Details

Case

The Lums Telephone Exchange Problem

Arif Iqbal Rana, Rizwan Ahmed Dard

INDUSTRY : Education, University

AREA : Quantitative Methods

ORGANIZATION : Lums

LENGTH : 9

LUMS No : 06-283-2002-1

PUBLICATION YEAR : 2002

KEYWORDS:

LUMS,Lahore University of Management Sciences,Education,Institution,Organization,University,Telephone Exchange,Problem,Finance,Administration

DESCRIPTION:

Muhammad Ashraf, General Manager Finance and Administration, Lahore University of Management Sciences, was getting increasing complaints that telephone calls were not being attended by operators. Data on the operator service times for different calls, and call arrival pattern is given. At the surface the problem seemed to be that of not enough servers (or inefficient servers). However, mathematical analysis using spreadsheets showed that the problem lay somewhere else. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

This case is basically about Queuing at a telephone exchange. At the surface the problem seems to be that of not enough servers. However, analysis shows that is is neither; in fact the exchange does not have enough lines. Thus a major teaching objective is to show the power of simple mathematical analysis using spreadsheets.

SUBJECTS COVERED:

Quantitative Methods