BBU Queueing Project – Autumn 2023 QM

Project Task [Total 25 points]

The queueing project serves to test the application of the learned queuing models using real
data collected by students.

Project group creation [Deadline: October 8]

For the project, it is necessary to form groups of 2-3 people from the students of the seminar
groups. The group members will collect data, prepare, make calculations, make report, and
do the presentation together. Each member of a group will receive the same project score.

Data collection [7 points, Deadline: November 5]

Project groups should observe two real queuing systems for one hour each.

a) One queue should be single-channel, that is, you need to look for a place where there is
one service station (cashier, counter) and before that, rows of varying lengths are formed in
time. It is important that arrivals and services are random, that service is fast enough to
make departures within minutes, and that the length of the queue changes dynamically.

The members of the group count the number of queuers, incoming and leaving every
minute, recording the data. It can be useful to take photos of the line and check the
correctness of the data
afterwards.

The location and time

of the observed system
(day, initial time and
end time in hours and
minutes) have to be
registered.

The number of arrivals,

the number of departures and the average length of the waiting queue (including the one
currently being served) within minutes must be registered.

1
BBU Queueing Project – Autumn 2023 QM

The measured data has to be recorded in an Excel file in the following form:

Serial number Number of Number of Average length of

of the minute arrivals departures the queue
1
2
:
60

If a group of people will come for just one-time service, they should be considered as one
demand.

b) The other monitored queue must be

multichannel, i.e. next to each other
two or more service stations, checkouts
must work in the same way. In this
case, it is important to ensure strict
priority service (first came first served
principle) so that our formulas are valid.
We can do this in a place where there is a single line in front of the cash registers, the first
member of which will go to the first cashier released.

It is important that the number of open cash registers does not change during the observed
period. Therefore, if it changes, say from 4 to 5, then the observed data is broken down into
two separate sets of data, making the calculations separately on the number of operating
servers (S = 4, S = 5) .

The observed data have to be entered in the same table as in the single-server case, but the
number of cashiers that are working will still need to be added.

Serial number Number of Number of Average length of Number of

of the minute arrivals departures the queue operating
checkouts
1
2
:
60

2
BBU Queueing Project – Autumn 2023 QM

Calculations [8 points, Deadline: November 19]

The data will be used to perform calculations in the last two weekly seminars using queuing
formulas and procedures.

Report [5 points, Deadline: November 26]

The results obtained will be presented in a report at the last weekly seminar. The description
of the project, the report is a 2-3 page word file, where the place, time, circumstances,
results calculated from the data, their interpretation, comparison and final conclusions are
described.

All this in detail:

1. Place and time of data collection. [possibly photo, mention of circumstances, experiences]

2. Description and interpretation of the averages of the three data series. [if the average
number of departures is less than the average number of arrivals, the service rate shall be
recalculated so that the utilization factor to be less than 1]

3. Give and interpret the calculated values of the theoretical measures of performance of
the system [L, W, Lq, Wq], and compare them with the observed ones.

4. Assuming that, the serving equipment [cashier] serves clients twice as fast, enter the
recalculated performance measures and compare them with the previous ones.

5. Assuming you set up a second cashier besides the original parameters, enter the
calculated new performance measures and compare them with the results obtained in step
3.

6. Compare the time taken for the average waiting times obtained in points 3, 4, and 5, and
interpret the differences.

7. Finally, describe your final conclusions about the data collected and the calculated values
of your queuing system.

Steps 5 and 6 are only required for the examination of the single server system.

If there is data on the operation of a multi-server system, it is necessary to compare the

performance indicators of single and multichannel systems in step 7.

3
BBU Queueing Project – Autumn 2023 QM

Presentation [5 point, Deadline: December 4-8, last seminar]

The project will be presented at the last seminar of the teaching period. The project groups
present the implementation of the project, presenting the most important results
conclusions. To raise the presentation level, you can create a PowerPoint or Prezi file to
show the most important results.

Remarks:

If multi-server system monitoring fails, the project will be accepted as complete in a single
server version. All 25 points can be given in this case, if all the tasks are completed according
to the expectations, in time.

By comparing multi-server observation with its calculations and single server observation, an
extra 10 points can be obtained.

Good work with the project!