This program allows informed scheduling decisions about how many cashiers/servers to staff based on anticipated customer load. Based on input of number of customers expected in an hour and on how long, on average, it takes a cashier to check out a customer, and the maximum time you want a customer to spend from when they enter the line to when they have finished at the register, the application recommends how many cashiers to staff.

This data is applicable to situations where all customers form a single line for multiple registers/servers. Queues are simulated as M/M/c queues, meaning that the model assumes that customer arrivals are a Poisson process, and that service times are exponentially distributed. It also assumes that customers are served in the order they arrive.

Terms:

• Average customers per hour: How many people are anticipated to make a purchase during the hour.
• Average Cashier Service Time: How long it takes a cashier to check somebody out.
• Goal Customer Order Time: The goal time it takes for a customer to finish checking out after they enter the line.
• Average Queue Length: The average number of customers in line, excluding those at the register.
• Average Checkout Time: How long, on average, it takes a customer from entering line to leaving the register.
• Cashier Utilization: Percentage of the time a cashier is working.