Question :

(a) (i) What do you understand by the term "operations research"?

(ii) Discuss three common operations research models.

(b) Self-service at the university canteen requires an average of 7 minutes per student whilst attended service has a rate of 6 minutes per student. Customers arrive randomly at the rate of 5 per hour. As the manager of the canteen, you are required to calculate the following operations statistics for each service:

(i) the average number of customers,
(ii) the expected number of customers waiting for service,
(iii) average time spent in the system,
(iv) average time waiting for service.

Based on your results in (b), comment on the two services offered at the university canteen.