Excel Assignment: The University of
Puddletown’s Students’ Union Shop
1 General Restriction
Visual Basic for Application (VBA) code should NOT be used for solving the problem.
2 Background
The Students’ Union Shop is trying to work out how many cashiers it needs to employ in
order to provide an adequate service level. Customers at the shop line up in a single queue
and are called forward to pay for their purchases when a till becomes free. To help determine
the busy times of the day, the shop has recorded the number of customers arriving at the tills
in each 5-minute interval during the shop’s opening hours, from 8am until 6pm (N.B. this
is the number who actually make a purchase and does not include customers who are just
browsing). Records for a period of 5 weeks are available. All the data were collected during
term time.
The shop usually functions with just three cashiers but it has the capacity to support up to
6. An extra cashier costs £20 an hour. The shop is open for approximately 50 weeks each
year. The management has also collected data about the time it takes for cashiers to take
payment. These data come from term time and 1000 records are available. Management are
concerned that customers wishing to buy food, in particular, may be going to other outlets
within the university such as the Big Ears Sandwich Shop or the Noddy Bar. Management are
also concerned about the turnover of their staff and would like to reduce their stress and also
stop them getting bored. They would be interested to hear about any innovative operating
strategies for doing this.
You have been employed as a consultant for the Students’ Union Shop and should
• Report on their current business, pointing out any existing problems;
• Suggest improvements to their current strategies;
• Provide them with an efficient tool for easily evaluating their current performance using
the data provided or new data in a similar format.
3 Data
The data on customer arrivals and cashiers’ service times are available on the module site
under Assignment, Business Analytics.
4 What You Should Produce
4.1 Main Report
Your report should review the current situation of the Students’ Union Shop queueing system
and suggest ways of improving the service level. You must give a convincing argument to
support the improvements you are suggesting, e.g. by showing the cost-benefit of adding an
extra cashier in terms of staff utilisation and customer waiting time.
4.2 Technical Report and Spreadsheet Model
Produce a multi-server queueing model using Excel, which could be used by the Students’
Union Shop management team for evaluation of their performance using the data provided
or any new data that becomes available in a similar format. The model should be supported
by technical documentation, which should give details of the analysis method used, include a
description of how it was implemented in a spreadsheet and a brief description of how to use
the spreadsheet.
If there is any further information you believe to be essential, make a realistic
assumption and explain clearly what you have done.
4.3 Length of Reports
The Students’ Union Shop management team are very busy and so value concise reports. Each
report should be no more than 10 pages and the total number of pages should not exceed 15.
Marking:
Note that this assignment is deliberately open-ended and initiative will be rewarded. The
assignment will be marked out of 100, with the marks allocated as follows:
• 35 marks are available for the main report, broken down as follows:
– Clarity (15 marks)
– Accuracy (10 marks)
– Technical content (10 marks)
• 65 marks are available for the technical report and spreadsheet, broken down as follows:
– Report (technical content and documentation) (20 marks)
– Usability, data input validation (15 marks)
– Functionality (20 marks)
– Initiative/creativity (10 marks)
Why Choose Us
Quality Papers
We value our clients. For this reason, we ensure that each paper is written carefully as per the instructions provided by the client. Our editing team also checks all the papers to ensure that they have been completed as per the expectations.
Professional Academic Writers
Over the years, our Acme Homework has managed to secure the most qualified, reliable and experienced team of writers. The company has also ensured continued training and development of the team members to ensure that it keep up with the rising Academic Trends.
Affordable Prices
Our prices are fairly priced in such a way that ensures affordability. Additionally, you can get a free price quotation by clicking on the "Place Order" button.
On-Time delivery
We pay strict attention on deadlines. For this reason, we ensure that all papers are submitted earlier, even before the deadline indicated by the customer. For this reason, the client can go through the work and review everything.
100% Originality
At Buy An Essay, all papers are plagiarism-free as they are written from scratch. We have taken strict measures to ensure that there is no similarity on all papers and that citations are included as per the standards set.
Customer Support 24/7
Our support team is readily available to provide any guidance/help on our platform at any time of the day/night. Feel free to contact us via the Chat window or support email: support@acmehomework.com.
Try it now!
How it works?
Follow these simple steps to get your paper done
Place your order
Fill in the order form and provide all details of your assignment.
Proceed with the payment
Choose the payment system that suits you most.
Receive the final file
Once your paper is ready, we will email it to you.
Our Services
Buy An Essay has stood as the world’s leading custom essay writing services providers. Once you enter all the details in the order form under the place order button, the rest is up to us.
Essays
At Buy An Essay, we prioritize on all aspects that bring about a good grade such as impeccable grammar, proper structure, zero-plagiarism and conformance to guidelines. Our experienced team of writers will help you completed your essays and other assignments.
Admissions
Admission and Business Papers
Be assured that you’ll definitely get accepted to the Master’s level program at any university once you enter all the details in the order form. We won’t leave you here; we will also help you secure a good position in your aspired workplace by creating an outstanding resume or portfolio once you place an order.
Editing
Editing and Proofreading
Our skilled editing and writing team will help you restructure you paper, paraphrase, correct grammar and replace plagiarized sections on your paper just on time. The service is geared toward eliminating any mistakes and rather enhancing better quality.
Coursework
Technical papers
We have writers in almost all fields including the most technical fields. You don’t have to worry about the complexity of your paper. Simply enter as much details as possible in the place order section.