Ae-MA 1

Management Science 1

Dr. Joseph Alfred M. Reyroso

 Chapter 14: WAITING LINE
Waiting Line also known as Queue, refers to the situation where individuals or
customers wait in line for service or access to a particular facility. This occurs
frequently in densely populated and urban areas, such as toll booths, banks,
supermarkets, restaurants, and during traffic congestion.
Queuing Theory is a detailed mathematical analysis that is used to solve waiting
line situations. It originated with Agner Kracup Erlang’s telephone exchange
model and has evolved to offer solutions for efficiently managing waiting lines.

Lesson 14.1: CHARACTERISTICS OF WAITING LINE SITUATIONS

§ Fluctuating Demand. The supermarket situation shows that the
demand for the services is unstable. Fluctuations are expected
during certain periods, such as paydays, product promotions, and
peak hours.
§ Formation of a Queue. Whenever the demand for service exceeds the
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• capacity, a waiting line or a queue is formed because customers are
not served immediately and have to wait.
Lesson 14.2: STRUCTURE OF QUEUING SYSTEM

Parts of Queuing System

• The customers and their source. Customers are defined as those who
need to avail of service. Population or the source is where customers
come from.
• The arrival process. The way in which customers enter the service area.
• The service facility and the service process. The service is provided by a
service facility that can be a person (or a group), machine, or a space.
• The queue. When the service facility is busy or not available upon the
Lesson 14.3: MAJOR COST CONSIDERED IN QUEUING SYSTEM
Two major costs are to be considered: the cost of providing service and the cost
of making customers wait. The latter can result in a loss of time, loss of goodwill.

The facility cost includes:

1. Cost of construction in the form of interest and amortization
2. Cost of operations: manpower, energy, and raw materials
3. Cost of maintenance of facilities and equipment
4. Other cost such as insurances, taxes, rental, and other fixed cost

5.
Lesson 14.4: METHODOLOGY OF QUEUING ANALYSIS
Selecting alternative solution to queuing situation involve three steps:
Step 1: Establish the measures of performance that describe how the
queuing system operates. Step 2: Compute the measures of
performance. Step 3: Make an analysis.
Lesson 14.5: ARRIVAL PROCESS
Finite
§The sourceor infinite. It categorizes
or population whether
is classified the source
according to the of arrivals is limited
following:
(finite), like a repair crew in a manufacturing company, or unlimited
(infinite), as seen with tourists visiting "Hinulugang Taktak" in Antipolo.
§ Batch or individual arrivals. Families going to a restaurant are customers
in batches. A person going to see a doctor is a customer classified as
“individual.”
§ Scheduled or nonscheduled arrivals. Customers going to a service facility
are either scheduled (the arrival time is already predetermined) or
unscheduled (the arrival time is considered as random variable).

Quantitative measures of arrival

• Mean Arrival Rate
• Mean Interarrival Rate
• The Arrival Rate (Unscheduled Arrivals), λ.
• The Interarrival Time (Unscheduled Arrivals), 1/λ.
Lesson 14.6: SERVICE PROCESS
There are several basic arrangements of service facilities
1. Single service facility (doctor’s chair)
2. Multiple, parallel, identical facilities, such as banks
(single queue) or gasoline stations (multiple
queue) Multiple, parallel, non-identical facilities
(supermarket with express lanes and regular
lanes)
3. Service facilities arranged in a series (registration
process during enrollment) Combination of all the Arrangements of
Service Facilities
above arrangements

Service Time can either remain constant at five minutes per service or
fluctuating, typically described in two ways: (a) as the average length
of service, which is 10 minutes, or (b) as the average service rate or the
number of customers that Regular Lines can be served on the average
(four customers per hour).
The Length of Service (Service Time), 1/μ Using the supermarket example, It is
the average length of time the cashier processes the purchases of one shopper.
The Service Rate, μ The service rate, the inverse of average service time,
measures the service capacity of the facility expressed in customers per unit of
time. For example, if the average service time for the cashier to attend to one
shopper is 1/20 of an hour, then the mean service rate per cashier is 20.

Lesson 14.7: WAITING LINE

A queue has different characteristics depend on the rules and regulations
called queue discipline. Below are examples of common disciplines:
§ Priority System. Given to selected customers such as pregnant women.
§ Emergency (Preemptive Priority) System. Customers are categorized as
“VIPs” and given priority and may even interrupt the service for a less
priority customer. Commonly used in hospitals during critical
situations.
§ First-in, First Served (FIFS). Customers who arrive ahead are served first.
Observations on Human Behavior in Waiting Line
§ Balking. Some customers feel discouraged to join a very long queue.
§ Reneging. Impatient customers leave without being served.
§ Jockeying. Some customers transfer from one waiting line to another.
§ Cycling. Immediate return to the queue after service (e.g., playground).
§ Combining or dividing. This includes combining or dividing the lines at certain queue lengths, just like what supermarkets are doing.
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Queuing Models
Lesson 14.8: QUEUING MODELS
AND SOLUTION APPROACHES

Queuing situations are named based

on the X/Y/Z X indicates the arrival
process, Y refers to the service
process, and Z tells the number of
servers used by a system.
Source: Turban & Meredith, 1986
Solution Approaches
§ Analytical Approach. Utilizes formulas to determine the measures of performance. Most
queuing situations are quite complicated that the application of analytical approach is
impractical and not possible.
§ Simulation. If the analytical approach is not appropriate, then the procedure of simulation
should be applied.

Information Flow in Queuing Models

The figure shows the three inputs: mean arrival rate (λ), mean service
rate µ), number of servers (K), and the resulting several outputs.

W = Average waiting time per customer in the system

λ = Average waiting time per customer in the queue =
Wq Average number of customers in the system
L = Average number of customers in the queue
Lq
Queuing = Probability of the system being idle
µ
Models P(0) = Probability of the system being busy
Pw
= Probability of waiting longer than time T
K P(t>T) = Probability of having exactly a customers in the
Information Flow P(n), system
Source: Turban and Meredith, 1986
P(n <N)
Lesson 14.9: DETERMINISTIC QUEUING SYSTEM There are three types of deterministic queuing systems:
1. Arrival rate equals service rate. The rate at which customers arrive at the service facility is exactly equal to the rate
at which the single server can complete service, resulting in 100% facility utilization with no queue.
2. Arrival rate larger than service rate. The rate at which customers arrive at the service facility is larger than the rate
at which the server can complete service which leads to a continuous buildup of a waiting line or queue.
3. Arrival rate smaller than service rate. Customers’ arrival rate is smaller than the service rate. Thus, the facility is
underutilized, and no waiting line will be formed.

Lesson 14.10: BASIC POISSON-EXPINENTIAL MODEL (M/M/1)

Basic Poisson-Exponential Model (M/M/1) is classical and best known
among the waiting line models. The characteristics are as follows:
§ Arrival Rate. Symbolized by the Greek letter “lambda,” λ. Assumed to
be random and is represented by Poisson distribution.
§ Arrival Time. Symbolized by the Greek letter “mu,” μ and the average
service time is represented by 1/μ. Assumed to follow the Negative
exponential distribution.
Major Assumptions of the Model
1. Infinite source of population
2. First-in, first-served system
3. The ratio Nu is less than 1.
4. The steady state has to be achieved where the condition of
the system should be independent of time.
5. Unlimited waiting space exists.

Measurements of Performance
• Average waiting time, W. The average time that a customer stays in
the system includes waiting for the service and being served.
• Average waiting time in the queue, Wq. The time or period that the
customer will wait in the queue before being served.
• Average number of customers in the system, L. The average number
of customers in the system includes those in the queue and those
that are currently being served.
• Probability of an empty facility, P (0). The probability that the service
facility is idle as there are no customers
• Probability of the system being busy, Pw. The probability of having
customers in the system or the system is busy.
• Probability of being in the system (waiting and being served) longer
than time T. The probability is expressed as:

P (t > T) = e (λ – μ) T
Where:
e = 2.718 (the base of the natural logarithms)
T = Specific rime t = Time in the system

• Probability of finding exactly n customers in the system, P(n)

• Probability that the number of customers in the system, n, will be
larger than a specified number of customers, N.
Lesson 14.11: Cost Analysis of Queuing Systems
• It is possible to express the waiting cost as part of the total cost.
• Total costs (TC) consist of two components: facility cost (Cf) and the
total cost of waiting customers (Cw).
• Waiting cost (Cw) can be expressed by the waiting time before being
served. It can be computed either on cost per unit of time or cost
per customer served.
• Facility cost (Cf) is composed of fixed costs (rent, insurance, taxes,
and variable cost)
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CONCLUSION
Queuing theory is used by an organization’s management to
compute measures of the performance of a system that provides
services. The results of this analytical tool can be utilized to design
service systems, as well as improve the operating procedures.