

Question 26

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a service?

A) Tangible
B) Variable output
C) Difficult to emulate
D) Perishable

Question 27

In a waiting line system, the ___________ reflects the probability that the server is busy and the customer must wait.

A) utilization factor
B) queue discipline
C) average number of customers in the system
D) probability the system is idle

Question 28

As the level of service improves in a waiting line system the cost of service usually increases.

Question 29

Which of the following is not a basic element of a waiting line?

A) arrivals
B) servers
C) cost of waiting
D) waiting line structure

Question 30

Service quality in waiting line systems sometimes depends on the psychology of waiting.

Question 31

Queue discipline specifies the order in which waiting customers are served.

Question 32

The number of parallel servers in waiting line analysis is referred to as the number of phases.

Question 33

In general, as the level of service improves, the cost of service increases.

Question 34

If service times are exponentially distributed then service rates are normally distributed.

Question 35

An airline is an example of a

A) service factory.
B) mass service.
C) service shop.
D) professional service.

Question 36

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a service?

A) Intangible
B) Variable output
C) Difficult to emulate
D) Perishable

Question 37

One of the basic assumptions for the single-server model is that the calling population is finite.

Question 38

If the average service rate is smaller than the average arrival rate an infinitely large waiting line (queue) will form.

Question 39

A waiting line system is said to have a finite calling population if the size of the population of customers from which arrivals originate is known.

Question 40

Waiting line analysis should be applied only to situations with an infinite calling population.

Question 41

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the rate of 20 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a mean service time of 2 minutes per customer. What is the service rate per hour for the espresso stand?

A) 30 customers
B) 20 customers
C) 15 customers
D) 2 customers

Question 42

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The average number of customers in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) is

A) 4.0
B) 3.8
C) 3.2
D) 2.0

Question 43

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the probability that there are no customers in the diner?

A) 0.2067
B) 0.7933
C) 0.8333
D) 0.1667

Question 44

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that there are more than 2 customers in the system is

A) 0.128
B) 0.488
C) 0.512
D) 0.640

Question 45

The number of channels in a queuing process

A) denotes the number of servers in sequence a customer must go through.
B) denotes the size of the calling population.
C) denotes the number of parallel servers for servicing arriving customers.
D) denotes the average queue length.

Question 46

If the average time to serve a customer is 3 minutes, then the service rate, µ, is

A) 3 per hour.
B) 12 per hour.
C) 16 per hour.
D) 20 per hour.

Question 47

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that the server is idle is

A) 0.20
B) 0.60
C) 0.80
D) 1.00

Question 48

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that there are exactly 3 customers in the system is

A) 0.0000
B) 0.1024
C) 0.4096
D) 0.5120

Question 49

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for take out. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the probability that the diner is full and an arriving customer does not enter?

A) 0.8333
B) 0.1667
C) 0.2067
D) 0.0481

Question 50

The ______________ refers to the order in which waiting customers are served.

A) calling population
B) queue discipline
C) number of channels
D) service rate

Question 51

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The average time in minutes a customer spends waiting in line for service is

A) 0.114 minute.
B) 0.143 minute.
C) 6.84 minutes.
D) 8.58 minutes.

Question 52

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive to the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per minute. If the arrival rate remains at 28 customers per hour and the stand's manager wants to have the average time a customer spends in the system (i.e., wait time and service time) to be a maximum of 6 minutes on average, then the service rate must

A) decrease by 2 to 33 customers per hour.
B) decrease by 3 to 32 customers per hour.
C) increase by 3 to 38 customers per hour.
D) increase by 2 to 37 customers per hour.

Question 53

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The average number of customers waiting in line for service is

A) 4.0
B) 3.8
C) 3.5
D) 3.2

Question 54

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The probability that the server is busy is

A) 0.20
B) 0.60
C) 0.80
D) 1.00

Question 55

In general, as the number of servers in a waiting line system increases,

A) service cost increases and waiting cost decreases.
B) service cost decreases and waiting cost increases.
C) both service cost and waiting cost increase.
D) both service cost and waiting cost decrease.

Question 56

If, on average, it takes 90 seconds to serve a customer then the hourly service rate, µ, is

A) 90 per hour.
B) 40 per hour.
C) 30 per hour.
D) 1.5 per hour.

Question 57

The number of arrivals per unit of time at a service facility can frequently be described by a

A) normal distribution.
B) Poisson distribution.
C) binomial distribution.
D) Beta distribution.

Question 58

Consider an espresso stand with a single barista. Customers arrive at the stand at the rate of 28 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Service times are exponentially distributed with a service rate of 35 customers per hour. The average time in minutes a customer spends in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) is

A) 0.114 minute
B) 0.143 minute
C) 6.84 minutes
D) 8.58 minutes

Question 59

The ________________ is the source of customers for a waiting line system.

A) calling population
B) arrival rate
C) service line channel
D) service line phase

Question 60

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average number of customers in the diner?

A) 2.0432
B) 2.8364
C) 3.7536
D) 5.4837

Question 61

Do waiting lines only form when the service operation is understaffed? Explain?

Question 62

A service counter employs two servers. On average, a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. On average, the total number of customers in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) would be

A) 1.600
B) 2.844
C) 3.200
D) 4.444

Question 63

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average time a customer spends in the diner?

A) 3 minutes
B) 5.975 minutes
C) 6.44 minutes
D) 8.94 minutes

Question 64

A service counter employs two servers. On average, a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The average amount of time spent by a customer waiting in line is approximately

A) 0.370 minutes
B) 2.844 minutes
C) 14.22 minutes
D) 22.20 minutes

Question 65

What is queue discipline and queue length?

Question 66

How are waiting line costs and service quality related?

Question 67

Briefly describe the traditional cost relationship in waiting line analysis.

Question 68

A service counter employs two servers. On average, a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The service rate per server for this system is

A) 3.75 customers per hour.
B) 7.5 customers per hour.
C) 8 customers per hour.
D) 16 customers per hour.

Question 69

A service counter employs two servers. On average, a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The probability that there are no customers in the system is

A) 0.800
B) 0.536
C) 0.369
D) 0.111

Question 70

A service counter employs two servers. On average, a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The average number of customers waiting to be served would be

A) 4.444
B) 2.844
C) 1.600
D) 0.893

Question 71

A service counter employs two servers. On average a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The average amount of time, in minutes, spent in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) is approximately

A) 0.237 minutes
B) 14.22 minutes
C) 22.20 minutes
D) 33.30 minutes

Question 72

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average number of customers waiting (average queue length)?

A) 2.0432
B) 2.8364
C) 3.9785
D) 5.9782

Question 73

A service counter employs two servers. On average, a server requires 8 minutes to process a customer and service times follow an exponential distribution. Customers arrive at the counter at the rate of 12 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. The probability that an arriving customer must wait for service is

A) 0.7111
B) 0.8000
C) 0.8576
D) 0.9327

Question 74

What is a calling population in terms of a waiting line system?

Question 75

What are the basic elements of a waiting line? Define each.

Question 76

How can psychology be used to improve waiting lines? Provide an example.

Question 77

A small diner has one employee and a counter with seating for 8 customers. The diner does not package food for takeout. Customers arrive at the diner at the rate of 20 per hour (Poisson distributed). Service times are exponentially distributed and average 24 per hour. Customers that arrive when all seats are taken do not enter the diner. What is the average time a customer spends waiting?

A) 2.5 minutes
B) 3.0 minutes
C) 6.44 minutes
D) 24 minutes