THE WAITING LINE PROBLEM

• A central problem in many service settings is

the management of waiting time. The
manager must weigh the added cost of
providing more rapid service (more service
counters, additional service manpower, more
checkout stands) against the inherent cost of
waiting.
The Practical View of Waiting Lines
 Economics of Waiting Lines
• A waiting line system is when a person or object spends time waiting
in a line for an activity or transaction to happen. A company should
have a goal of creating the optimal waiting experience to minimize
cost or increase sales, while pleasing customers.
• When a low level of service is experienced in a waiting line, a
customers may be dissatisfied with their experience and may not
come for repeat purchase.
• When a high level of service is experienced, a customer is more likely
to be satisfied with her experience and not only return for repeat
orders but also spread a positive word of mouth.
• However, the upfront cost to a company for providing a higher level
of service should be in line with customer expectations.
 Economics of Waiting Lines

• Optimal Waiting Line

1.Number of lines or servers -includes the arrangement of servers.
2.Arrival times of customers -includes how they arrive, for example in groups.
3.Waiting line rules -customer understanding the order in which they are
serviced

• Performance Measures
There are three measurements used to determine the economics of a waiting
line:
1.Population -average number of customers in line.
2.Wait time -average amount of time spent waiting.
3.System utilization rate -what percentage of time are servers busy.
 The Practical View of Waiting Lines

1. Segment the customers.

2. Train your servers to be friendly.
3. Inform your customers of what to expect.
4. Try to divert the customer’s attention when
waiting.
5. Encourage customers to come during slack
periods.
 Variable Demand and Service
•
Capacity Utilisation
Consumer demand for services exhibits cyclic behaviour with
considerable variation between peaks and valleys.
Examples- Rush in restaurants during lunch time
• Strategies adopted by service provider
A. Smoothen demand by-:
a) Using reservations/appointments
b) Using price incentives
c) Demarketing peak times
 Variable Demand and Service
Capacity Utilisation
• Strategies adopted by service provider
B. Adjust service capacity by:
a) Using part time help during peak hours.
b) Scheduling work shifts to vary workforce strength as per
demand.
c) Increasing self service content.

C. Allow customers to wait---- Make waiting a fun.

The Practical View of Waiting Lines
Customer Arrivals -Arrivals at a service system
may be drawn from a finite or an infinite
population. The distinction is important
because the analyses are based on different
premises and require different equations for
their solution.

Finite Population A finite population refers to

the limited-size customer pool that will use the
service and, at times, form a line.

An infinite population is large enough in

relation to the service system so that the
population size caused by subtractions or
additions to the population does not
significantly affect the system probabilities.
The Practical View of Waiting Lines
• Customer Arrivals -Arrivals at a service system may be drawn
from a finite or an infinite population. The distinction is
important because the analyses are based on different
premises and require different equations for their solution.
• Waiting line formulas generally require an arrival rate, or the
number of units per period (such as an average of one every six
minutes). A constant arrival distribution is periodic, with exactly
the same time between successive arrivals.
• In productive systems, the only arrivals that truly approach a
constant interval period are those subject to machine control.
Much more common are variable (random) arrival distributions.
 Exponential Distribution
• Usually, we assume that the time between arrivals is exponentially distributed.
Second, we can set some time length (T) and try to determine how many arrivals
might enter the system within T.
• In the first case, when arrivals at a service facility occur in a purely random fashion, a
plot of the inter arrival times yields an exponential distribution such as that shown in
graph. The probability function is

where λ is the mean number

of arrivals per time period
 Poisson Distribution
• In the second case, where one is interested in the number of
arrivals during some time period T, the distribution appears as
in graph below, and is obtained by finding the probability of
exactly n arrivals during T. If the arrival process is random, the
distribution is the Poisson, and the formula is
 Poisson Distribution
• If the mean arrival rate of units into a system is three per
minute (λ = 3) and we want to find the probability that exactly
five units will arrive within a one-minute period (n = 5, T = 1),
we have:
 POISSON DISTRIBUTION
• The Poisson distribution deals with the
number of occurrences in a fixed period of
time, and the exponential distribution deals
with the time between occurrences of
successive events as time flows by
continuously.
 Arrival Patterns

• The arrivals at a system are far more controllable than is

generally recognized.
• Barbers may decrease their Saturday arrival rate (and
supposedly shift it to other days of the week) by charging
an extra $1 for adult haircuts or charging adult prices for
children’s haircuts.
• Department stores run sales during the off-season or hold
one-day-only sales in part for purposes of control.
• Airlines offer excursion and off-season rates for similar
reasons. The simplest of all arrival-control devices is the
posting of business hours.
 Size of Arrival Units

• A single arrival may be thought of as one unit. (A unit

is the smallest number handled.) A single arrival on
the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is 100
shares of stock; a single arrival at an egg-processing
plant might be a dozen eggs or a flat of 2½ dozen; a
single arrival at a restaurant is a single person.
• A batch arrival is some multiple of the unit, such as a
block of 1,000 shares on the NYSE, a case of eggs at
the processing plant, or a party of five at a restaurant.
 Degree of Patience

• A patient arrival is one who waits as long as necessary until the

service facility is ready to serve him or her.
• There are two classes of impatient arrivals.
• Members of the first class arrive, survey both the service facility
and the length of the line, and then decide to leave.
• Those in the second class arrive, view the situation, join the
waiting line, and then, after some period of time, depart.
• The behaviour of the first type is termed balking, while the second
is termed reneging. To avoid balking and reneging, companies that
provide high service levels typically try to target server utilization
levels (the percentage of time busy) at no more than 70 to 80
percent.
 Waiting Lines and Servers

• Length. In a practical sense, an infinite line is simply one that is very

long in terms of the capacity of the service system.
• Gas stations, loading docks, and parking lots have limited line
capacity caused by legal restrictions or physical space characteristics.
• Number of lines. A single line or single file is, of course, one line only.
The term multiple lines refers to the single lines that form in front of
two or more servers or to single lines that converge at some central
redistribution point.
• Queue discipline. A queue discipline is a priority rule or set of rules
for determining the order of service to customers in a waiting line.
• Probably the most common priority rule is first come, first served
(FCFS)
 Waiting Lines and Servers

• Service Time Distribution Another important feature of

the waiting structure is the time the customer or unit
spends with the server once the service has started.
Waiting line formulas generally specify service rate as the
capacity of the server in number of units per time period
(such as 12 completions per hour) and not as service time,
• When service times are random, they can be
approximated by the exponential distribution. When using
the exponential distribution as an approximation of the
service times, we will refer to μ as the average number of
units or customers that can be served per time period.
WAITING LINE MODELS
 WAITING LINE MODELS

Problem 1: Customers in line. A bank wants to know how many customers are waiting for a
drive-in teller, how long they have to wait, the utilization of the teller, and what the service
rate would have to be so that 95 percent of the time there would not be more than three
cars in the system at any time.
Problem 2: Equipment selection. A franchise for Robot Car Wash must decide which
equipment to purchase out of a choice of three. Larger units cost more but wash cars faster.
To make the decision, costs are related to revenue.
Problem 3: Determining the number of servers. An auto agency parts department must
decide how many clerks to employ at the counter. More clerks cost more money, but there
is a savings because mechanics wait less time.
Problem 4: Finite population source. Whereas the previous models assume a large
population,
finite queuing employs a separate set of equations for those cases where the calling
customer population is small. In this last problem, mechanics must service four weaving
machines to keep them operating. Based on the costs associated with machines being idle
and
the costs of mechanics to service them, the problem is to decide how many mechanics to
use.
 WAITING LINE MODELS
• 1queueisthemostcommonlyuse
dtypeofqueue
• Usedtomodelsingleprocessorsys
temsortomodelindividualdevice
sinacomputersystemAssumesth
attheinterarrivaltimesandtheser
vicetimesareexponentiallydistri
butedandthereisonlyoneserver.
• Nobufferorpopulationsizelimita
tionsandtheservicedisciplineisF
CFS.
• Need to know only the mean
arrival rate λ and the mean
service rateμ
WAITING LINE MODELS
 WAITING LINE MODELS
• Western National Bank is considering opening a drive-thru
window for customer service. Management estimates that
customers will arrive at the rate of 15 per hour. The teller who
will staff the window can service customers at the rate of one
every three minutes.
Part 1 Assuming Poisson arrivals and exponential service, find
1. Utilization of the teller.
2. Average number in the waiting line.
3. Average number in the system.
4. Average waiting time in line.
5. Average waiting time in the system, including service.
WAITING LINE MODELS
 WAITING LINE MODELS
• QuickLubeInc.operatesafastlubeandoilchangegarage.On
atypicalday,customersarriveattherateofthreeperhourand
lubejobsareperformedatanaveragerateofoneevery15min
utes.Themechanicsoperateasateamononecaratatime.
• Assuming Poisson arrivals and exponential service, find
a. Utilization of the lube team.
b. The average number of cars in line.
c. The average time a car waits before it is lubed.
d. The total time it takes to go through the system
(that is, waiting in line plus lube time).
WAITING LINE MODELS