Waiting Line Management

Waiting line management

Waiting line :
One or more customers waiting for service.
Customers :
People / Machines / Sales orders / Inventory items
Why queues ?
Imbalance between demand for service and the capacity of the system to
provide the service.
In real life the demand rate varies.
Customers arrive at unpredictable intervals.
 Waiting Line Management or Queuing Theory

Queue and Serving patterns :

A. Single Queue and Single Service Station :

>>> Doctor’s clinic

B. Single Queue and several Service Stations :

>>> Hair dressing saloon
>>> Beauty Parlour
>>> Railway Reservation Counters

C. Several lines and as many Service Stations :

>>> Checkout counters at Supermarkets
>>> Petrol bunks
 Queuing System Basic Principles

A. Arrival Pattern >>>> Follows a Poisson Distribution

B. Service Pattern >>>> Follows an Exponential Distribution

C. Queue Discipline >>>> First Come First Served

 Customer Behaviour
1. Balking :
New arriving person will not join the queue since the queue is too long
or there is no space to wait.
2. Reneging :
A waiting customer leaves the queue due to impatience
3. Jockeying :
Hopping from one line to another
Commonly seen in Supermarkets and Reservation counters
4. Priorities :
Some customers are served before others
Fixing appointments in a clinic in advance
Symbols commonly used :

λ = Arrival Rate

μ = Service Rate
M / M / 1 Queuing Model

Kendall’s notation for a queuing model (First designed by D.G. Kendall)

M >> Abbreviation for Markovian (Russian Mathematician)

This has a Single Channel, Single Phase

Poisson arrival rate, Exponential Service time
Unlimited population
First in and First out Queue discipline.
 Managing Queues

1. Determine an acceptable waiting time for the customers.

2. Inform your customers of what to expect.
3. Track peak hours and provide extra service facilities during that time.
4. Encourage customers to walk-in during slack periods.
5. If possible, provide seating facilities.
6. Keep employees not serving the customers out of sight.
7. Try to divert attention of customers. Soothing music could help.
8. Segment customers (super markets)
9. Train your servers to be friendly.
10. Take a long term perspective toward getting rid of the queues.
11. There is always a trade-off. (cost – benefit)