10th Edition Full Test Bank Ch.5 Service Design

Chapter 5:
Service Design

True/False

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 1

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

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 1

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 1

1. What term is best described as acts, deeds, or performances that provide a customer time, place, form, or psychological utility.
2. goods
3. services
4. queues
5. jobs
6. Almost all consumer products consist of some combination of facilitating goods and facilitating services.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 2

1. Service companies are centralized and geographically concentrated.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 2

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

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 2

1. What term best describes the target market and the desired customer experience.
2. performance specifications
3. design specifications
4. service package
5. service concept
6. Which of the following is NOT a goal of the front office customer interface?

a. courtesy

b. transparency

c. standardization

d. usability

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

Difficulty: Medium

Learning Objective: LO 3

1. What term is best defined as a specialized flow chart used for service processes?
   1. service blueprinting
   2. servicescapes
   3. line of interaction
   4. line of influence

1. Which of the following is NOT part of the service-process matrix?
   1. Professional service
   2. Service shop
   3. Service mall
   4. Mass service
2. The distribution is the probability distribution most commonly used to describe service times.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 4

1. The tradeoff between the cost of improved service and the cost of making customers wait provides the basis of
   1. servicescape
   2. waiting line analysis
   3. service blueprinting
   4. service package
2. A single waiting line model can be applied to every type of waiting line system.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

1. Which of the following does NOT increase the size of the waiting line?
   1. service operations are understaffed
   2. arrival rate is larger than service rate
   3. customers do not arrive at a constant rate
   4. customers arrive at a Poisson’s distribution rate
2. Waiting lines form because customers arrival times and service times are not always equal.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

1. The number of arrivals per unit time to a service facility is often described by a
   1. exponential negative distribution.
   2. normal distribution.
   3. Poisson distribution.
   4. Weibull distribution.
2. Balking occurs when a customer waiting in a line moves from one line to another because he believes it is moving faster.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

1. What is the result to a queue if the average service rate is smaller than the average arrival rate?
   1. The line size goes to 0.
   2. Nothing.
   3. The line size grows infinitely long.
   4. The line size stays the same.
2. Queue discipline specifies the order in which waiting customers are served.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

1. 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.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

30. What term best refers to the number of parallel servers in a waiting line system?

1. single-phase
2. multiple-phase
3. channels
4. queue

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Multiple Choice

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

1. Intangible
2. Variable output
3. Difficult to emulate
4. Perishable

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 2

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

1. Tangible
2. Variable output
3. Difficult to emulate
4. Perishable

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 2

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

1. utilization factor
2. queue discipline
3. average number of customers in the system
4. probability the system is idle

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 2

36. A dentist office is an example of a

1. service factory.
2. mass service.
3. service shop.
4. professional service.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 3

37. An airline is an example of a

1. service factory.
2. mass service.
3. service shop.
4. professional service.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 3

38. A grocery store is an example of a

1. service factory.
2. mass service.
3. service shop.
4. professional service.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 3

39. A teacher is an example of a

1. service factory.
2. mass service.
3. service shop.
4. professional service.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 3

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

1. arrivals
2. servers
3. cost of waiting
4. waiting line structure

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

1. calling population
2. arrival rate
3. service line channel
4. service line phase

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

1. normal distribution.
2. Poisson distribution.
3. binomial distribution.
4. Beta distribution.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

1. calling population
2. queue discipline
3. number of channels
4. service rate

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

44. The number of channels in a queuing process

• 1. denotes the number of servers in sequence a customer must go through.
  2. denotes the size of the calling population.
  3. denotes the number of parallel servers for servicing arriving customers.
  4. denotes the average queue length.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

1. service cost increases and waiting cost decreases.
2. service cost decreases and waiting cost increases.
3. both service cost and waiting cost increase.
4. both service cost and waiting cost decrease.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

1. 3 per hour.
2. 12 per hour.
3. 16 per hour.
4. 20 per hour.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: µ =60/3=20 per hour

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

1. 90 per hour.
2. 40 per hour.
3. 30 per hour.
4. 1.5 per hour.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: µ=60/(90/60)=40 per hour

48. 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?

1. 30 customers
2. 20 customers
3. 15 customers
4. 2 customers

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: µ=60/2=30 per hour

49. 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

1. 0.20
2. 0.60
3. 0.80
4. 1.00

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: P=28/35=0.20

50. 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

1. 0.20
2. 0.60
3. 0.80
4. 1.00

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Po=1-28/35=0.20

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 probability that there are exactly 3 customers in the system is

1. 0.0000
2. 0.1024
3. 0.4096
4. 0.5120

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: P3=(28/35)*(28/35)*28/35*0.20=0.1024

52. 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

1. 0.128
2. 0.488
3. 0.512
4. 0.640

Difficulty: Hard

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: P2ormore=1-(P0+P1+P3)=1-(0.2+0.16+0.1024)=0.512

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

1. 4.0
2. 3.8
3. 3.5
4. 3.2

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Lq=28*28/(35*7)=3.2

1. 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
2. 4.0
3. 3.8
4. 3.2
5. 2.0

Difficulty: Moderate

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: L=28/(35-28)=4.0

1. 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
2. 0.114 minute.
3. 0.143 minute.
4. 6.84 minutes.
5. 8.58 minutes.

Difficulty: Hard

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Wq=28/(35*7)*60=6.84

1. 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
2. 0.114 minute
3. 0.143 minute
4. 6.84 minutes
5. 8.58 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: W=1/(35-28)*60=8.58

1. 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
2. decrease by 2 to 33 customers per hour.
3. decrease by 3 to 32 customers per hour.
4. increase by 3 to 38 customers per hour.
5. increase by 2 to 37 customers per hour.

Difficulty: Hard

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: 6/60 = 0.1 hr.; 0.1 = 1/(µ − 28); µ = 38

1. 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?
   1. 0.2067
   2. 0.7933
   3. 0.8333
   4. 0.1667

Difficulty: Moderate

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.2

1. 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?
2. 0.8333
3. 0.1667
4. 0.2067
5. 0.0481

Difficulty: Hard

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.2

1. 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?
2. 2.0432
3. 2.8364
4. 3.7536
5. 5.4837

Difficulty: Moderate

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.2

1. 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)?
2. 2.0432
3. 2.8364
4. 3.9785
5. 5.9782

Difficulty: Hard

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.2

1. 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?
2. 3 minutes
3. 5.975 minutes
4. 6.44 minutes
5. 8.94 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.2

1. 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?
2. 2.5 minutes
3. 3.0 minutes
4. 6.44 minutes
5. 24 minutes

Difficulty: Hard

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.2

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 service rate per server for this system is

1. 3.75 customers per hour.
2. 7.5 customers per hour.
3. 8 customers per hour.
4. 16 customers per hour.

Difficulty: Moderate

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.3

65. 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

1. 0.800
2. 0.536
3. 0.369
4. 0.111

Difficulty: Hard

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.3

66. 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

1. 0.7111
2. 0.8000
3. 0.8576
4. 0.9327

Difficulty: Hard

Feedback: Waiting Line Analysis for Service Improvement

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.3

67. 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

1. 1.600
2. 2.844
3. 3.200
4. 4.444

Difficulty: Hard

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.3

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 average number of customers waiting to be served would be

1. 4.444
2. 2.844
3. 1.600
4. 0.893

Difficulty: Hard

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.3

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 average amount of time, in minutes, spent in the system (i.e., waiting and being served) is approximately

1. 0.237 minutes
2. 14.22 minutes
3. 22.20 minutes
4. 33.30 minutes

Difficulty: Hard

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.3

1. 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
2. 0.370 minutes
3. 2.844 minutes
4. 14.22 minutes
5. 22.20 minutes

Difficulty: Hard

Learning Objective: LO 5

Solution: Use Excel Exhibit 5.3

Short Answer

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Hard

Learning Objective: LO 5

74. What is queue discipline and queue length?

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

75. Briefly describe the traditional cost relationship in waiting line analysis.

Difficulty: Easy

Learning Objective: LO 5

76. How are waiting line costs and service quality related?

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

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

Difficulty: Moderate

Learning Objective: LO 5

78. The reservation center at an airline receives calls that follow a Poisson distribution with mean 5 calls per minute. The probability that no calls are received in a given one-minute period is __________%.

a) 0.0034

b) 0.0067

c) 0.0135

d) 0.6738

79. The reservation center at an airline receives calls that follow a Poisson distribution with mean 5 calls per minute. The probability that at most 3 calls are received in a given one-minute period is __________%.

a) 14.04

b) 22.50

c) 26.50

d) 28.04

80. The reservation center at an airline receives calls that follow a Poisson distribution with mean 5 calls per minute. The probability that at least 8 calls are received in a given one-minute period is __________%.

a) 12.32

b) 13.30

c) 14.32

d) 15.02

81. The reservation center at an airline receives calls that follow a Poisson distribution with mean 5 calls per minute. The probability that at least 2 calls are received in a given two-minute period is __________%. (Note: you can assume that the number of calls received in two different minutes are independent.)

a) 97.27

b) 96.57

c) 94.27

d) 93.57

82. Births in a hospital have a Poisson distribution with a mean of 1.8 births per hour. The probability of having exactly 4 births in a given hour is __________.

a) 0.0523

b) 0.0659

c) 0.0723

d) 0.0859

83. Births in a hospital have a Poisson distribution with a mean of 1.8 births per hour. The probability of having at least 2 births in a given hour is __________.

a) 0.537

b) 0.507

c) 0.487

d) 0.447

84. Births in hospital A have a Poisson distribution with a mean of 1.8 births per hour. Births of in hospital B have a Poisson distribution with a mean of 2.1 births per hour. The probability of having at exactly 7 births in total from both hospitals in a given hour is __________.

a) 0.0682

b) 0.0631

c) 0.0592

d) 0.0551

85. Births in hospital A have a Poisson distribution with a mean of 1.8 births per hour. Births of in hospital B have a Poisson distribution with a mean of λ births per hour. What must be the value of λ so that the probability of having at exactly 7 births in total from both hospitals in a given hour is 0.1?

a) 2.99

b) 3.09

c) 3.21

d) 3.40

86. Births in hospital A have a Poisson distribution with a mean of λ_A births per hour. Births of in hospital B have a Poisson distribution with a mean of λ_B births per hour. What are possible values of λ_A and λ_B so that the probability of having at exactly 7 births in total from both hospitals in a given hour is 0.1486?

a) λ_A = 1.8 and λ_B = 5.2

b) λ_A = 2 and λ_B = 5.2

c) λ_A = 1.8 and λ_B = 5

d) λ_A = 2 and λ_B = 5

87. Births in hospital A have a Poisson distribution with a mean of λ_A = 2.3 births per hour. Births of in hospital B have a Poisson distribution with a mean of λ_B = 2.7 births per hour. If the probability of observing exactly n births in total from both hospitals in a given hour is 0.1755, then n = __________.

a) 7

b) 6

c) 5

d) 4