Recipe 2: Managing Variability and Queues

Step 1: Write down all the parameters (, , s, CVa , CVs )

Customer parameters
Arrival rate, : # customer arrivals per unit time
Average interarrival time (IAT): Average time between two consecutive arrivals,

Coefficient of variation for arrivals, CVa : extent of variability of arrivals in relation to

their mean,
standard deviation of IAT
CVa =
mean of IAT
Example: Poisson arrivals of mean have Exponentially distributed interrarival times
1
(SD = mean = 1 ), hence CVa = 1// = 1.
Service parameters
Service rate (capacity), : # customers served per unit time
Average service time, : average time it takes to serve a customer, =

Coefficient of variation for service, CVs : extent of variability of services offered in

relation to their mean,
CVs =

standard deviation of service time

average service time

Example: Exponential service times: st. dev. equals to the mean, thus here
1
CVs = 1// = 1.
Performance measures
Lq : average number of customers waiting in queue
L: average number of total customers waiting in the system (queued + on service)
Wq : average waiting time in the queue
W : average total waiting time in the system (queue + service), W = Wq +
Littles Law: Lq = Wq , and L = W
1

UTKU SERHATLI, PhD Candidate, Operations Management, INSEAD.

Step 2: Find the number of servers, s

Step 3: Find the utilization of a server,
=

=
s
s

Step 4: Calculate the average waiting time in the queue

Calculations here depend on the number of servers s:
Case 1: If s = 1, then use the following formula for Wq :
Wq =

1
CVa2 + CVs2
1 2

If s > 1, then there is no ready-to-go formula for Wq , however you can find Lq from the
table at the end of Xenon case for your 2 . After, you can use Littles law to calculate
Wq = Lq .

Step 5: Find the average total waiting time in the system

Average total waiting time in the system (queue + service):
W = Wq +

Step 6: Find the average number of customers

Use Littles Law: the average queue length is
Lq = Wq ,
and the average total number of customers in the system is
L=W

Note, that sometimes the exact value of for which you would like to find Lq is not in the table. In this case
you need to use linear approximation. First, find the closest to from below. Denote it and correspondingly
q . Then the value of Lq for < < is calculated
Lq . Secondly, find the closest from above with value L
in the following way:
q L
L
q
Lq () = Lq +
( )