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Waiting Lines Model
Waiting Lines Model
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdAtf
yRpX28
In a life time, the average • “Americans hate to wait. So business is trying a trick or two to make
person will spend: lines seem shorter…” The New York Times, September 25, 1988
SIX MONTHS Waiting at stoplights • “An Englishman, even when he is by himself, will form an orderly
EIGHT MONTHS Opening junk mail queue of one…” George Mikes, “How to be an Alien”
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Waiting Realities
Inevitability of Waiting:
Waiting results from variations in arrival rates and service rates
Economics of Waiting:
High utilization purchased at the price of customer waiting. Make
waiting productive (salad bar) or profitable (drinking bar).
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• Balking
Arrival Queue
process Departure – When an arriving customer chooses not to enter a queue because
Calling discipline
Queue Service it’s already too long.
population process
configuration
Balk
No future
• Reneging
need for – When a customer already in queue gives up and exits without
service being serviced.
• Jockeying
– When a customer switches between alternate queues in an effort
to reduce waiting time.
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Expected costs
Doctor’s Patient Doctor Treatment typically results in lower
Service waiting costs and higher
office cost service costs.
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Distribution Of Arrivals
Elements Of Waiting Line Analysis
• Assumption: arrivals occur randomly and independently on
each other
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• Queue configuration refers to the number of queues, their locations, their spatial
• The calling population need not be requirements, and their effects on customer behavior
homogeneous;
• It may consist of several • Alternative waiting configurations for a service, such as a bank, a post office, or an
subpopulations airline counter
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Queue Configuration (ctd..) • For the multiple-queue alternative, the arriving customer must decide which queue to join.
• The decision need not be irrevocable, however, because one may switch to the end of
another line. This line-switching activity is called jockeying.
• In any event, watching the line next to you moving faster than your own is a source of
aggravation, but the multiple-queue configuration does have the following advantages:
1. The service provided can be differentiated. The use of express lanes in supermarkets is
an example. Shoppers with small demands on service can be isolated and processed
quickly, thereby avoiding long waits for little service.
2. Division of labor is possible. For example, drive-in banks assign the more experienced
teller to the commercial lane.
4. Balking behavior may be deterred. When arriving customers see a long, single queue
snaked in front of a service, they often interpret this as evidence of a long wait and decide
not to join that line.
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• The arrangement guarantees fairness by ensuring that a first-come, first-served • No need for a formal line
rule (FCFS) applies to all arrivals.
• Customers are
• There is a single queue; thus, no anxiety is associated with waiting to see if one free to wander about,
selected the fastest line. strike up a conversation,
relax in a chair, or
• With only one entrance at the rear of the queue, the problem of cutting-in is resolved pursue some other diversion.
and reneging made difficult.
Risks
• Privacy is enhanced because the transaction is conducted with no one standing
• Customers must remain alert to hear their numbers being called or risk missing
immediately behind the person being served.
their turns for service
• The “virtual queue” is perhaps the most frustrating of all because there is no
• This arrangement is more efficient in terms of reducing the average time that visible indication of your position in line
customers spend waiting in line.
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Queue Discipline
• Policy established by management to select the next customer from the queue for
service
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCiWMr
E8W4 • The most popular service discipline is the first-come, first-served (FCFS) rule
• This rule usually is reserved for emergency services, such as fire or ambulance
service.
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Consider the concept of round-robin service as used by a dentist with multiple • Channels are the number of parallel servers
examination rooms. ▫ Single channel
For example, a patient is given a local anesthetic before a tooth extraction. While the ▫ Multiple channels
anesthetic takes effect, the dentist moves onto another patient who requires x-rays. Thus,
customers share the service provider by alternating between waiting and being served. • Phases denote number of sequential servers the customer
must go through
▫ Single phase
▫ Multiple phases
• Steady state
▫ A constant, average value for performance characteristics that
system will reach after a long time
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Single-Channel Structures
Single-channel, single-phase
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo7LG_JeJ
os
Waiting line Server
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Servers
1. Arrivals are served on a FIFO basis and every arrival waits 4. Service times vary from one customer to the next and
to be served regardless of the length of the queue are independent of one another, but their average
2. Arrivals are independent of preceding arrivals but the rate is known
average number of arrivals does not change over time
5. Service times occur according to the negative
3. Arrivals are described by a Poisson probability distribution exponential distribution
and come from an infinite population
6. The service rate is faster than the arrival rate
Queue
Arrivals Served units Lq = The average number of customers waiting in queue
L = The average number of customers in the system
Wq = The average waiting time in queue
Assumptions
W = The average time in the system
p = The system utilization rate (% of time servers are busy)
• Arrivals have a Poisson distribution
• Service times have an exponential distribution
This system is called an M/M/1 Queuing System.
• Single channel
• Poisson arrival-rate distribution
lambda mean arrival rate • Exponential service-time distribution
mu mean service rate • Unlimited maximum queue length
• Infinite calling population
p average system utilizatio n
• Examples:
– Single-window theatre ticket sales booth
Note : for system stability. If this is not the case,
– Single-scanner airport security station
an infinitly long line will eventually form.
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15 L 3 students
p 0.75 or 75% 20 15
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W 0.2 hours P0 1 p p 0 1 0.751 0.25
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or 12 minutes P1 1 p p1 1 0.750.75 0.188
P2 1 p p 2 1 0.750.752 0.141
Wq pW 0.750.2 0.15 hours P3 1 p p 3 1 0.750.753 0.105
or 9 minutes P4 1 p p 4 1 0.750.754 0.079
Question
• Service Time Distribution
What is the mean service rate per hour?
Question
What percentage of the orders will take less than one minute
Answer
to process?
Since Joe Ferris can process an order in an average time of 2
minutes (= 2/60 hr.), then the mean service rate, µ, is µ = 1/(mean
service time), or 60/2. Answer
Since the units are expressed in hours,
m = 30/hr. P (T < 1 minute) = P (T < 1/60 hour).
Using the exponential distribution, P (T < t ) = 1 - e-µt.
Hence, P (T < 1/60) = 1 - e-30(1/60)
= 1 - .6065 = .3935 = 39.35%
Question
What is the average number of orders Joe has waiting to be
processed?
Answer
Average number of orders waiting in the queue is:
Lq = λ2/[µ(µ - λ)]
= (20)2/[(30)(30-20)]
= 400/300
= 4/3