WAITING LINE

MODELS
 INTRODUCTION
• Waiting line/ Queuing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines which are the most frequently
encountered problems in everyday life.

• For example, queue at a cafeteria, library, bank, etc.

• Common to all of these cases are the arrivals of objects requiring service and the attendant delays when
the service mechanism is busy. 

• Waiting lines cannot be eliminated completely, but suitable techniques can be used to reduce the waiting
time of an object in the system. 
 INTRODUCTION
• A long waiting line may result in loss of customers to an organization. Waiting time can be reduced by providing
additional service facilities, but it may result in an increase in the idle time of the service mechanism.

• The waiting line models help the management in balancing between the cost associated with waiting and
the cost of providing service.
• Thus, queuing or waiting line models can be applied in such situations where decisions have to be taken to
minimize the waiting time with minimum investment cost. 
 Basic Terminology: Queuing theory (Waiting
Line Models)

• Queuing Model
o Server
It is a suitable model used to represent a service oriented
problem, where customers arrive randomly to receive some
It is a mechanism through which service is offered.
service, the service time being also a random variable. o Queue Discipline
• Arrival It is the order in which the members of the queue are
The statistical pattern of the arrival can be indicated through the offered service.
probability distribution of the number of the arrivals in an
interval. o Queue

• Service Time  A group of items waiting to receive service, including

The time taken by a server to complete service is known as those receiving the service, is known as queue
service time.
 Basic Terminology: Queuing theory (Waiting
Line Models)

• Waiting time in queue

o Queue length
Time spent by a customer in the queue before Number of persons in the system at any time.
o Average length of line
being served.
The number of customers in the queue per unit of time.
• Waiting time in the system
o Average idle time
It is the total time spent by a customer in the The average time for which the system remains idle.
system. It can be calculated as follows: o FIFO

• Waiting time in the system = Waiting time in It is the first in first out queue discipline
queue + Service time
 BASIC QUEUING PROCESS (SYSTEM)

• The basic queuing process can be described as a process in

which the customers arrive for service at a service counter
(or station),

• Wait for their turn in the queue if the server is busy in the
service of the other customer and are served when the
server gets free.

• Finally the customer leave the system as soon as he is

served.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEUING
SYSTEM

• The input (or arrival pattern)

• Queue (or waiting line)

• The service discipline (or queue discipline)

• The service mechanism (or service pattern)

 INPUT PROCESS (OR ARRIVAL PATTERN)

This is considered with the pattern in which the customers arrive and join the system. An input source is characterized by

a)      Size of the calling population.

b)      Pattern of arrivals at the system.

c)      Behaviour of the arrivals.

Customers requiring service are generated at different times by an input source, commonly known as population. The rate at which customers arrive at the service facility
is determined by the arrival process.

Size of the calling population :

The size represents the total number of potential customers who will require service

The size represents the total number of potential customers who will require service

It is considered infinite if the number of people being very large e.g. all people of a city or state (and others) could be the potential customers at a milk  parlour. Whereas
there are many situations in industrial conditions where we cannot consider the population to be infinite it is finite.

The customers may arrive for service individually or in groups. Single arrivals are illustrated by a customer visiting a milk  parlour, students arriving at a library counter
etc. On the other hand, families visiting restaurants, ships discharging cargo at a dock are examples of bulk or batch arrivals.
 Input process (or Arrival pattern)
B) Pattern of arrivals at the system
Static arrival process :
The control depends on the nature of arrival rate (random or constant).
Random arrivals are either at a constant rate or varying with time.
Thus to analyze the queuing system, it is necessary to describe the probability distribution of arrivals. From such distributions average time between successive arrivals,
is obtained also called inter-arrival time (time between two consecutive arrivals), and the average arrival rate (i.e. number of customers arriving per unit of time at the
service system).
 

b) Dynamic arrival process 

It is controlled by both service facility and customers.
The service facility adjusts its capacity to match changes in the demand intensity, by either varying the staffing levels at different timings of service, varying service
charges (such as telephone call charges at different hours of the day or week) at different timings, or allowing entry with appointments.
Frequently in queuing problems, the number of arrivals per unit of time can be estimated by a probability distribution known as the Poisson distribution, as it adequately
supports many real world situations
 WAITING-LINE

 The second component of a queuing model is the waiting line itself. It has two main features as follows: 

i. Length of the Queue: The length of a waiting line can be finite or infinite. The waiting line at a hair salon would be
of finite length due to the limited number of waiting-chair present. While in the case of highway toll booths, the number
of vehicles waiting in line can be treated as infinite length. Most queuing models assume the length of the queue to be
infinite.  

ii. Queue Discipline: Queue discipline refers to the priority based on which a customer is served. Most queuing systems
use the first-in, first-out (FIFO) rule. In this discipline, the first customer in line receives the service first. This may not
be the case always. Like in the hospital emergency room, priority changes are based on the injury of the patient.  
 QUEUE DISCIPLINE OR SERVICE DISCIPLINE

In the queue structure, the important thing to know is the queue discipline. The queue discipline is the rule determining the formation of queue,
manner in which customers form the queue are selected for service. There are a number of ways in which customers in the queue are served.
Some of these are:

Static queue disciplines

These are based on the individual customer's status in the queue. The most common queue disciplines are:
i)      First-Come-First-Served (FCFS): If the customers are served in the order of their arrival, then this is known as the FCFS service
discipline. For example, this type of queue discipline is observed at a milk parlour, railway station etc. FCFS is also known as First In First
Out (FIFO).

ii)    Last-Come-First-Served (LCFS): Sometimes, the customers are serviced in the reverse order of their entry so that the ones who join the
last are served first and the system is referred to as LCFS. For example, in a big godown the items which come last are taken out first. Similarly,
the people who join an elevator last are the first ones to leave it.
 QUEUE DISCIPLINE OR SERVICE DISCIPLINE

Dynamic queue disciplines

These are based on the individual customer attributes in the queue. Few of such disciplines are:

i)      Service in Random Order (SIRO): Under this rule customers are selected for service at random, irrespective of their
arrivals in the service system. In this, every customer in the queue is equally likely to be selected. The time of arrival of the
customers is, therefore, of no relevance in such a case.

ii)    Priority Service: Under this rule customers are grouped in priority classes on the basis of some attributes such as service
time or urgency or according to some identifiable characteristic, and FCFS rule is used within each class to provide service.
Treatment of VIPs in preference to other patients in a hospital is an example of priority service.
 Service Mechanism (or Service Pattern)

The service is provided by a service facility (or facilities). This may be a person (a bank teller, a barber, a machine (elevator, gasoline pump), or a space
(airport runway, parking lot, hospital bed), to mention just a few. A service facility may include one person or several people operating as a team. There
are two aspects of a service system
a)      the configuration of the service system
b)      the speed of the service.

Configuration of the service system

The customer’s entry into the service system depends upon the queue conditions. If at the time of customers arrival, the server is idle, then the customer
is served immediately. Otherwise the customer is asked to join the queue, which can have several configurations. By configuration of the service system
we mean how the service facilities exist. Service systems are usually classified in terms of their number of channels, or numbers of servers.

i)      Single Server Single Queue -- The models that involve one queue one service station facility are called single server models where customer
waits till the service point is ready to take him for servicing. Students arriving at a library counter are an example of a single server facility.

ii)    Single Server Several Queues -In this type of facility there are several queues and the customer may join any one of these but there is only one
service channel.
Service Mechanism (or Service Pattern)

iii)  Several (Parallel) Servers Single Queue - In this type of model there is more than one server and each server provides the
same type of facility. The customers wait in a single queue until one of the service channels is ready to take them in for servicing.

iv)  Several Servers Several Queues  This type of model consists of several servers where each of the servers has a different
queue. Different cash counters in an electricity office where the customers can make payment in respect of their electricity bills
provide an example of this type of model. Different ticket issue encounters in a trade fair and different boarding pass encounters at
an airport are also other possible examples of this type of model.

v)    Service facilities in a series - In this, a customer enters the first station and gets a portion of service and then moves on to the
next station, gets some service and then again moves on to the next station and so on, and finally leaves the system, having
received the complete service. For example in a milk plant packaging of milk pouches consist of boiling, pasteurization, cooling
and packaging operations, each of which is performed by a single server in a series
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN A QUEUE

• Consumer Behaviour in a queue refers to the actions of customers while in a queue waiting for
service to begin.

• Example:- A Consumer arriving to make bill payment maybe a patient customer or impatient
customer.If a customer stay in the system until served , is called a patient customer. He does not
switch between waiting lines no matter how long he has to wait to pay electricity bills.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN A
QUEUE
Different Consumer Behaviour patterns in a queue are :-

1.Balking :-

If a consumer does not join the queue because the queue is too long and he/she has no time to
wait , then it is called balking.

Imagine a customer comes, and sees there is no place in the waiting room. He then decides to
not join the queue at all. Similarly, when a customer comes and sees how long the queue is, he
decides to not join the queue at all.

A typical example of such a scenario is at the train station where there usually are long lines to
buy tickets. So the customer decides to not join the line at all.
 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN A
QUEUE
2. Reneging :-

• If a consumer joins the queue but wait for sometime in the queue but leaves the
queue due to certain reasons is called Reneging.

• The train station can be used as an example again for this, where people wait for
some time in the line, but then get impatient and leave.

• Another example is in a supermarket. People get impatient waiting in line to check

out, so many times people leave the baskets, and just walk out without buying
anything.
 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN A QUEUE

3. Jockeying :-

• When customer move from one waiting line to another waiting line hoping to get service more quickly.

• This can be seen typically at supermarkets as well as train stations, where a person leaves the line he is
standing in, and joins another line which appears to be shorter, or appears to be moving faster.

4.Collusion :-

• Several Customer may cooperate and only one of them stand in the queue.

• To collect cinema hall tickets for group of people only one person goes to collect the ticket for whole
group.
 DISTRIBUTION OF ARRIVALS

1. Exponential Distribuution :-

• Exponential Distribution is a memoryless distribution and continuos distribution where time is a continuous
distribution.

• One parameter of Exponential distribution is λ or rate . For example:- “ we get a 2 customers per hour “ is
λ = 2.

• Mean of Exponential Distribution = 1/ λ , Variance of exponential Distribution = 1/λ2

iiiiiii
 DISTRIBUTION OF ARRIVALS

• The exponential distribution arises in practice when the random variable studied is service time – the
time taken to complete service at a filling station , grocery or automobile repair shop.

• It is also used in reliability theory to model the life times of component subject to wear e.g. , batteries ,
transitors , tubes , bulbs , etc.

• It has also been used to model the distribution of length of time between successive random events – the
time between arrival of two customers ata service station or the time between breakdowns of a machine.
 DISTRIBUTION OF ARRIVALS

2. Poison Distribution:-

• Poison Distribution is a discrete probability distribution.It gives the probability of an

event happening a certain number of times (K) within a given period of time

• The poison distribution is completely defined by the parameter m and is positively

skewed.

• Mean of Poison Distribution = ∑ (X) = ∑xf(x) = ∑ x e-mmx/ x !

• Variance of Poison Distribution = ∑x2 e-mmx /x! – m2

 DISTRIBUTION OF ARRIVALS

• The Poisson distribution may be used to approximate binomal distribution when n is large and p
is small and , therefore , is regarded as the limit of the binomal distribution.

• The poison distribution has many applications in business and has been widely used in
management science and operation management.

• Some of the example which may be analysed with the use of this distribution are demand of the
product , the occurrence of accident in factory, the arrival of calls at a switch factory, the arrival
pattern in a department store.
CLASSIFICATION OF
QUEUING MODEL
• Different models in queuing theory are classified by using special (or standard) notations
described initially by D.G.Kendall in 1953 in the form (a/b/c). Later A.M.Lee in 1966
added the symbols d and c to the Kendall notation. Now in the literature of queuing
theory the standard format used to describe the main characteristics of parallel queues is
as follows:

{(a/b/c) : (d/c)}
 {(A/B/C) : (D/E)}

• a = arrivals distribution
• b = service time (or departures) distribution
• c = number of service channels (servers)
• d = max. number of customers allowed in the system (in queue plus in service)
• e = queue (or service) discipline.
 M/M/1
The M/M/1 queuing model is a queuing model where the arrivals follow a Poisson process, service
times are exponentially distributed, there is one server, infinite population and First Come First
Served discipline is followed.
 M/M/1

The derivation of this model is based on certain assumptions about the queuing system:
• Poisson distribution of arrival rate.
• Single waiting line with no restriction on length of queue (i.e. infinite capacity) and no balking or
reneging.
• Queue discipline is ‘first-come, first-serve
• Single serve with exponential distribution of service time.
• λ : arrival rate
• μ : service rate of one server
M/M/C
 M/M/C

• M/M/C/ queue: c servers operating in parallel

• Arrival process is poisson with rate λ

• Each server has an independent and identical exponential service time

distribution, with mean 1/μ.

• No limit on customers, who can enter the system.

 M/M/C/N

• Customers arriving to Poisson process with arrival rate λ. The service time is distributed
according to an exponential distribution with service rate µ.

• If a customer who upon arrival will be serviced immediately, if some servers are busy
and some servers are idle.

• The service order is assumed to be First Come First Served (FCFS) basis and interarrival
times, service times and vacations are mutually independent.
 M/M/1/N MODEL
• Here first M stands for Poisson arrival .

• Second M stands for Poisson departure.

• 1 stands for single server.

• N stands for finite population.

Example : Machine breakdown and repair in a factory.

This is the model with Poisson arrival, Poisson departure, single service channel, capacity of the system is N
(finite) and first come first served service discipline. Here, the number of arrival will not exceed N( capacity of
the system).
OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS

1.Expected no. of customer in the system

=
Or
= -
2. Expected queue length
= - 3. Expected
waiting time of a customer in the system
=
OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS

4.Expected waiting time of a customer in the queue

5. Probability that there is no customer in the system

6. Probability of n customers in the system

=,
Here n = 0,1,2,3 -------N

Lets do some questions based on M/M/1/N Model.

Question 1. At a railway station, only one train is handled at a time. The railway yard is sufficient only for two trains
to wait the other is given signal to leave the station. Trains arrive at the station at an average rate of 6 per hour and the
railway station can handle them on an average of 12 per hour. Assuming Poisson arrivals and exponential service
distribution, find the steady state probabilities for the various number of trains in the system. Also find the average
waiting time of a new train coming into the yard.

Solution: Here, we are given = 6 per hour and 12 per hour

So, = =0.5
Also, N = 3, i.e., maximum no. of permissible trains in the system.
The state probability are
For n = 0, = = = = 0.53

For n = 1, = = 0.53 = 0.265

For n = 2, = = 0.53 = 0.132

Now, to calculate the average waiting time of a new train coming into the system, first we have to calculate and .
= -
= -
= 0.73

Now, = = 0.53 = 0.066

 = - = 0.73 – 0.5(1- 0.066) = 0.26

and thus = = = 0.04(approx.)

Question 2: Patients arrive at a clinic according to Poisson distribution at the rate of 30 patients per
hour. The waiting room does not accommodate mare than 14 patients. Examination time per patients
is exponential with mean rate 20 per hour.
(a) Find the effective arrival rate at the clinic.
(b) What is the probability that an arriving patient will have to wait?
(c) What is the expected waiting time until a patient is discharged from the clinic ?
Solution: Here, we have
=
=
= = 1.5 and N = 14
(a)Calculate to find the effective arrival rate.
= () =()
= 0.334
Effective arrival rate = (1-)
= 30(1- 0.334)
= 19.98 patients per hour
(b) Probability that arriving customer has to wait = 1-
= 1- ()
= 1- ()
= 1-0.0011
= 0.998
(c) Expected waiting time until patient is discharged from the clinic
= ()
Where = -
= -
 = -3 +15 = 12
then,
= 0.60 hours.

Question 3: If for a period of 2 hours in a day (8 to 10 a.m.) trains arrive at the yard every 20
minutes but the service time continues to remain 36 minutes, then calculate for this period.
(a) The probability that the yard is empty and
(b) The average no. of trains in the system, on the assumption that the line capacity of the yard is
limited to 4 trains only.

Solution: Here, we have

= per hour
 = = 1.8, and N = 4
(a) Probability that the yard is empty
= = = 0.04
(b) The average no. of trains in the system is
-

= -

= -2.25 + 5.28 = 3 (approx.)