Queuing System for Mercury Drug Store (Lemery Branch)

Chapter 1
I. Introduction
As mandatory lockdowns are being observed all over the globe in response
to the fight against COVID19, local and national level pharmacy professionals are
performing frontline roles by providing customers and patients with their
prescriptions and medications while still implementing the new normal rules
because of the pandemic. Precautions such as these rules affect service systems
and increased waiting lines.
A waiting line or queue management is a type of service industry. In the
current competitive climate, achieving sustainable competitive advantage is a key
to survival for any small or large service organisation. Therefore, organisations
around the globe are continuously seeking ways of improving their operational
performances, quality, competitiveness, and profitability that ultimately lead to
sustainable competitive advantage. It is well evident that the once dominated by
manufacturing industries the economy has, nowadays, shifted more towards a
service based economy. This research emphasizes that performing well on
operational elements leads to satisfied and loyal customers. Operational indicators
such as dependability, quality, and speed have been of interest to operations
management researchers. Queue management deals with cases where the
customer arrival is random; therefore, service rendered to them is also random.
Queue is a common word that means a waiting line or the act of joining a line.
Waiting in line or queue causes inconvenience to customers and economic costs
to firms.
Queuing theory was initially proposed by A.K. Erlang in 1903. It optimizes
the number of service facilities and adjusts the times of services. Some of the
analysis that can be derived using queuing theory include the expected waiting
time in the queue, the average time in the system, the expected queue length as
well as the probability of the system to be in certain states, such as empty or full.
This paper uses queuing theory to study the waiting lines in Mercury
Drugstore in Lemery. It is known that Mercury Drugstores is the country's trusted
and caring health and wellness partner, providing the widest range of branded and
generic medicines, as well as a complete line of healthcare and personal care
 products, including medical devices, and basic everyday needs but because of the
new safety guidelines, problems in queue lines are noticeably rising.
In order to reduce the time spent in waiting systems, one solution would be
to supplement the checkout clerks, but this is not always the most economical
strategy to improve services especially considering the present situation. One of the
factors influencing consumers' perception on service quality is the efficiency of
waiting systems. The waiting time is inevitable in the case of random requests. Thus,
providing the capacity for a sufficient service is needed, but it involves high costs.
This is the premise from which the queuing theory starts in designing service
systems (Alecu, F., 2004).
This study is based on the understanding that most of these difficulties can
be managed by using queuing models to determine the waiting line performance
such as: average arrival rate of customers, average service rate, system utilization
factor, cost of service and the probability of a specific number of customers in the
system. The purpose of this study is to provide insight into the general background
of queuing theory and its associated terminology, and how queuing theory can be
used to model canteen business. The resultant performance variables can be used
by the policy makers to increase efficiency, improve the quality of care, as well as
decrease cost in organizations and services. The determination of how long a
customer should wait for a product or service has long been a major concern for
service management specialists who bear the trade-off between minimizing
operation costs incurred in optimizing the configuration of a queue system, as well
as, minimizing the cost of waiting of the customers. As the current economies
progressively change into a service dominated one because of the pandemic, it is
essential to thoroughly understand the know-how to effectively deal with waiting lines
so as to improve customer satisfaction of the service being offered.

II. Statement of the Problem

This study aims to reduce the waiting line queue at Mercury Drugstore in Lemery,
Batangas, to improve customer satisfaction and identify answers to the primary
research questions given below:

Research Questions:

1. What is the current state of the queueing system in Mercury Drugstore in Lemery,
 Batangas?

2. What is the root cause of the current problem with the queue management of the
store?

3. What is the potential solution?

4. What is the optimal queuing system model for this configuration

5.What is the best way to determine which component of the queue model needs to
be improved?

III. Hypothesis
Hypothesis is a supposition or a proposed explanation made on the basis
of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

H0: Fundamental Business Principles of Customer Satisfaction are being followed

to reap optimal results.
H1: Fundamental Business Principles of Customer Satisfaction are not being
followed to reap optimal results.

H0: Increasing efficiency (status quo) can raise customer satisfaction.

H1: There is a negative relationship between efficiency and customer satisfaction.

H0: There is a significant benefit for customers and the company with
implementation of a queuing system.
H1: H0: There is no significant benefit for customers and the company with
implementation of a queuing system.

IV. Significance of the Study

This study will be undertaken to determine how the waiting line will be
minimized at Drugstores in Batangas City, to measure the number of customers
arriving at various times, where they can receive the service and then depart from
the Drugstore and the benefits of having an effective queue for various sectors.
The said sectors are as follows:
Pharmacies/ Drug Stores - This may help to organize the queuing system of
customer service with tangible results of increasing customer loyalty and
satisfaction and also profitability
Customers - This result will be beneficial to the customers of Pharmacies (Lemery
Branch), as they will be prioritized in safeness and on how significant this efficient
system is for consumers, servers as well as to pharmacies.
Researchers - This may help to encourage other researchers to improve, conduct
further study and provide quantitative data of a deep understanding for the queuing
system. It is a study that can give them access to information about the minimizing
the queuing system in Drugstores. It also serves as a wake-up call to other
Drugstores that they can assist with their facilities.
Future Researchers - This study has the potential to broaden the expertise of
other researchers and open new opportunities for future studies. It may also serve
as a model for others to follow and enable them to pursue similar research
regarding the queuing system.
V. Conceptual Framework

VI. Theoretical Framework

Queueing systems are simplified mathematical models to explain
congestion. Broadly speaking, a queueing system occurs any time 'customers'
demand 'service' from some facility; usually both the arrival of the customers and
the service times are assumed to be random.A queuing system can be completely
described by:
a. the input or arrival pattern (customers);
b. the service mechanism (service pattern);
c. the “queue discipline”; &
d. customer’s behavior
The diagrammatic representation of the above components of queuing
system is shown in the figure 1:
 A queuing system consists of one or more servers that provide service to
arriving customers. Figure 1 shows the characteristics of the queuing system [2,
3]. The population of customers may be finite (closed systems) or infinite (open
systems). The customers arrive at the service center in a random fashion. Queue
represents a certain number of customers waiting for service. The capacity of a
queue is either limited or unlimited. Bank is an example of unlimited queue length.
Figure 2 represents a queuing model, where:
● Arrival rate (𝜆) – the average rate at which customers arrive.
● Service time (s) – the average time required to service one customer.
● Number waiting (W) – the average number of customers waiting.
● Number in the system (Q) – the total number of customers in the
system.

Enhancing the quality of the queuing system in Drugstore pharmacies had

a great impact on the customers, servers and allocation of services. Many studies
investigate the service quality and related issues such as customers dissatisfaction
due to the long waiting time. In this study, will identify the outcome of previous
researchers using the queuing system and on how they achieve to minimize
customers waiting lines.
The standards for customers selecting a store are not only qualified and
inexpensive commodities but also service quality. Long queues in the cashier or
cash register can be extremely frustrating for both customers and the servers.
However, few check-out stands may lead to serious waiting, affecting service
quality, causing loss of customers. Understanding the nature of line “queues” and
learning how to optimize them is one of the most important areas in operations
management. (Nafees, 2007)

There are two different models, such as, Single-queue Multiple Servers
model and Multiple-Queues, Multiple Servers model that can explain this
phenomenon.
According to these models, the arrival process has the number of customers
arriving and the nature of the services they require. On the other hand, the waiting
 process includes the length of the queue, the time in which, customer waits for his
services (Nafees, 2007). Service model indicates the time that each customer took
during the services, which was given to them. It is one of the essential things to
know what time each customer requires to be served. If by this time, a customer
changes his queue and moves to another queue due to the shortage of his length,
then this would act as a parallel server (Jardine & Tsang, 2013). There is always
fluctuation in the arrival time and the time of service. Through the combination of
input processes and Poisson processes, a general criterion for counting the
numbers of customers is decided. Intervals caused in sales services are studied
through these criterions of queuing systems (Nafees, 2007).

VII. Scope and Limitations

(TO BE IMPROVED)
This study focuses on Minimizing Customer Waiting Lines at Drugstores in
Batangas City using Queuing Analysis for this reason, Drugstores is undertaking
Queuing Analysis research as a means of reducing customer waiting lines and
ensuring a better and safer service for both customers and employees, as
excessive waiting times in businesses contribute to bad customer experiences and
a toxic work environment. In response to COVID-19, queue management systems
that allow customers to physically distance themselves from each other and still
experience an efficient waiting line are more important than ever. However, J.
McAdams (2021) stated that in 2020, online revenue growth was up 44% and in
the first quarter of 2021 it increased 39% year-over-year and is bothered to wait a
long period in lines surrounded by people that may be infected.

In this study, we concluded that our problem falls into the single server
waiting line model and as a Single Channel, Multi Phase since in Drugstores there
are five employees present to assist customers and they can run for whatever the
prescriptions and one cashier. As a result, this study advises the store to add extra
personnel to occupy more customers and to inform customers about. If the store
implements the advised action, the number of customers that can be served will
 increase from 20 customers per hour to 25 customers per hour as it is stated above
in the “new” section.

VIII. Definition of Terms

Arrival rate- The mean number of new calling units arriving at a service facility per
unit time. (S.M.Ross, 2010, Introduction to Probability Models (Tenth Edition))

ATM Model- It is an electronic banking outlet that allows customers to complete basic
transactions without the aid of a branch representative or teller. (S.Barron, 2010,
Introduction of the plastic card with its magnetic strip).

COVID-19- It is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.(World Health

Organization, 2019, Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses).

FIFO-queuing-process- It is first in first out. Also called first-come, first-served

(FCFS), this principle states that customers are served one at a time and that the
customer that has been waiting the longest is served first. (A.K. Erlang, 1929, Danish
mathematician, statistician and engineer).

Customer- It is a person or company that receives, consumes or buys a product or

service and can choose between different goods and suppliers. (Market Business
News, 2021, Business news articles on a daily basis)

Little’s theorem- The long-term average number of customers in a stable system L

is equal to the long-term average effective arrival rate, λ, multiplied by the average
time a customer spends in the system, W. (Muhammad El-Taha and Shaler
StidhamJr., 1954, Theory of probability)

Number in the system (Q)- It is the total number of customers in the system. (H.A.
Thurston, 1956, The number system)
Number waiting (W)- Won the National Book Award that year, the average number
of customers waiting. (H. Jin (哈金), 1999, Pantheon Books)

Pharmaceutical- It is any kind of drug used for medicinal purposes, like cough syrup
or sleeping pills. (pharmaceuticals@mdpi, 1918, The modern era of the
pharmaceutical industry)

Pharmacies/ Drug Stores- A pharmacy is a retail shop which provides

pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. (R. Armour, 2018, American poet and
author who wrote more than 65 books)

Poisson Process- It is a model for a series of discrete events where the average
time between events is known, but the exact timing of events is random.(J. F. C.
Kingman, 1837, Professor of Mathematical Science)
 Queuing theory- It is a branch of mathematics that studies how lines form, how they
function, and why they malfunction. (A.K. Erlang, 2021, Danish mathematician,
statistician and engineer)

Researchers- It is someone who conducts research and it is also the one who
organized and systematic investigation into something. (Vocabulary site, 2018, Learn
new words)

Servers- It is the person who serves the needs of the customers in a store. (L. Server,
2006, Excellent biography)

Service time (s). It is simply defined as the time taken by the system to process a
particular service request. Service Time tends to remain constant for a given
transaction when there is no change in any of the user inputs or other environment
variables that govern the performance of the given business transaction. (kardi
teknomo, 2017, International Business Engineering)

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Ndukwe H. C.1 *, Omale S.1 and Opanuga O. O.2 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy,

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Jos, PMB 2084, Jos, Plateau State,

Nigeria. 2Outpatient Pharmacy Department, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, PMB

12003, Idiaraba, Lagos State, Nigeria. Accepted 8 April, 2011