This is quite similar to the TACO system that started managing operations for all Taco Bell locations in the late 80's by predicting the number of customers, ru

This is quite similar to the TACO system that started managing operations for all Taco Bell locations in the late 80's by predicting the number of customers, running a queuing model to determine the number of workers necessary, and using an integer programming model to schedule specific employees: http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~sasanr/Teaching-Material/MIS/DSS/DSS%20at%20Taco%20Bell.pdf http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~sasanr/Teaching-Material/MIS/DS... Queuing theory is fascinating and applicable to many real-life situations. For class, I built this queue simulator [1] that suggests the number of cashiers necessary for a restaurant (e.g. a Panera or Starbucks) based on the number of customers per hour, the average service time, and the goal customer checkout time by using an M/M/c [2] model: http://queue.philipithomas.com/ http://queue.philipithomas.com/ [1] It's technically not a simulation because it solves the problem analytically, but here is a simulation-based approach I also wrote: https://github.com/philipithomas/M_M_1 https://github.com/philipithomas/M_M_1 [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/M/c_queue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/M/c_queue