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Waiting Line Models: (Queuing Theory)
Waiting Line Models: (Queuing Theory)
(Queuing Theory)
Production lines
Trucks waiting to unload or load Workers waiting for parts Customers waiting for products Broken equipment waiting to be fixed Customers waiting for service
Costs
The costs of waiting
Paying repairmen to fix broken machines Paying dock workers to load and unload trucks Paying customer-service people Using more production people to speed up the line Leasing of service equipment and facilities Paying checkout cashiers
2012 Lew Hofmann
Costs of Waiting
Fewer servers often means longer waiting for customers.
Optimal # of servers
Number of Servers
Note that the lowest cost system requires some customer waiting.
2012 Lew Hofmann
Average number of customers in line. Average time in line for a customer. Average number of customers in the system Average time in the system for a customer. Probability of n number of customers in the
system at any given time.
at any time.
QUEUE
(The nature of the waiting line or lines of customers)
SERVICE FACILITY
(How customers progress through the service facility)
2012 Lew Hofmann
Service System
Arrival System
Service facilities
Served customers
The sequence in which customers are admitted into the service facility.
Arrival System
Limited (EG: Only people age 21 or over.) Unlimited (EG: cars arriving at a toll booth) Random (Each arrival is independent) Scheduled (EG: Doctors office visits) Balking (Seeing a long line and avoiding it.) Reneging (Get tired of waiting and leave the line) Jockeying (Switching lines)
Poisson Distributions
(You dont need to know this!) The Poisson distribution is a probability distribution frequently used for arrival rates where any given arrival is difficult to predict. It is a Discrete Probability Distribution. A Discrete Probability Distribution is characterized by a probability mass function. A Probability Mass Function is a function that gives the probability that a discrete random variable is exactly equal to some value.
Channels are the paths (ways to get through the system) after getting in line?
Pay
Pick-up
Single-channel, Single-phase
One way through the system and one stop for service
Service Facility
Multi-channel, Single-phase
Once in line, you have at least two choices of how to get through the system, but only one stop. Service Facility Service Facility
Multi-channel, Multi-phase
Once in line, you have at least two choices (channels) of how to get through the system and at least two stops (phases).
Service Facility
Service Facility Service Facility Service Facility
2012 Lew Hofmann
FIFO (First In, First Out) (Customers are served in the order they arrive.) Arrivals are unlimited (infinite) Arrivals are random rather than scheduled. Customers arrive independently of each other. Service times can vary from one customer to
another, and are independent of each other.
(Customers may have different service needs and times.)
2012 Lew Hofmann
Always enter the service rate for 1 server. The model will compute the total service rate based on the number of servers.
Queuing Problem
At a large Naval Ship Repair Facility mechanics have to make frequent trips to the tool crib for parts and specialized equipment. Arrivals are infinite (unrestricted) since
mechanics can come as often as need, even though the population of customers is finite.)
Records indicate that the tool crib serves an average of 18 mechanics each hour, but an attendant is capable of serving 20 per hour. If mechanics are paid $30 per hour and the tool crib attendants make $9 per hour, would it be more cost effective to have one or two attendants in the tool crib?
The service rate is always the average time for one server, regardless of how many servers there are in the system. In this case it is 20, which is higher than the arrival rate of 18. If the service rate had been lower than the arrival rate, the problem would not be solvable, because customers would arrive faster than they could be served.
2012 Lew Hofmann
1st Attendant
2nd Attendant
(It depends on the relative costs of service versus waiting.)
2nd Attendant
I ran the POM-QM model using two servers, but I could have run it with any number of servers since you always enter the service rate for one server. The POM-QM model will do the computations for more than one server.
2012 Lew Hofmann
Average # customers in the system Average time spent in the system Average time spent in line Average # of customers in line
2012 Lew Hofmann
In this problem, you would have gotten this screen regardless of how many servers you used for the input, because the service rate for one server exceeded the arrival rate. However, the number of servers you enter has to exceed the arrival rate. If the single-server rate in this problem had been six per hour instead of 20, you would have had to enter at least 4 servers. (Three servers would
2012 Lew Hofmann
have served 18 per hour, which does not exceed the arrival rate of 18.)
# of Servers 1 2
Average # customers in the system 9 Average time in the system (min.) Average # customers in line Average time in line (min.)
1.13
30
8.1
3.76
0.23
27
0.76
10% 38%
Once you know the optimal # of servers, make sure you run it again for that many servers in order to get the right data. But always enter the service rate for one server, regardless of how many servers.
2012 Lew Hofmann
Homework Assignment
Due next Friday Problem 1: The Service Dept. Problem 2: The Gravel Pit
Use POM/OM or Excel Solver software and submit printouts to support your decisions
Currently 9 empty trucks arrive each hour (on average). In addition to waiting in line, it takes 6 minutes for a truck to be filled, weighed and checked out.
Concerned that trucks are spending too much time waiting and being filled, you evaluate the current situation and compare it to the 2 alternatives below.
Alternative 1: Speed up the loading process and add side boards to the trucks so that more material can be loaded faster. This will improve the speed of loading, but cost $50,000. Since the trucks hold more, their arrival rate would be reduced to 6 per hour and the loading time would be reduced to 4 minutes each.
Alternative 2: Add a second loading station at a cost of $80,000. The trucks would arrive at the current rate of 9 per hour. They would then wait in a common line and the truck at the front of the line would move to the next available loading station. Loading time at each of the stations is 6 minutes. Which alternative do you recommend? (Select No Cost in the POM/QM waiting line model. You must decide which of the three situations would the most cost effective based on time in the system and upgrade costs.
2012 Lew Hofmann