2013

Winter park hotel case ANALYSIS

Prepared by:

Nirmit Doshi Sadaf Khan Himanshu Jha Mohit Vyas Saloni Sharma

15 26 25 60 56

Submitted to: Prof. Mahesh K. C

WINTER PARK HOTEL CASE ANALYSIS

CASE OVERVIEW

Donna shader is manager of the Winter Park Hotel, is considering how to restructure the front desk to reach an optimum level of staff efficiency and guest service. At present the hotel has 5 clerks on duty each with a separate waiting line, during peak check-in time of 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. On average 90 guests arrive each hour. And it takes average 3 minutes for the front-desk clerk to register the guest. Donna is considering 3 plans for improving guest service by reducing the length of time guest spend waiting in line. 1. First proposal Designate 1 employee as a quick service clerk for guests registering under corporate accounts, a market segment that fills about 30% of all occupied rooms. As corporate guests are preregistered, their registration will take only 2 minutes. With these guests separated from the rest, the average time for registering a typical guest would be 3.4 minutes. Non-corporate guest can choose any line from the remaining lines.

2. Second proposal To implement single line system. All guests could form a single waiting line to be served by whichever of five clerks became available. This option requires sufficient lobby space for what could be a substantial queue.

3. Third proposal It involves using ATM for check-ins. It will provide same service rate as a clerk would. Initial use of technology might be minimal, Shader estimated that 20% of customers would be willing to use machines (this might be a conservative estimate if the guest perceive direct benefits from using the ATM, as bank customers do. Citibank reports that some 95% of its Manhattan customers use its ATMs.) Donna would set up a single queue for customers who prefer human check-in-clerks, although Donna is hopeful that the machine will allow a reduction to four.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Determine the average amount of time that a guest spends checking in. How would this change under each of the stated option? 2. Which option do you recommend?

WINTER PARK HOTEL CASE ANALYSIS

SOLUTION

The Current System:

The current system has five clerks each with his or her own waiting line. This can be treated as five independent queues each with an arrival time of 90/5 = 18 per hour. The service rate is one every 3 minutes, or 20 per hour. Number of servers = 1

Operating Characteristics
Average server utilization = Average number of customers in the queue Average number of customers in the system Average waiting time in the queue Average time in the system Probability (% of time) system is empty 0.9000 (Lq) = 8.1000 (L) = 9.0000 (Wq) = 0.4500 (W) = 0.5000 (P0) = 0.1000

First proposal
1. 30% arrivals Arrival rate 0.3(90)= 27 per hour Service rate (2 minutes)= 30 per hour

2. For remaining 63. Arrival rate 63/4=15.75 Service time (3.4 minutes)=17.65 per hour. Number of server= 1

WINTER PARK HOTEL CASE ANALYSIS

Operating Characteristics (1)

Average server utilization Average number of customers in the queue Average number of customers in the system Average waiting time in the queue Average time in the system Probability (% of time) system is empty (r) 0.9000 (Lq) = 8.1000 (L) = 9.0000 (Wq) = 0.3000 (W) = 0.3333(20 mins) (P0) = 0.1000

Operating Characteristics (2)

Average server utilization Average number of customers in the queue Average number of customers in the system Average waiting time in the queue Average time in the system Probability (% of time) system is empty (r) = 0.8925 (Lq) = 7.4098 (L) = 8.3023 (Wq) =0.4705 (W) =0.5271(31.8 mins) (P0)=0.1075

The average time for all arrivals would be 0.3(20) + 0.7(31.8) = 28.3 minutes.

WINTER PARK HOTEL CASE ANALYSIS

SECOND PROPOSAL
A single waiting line for the five clerks queue with arrival time90 per hour Service rate=20 per hour. Number of server= 5

Operating Characteristics
Average server utilization Average number of customers in the queue Average number of customers in the system Average waiting time in the queue Average time in the system Probability (% of time) system is empty (r) 0.9000 (Lq) =6.8624 (L)= 11.3624 (Wq)= 0.0762 (W)= 0.1262(7.6 mins) (P0)= 0.0050

WINTER PARK HOTEL CASE ANALYSIS

THIRD PROPOSAL

1) 20% arrivals
Service rate 20% Arrival rate 0.2(90)= 18 per hour It is same as current system Average time in the system (W)= 0.5000 The remaining arrival rate=72 hours Service rate=20 Number of servers= 4

Operating Characteristics
Average server utilization Average number of customers in the queue Average number of customers in the system Average waiting time in the queue Average time in the system Probability (% of time) system is empty (r) 0.9000 (Lq)= 7.0898 (L)= 10.6898 (Wq) =0.0985 (W)= 0.1485 (8.9 mins) (P0)= 0.0113

With four servers, the average time in the system is 8.9 minutes, resulting in an overall average 0.2*30 + 0.8*8.9 = 13.1 minutes

WINTER PARK HOTEL CASE ANALYSIS

2) The remaining
arrival rate=72 hours Service rate=20 Number of servers= 5

OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS
Average server utilization Average number of customers in the queue Average number of customers in the system Average waiting time in the queue Average time in the system Probability (% of time) system is empty (r) 0.7200 (Lq) =1.0553 (L)= 4.6553 (Wq)= 0.0147 (W) =0.0647(3.9 mins) (P0)= 0.0228

With five servers, the average time is 3.9 minutes resulting in an overall average 0.2*30 + 0.8*3.9 = 9.1 minutes

RESULT & CONCLUSION:

Waiting time is lower in second proposal it is just 7.6 minutes. So the option that is to be recommended is 2nd.