18.1k views
4 votes
A fast food outlet has an average of 8 cars at the drive-through during "lunch rush" 11am-1pm. On average, 2 cars per min. arrive at the restaurant parking lot, and consider the drive-through but 25% of the time, an arriving car does not actually enter the drive-through line (i.e. it "balks"). Assume no car enters the line without completing the drive-through service (i.e. there is no "reneging"). On average, how much time does a car spend at the drive-through? Use Little's Law.

1 Answer

4 votes

Final answer:

To calculate the average time a car spends at the drive-through, we can use Little's Law. The average time a car spends at the drive-through is 4 minutes.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the average time a car spends at the drive-through, we can use Little's Law. Little's Law states that the average number of customers in a system is equal to the average arrival rate multiplied by the average time a customer spends in the system.In this case, the average number of cars at the drive-through is 8, and the average arrival rate is 2 cars per minute. So we have: 8 = 2 * average time a car spends at the drive-through.Solving for the average time a car spends at the drive-through, we get: average time = 8 / 2 = 4 minutes.

User Puiu
by
7.5k points