QUEUING THEORY

❑ Body of knowledge about

waiting lines

❑ Helps managers to better

understand systems in
manufacturing, service, and
maintenance

❑ Provides competitive
advantage and cost saving

A QUEUE REPRESENTS ITEMS

OR PEOPLE AWAITING SERVICE
 What is Queuing Theory?

• Mathematical analysis of queues and waiting times in

stochastic systems.
– Used extensively to analyze production and service processes
exhibiting random variability in market demand (arrival times) and
service times.
• Queues arise when the short term demand for service
exceeds the capacity
– Most often caused by random variation in service times and the
times between customer arrivals.
– If long term demand for service > capacity the queue will explode!

2
 Why is Queuing Analysis Important?
• Capacity problems are very common in industry and one
of the main drivers of process redesign
– Need to balance the cost of increased capacity against the gains
of increased productivity and service
• Queuing and waiting time analysis is particularly
important in service systems
– Large costs of waiting and of lost sales due to waiting

Prototype Example – ER at Nazreth Hospital

• Patients arrive by ambulance or by their own accord
• One doctor is always on duty
• More and more patients seeks help  longer waiting
times
➢ Question: Should another MD position be instated?
3
 Queuing System Examples
System Customers Servers

Grocery Shoppers Checkout

Store Clerks
Phone Phone Calls Switching
System Equipment

Toll Highway Vehicles Tollgate

Restaurant Parties of Diners Tables &
Waitstaff
Factory Products Workers
The Father of Queuing Theory
Danish engineer, who, in 1909
experimented with fluctuating
demand in telephone traffic in
Copenhagen.

In 1917, he published a report

addressing the delays in
automatic telephone dialing
equipment.

At the end of World War II, his

work was extended to more
general problems, including AGNER K. ERLANG

waiting lines in business.

 THE QUEUING COST
TRADE-OFF
Cost

Total Cost
Minimum Cost of Providing
Service
Total ( salaries + benefits )
Cost

Cost of Waiting
Time
( time x value of time )

Low Level Optimal Service High Level

Of Service Level Of Service
 Components of a Basic Queuing Process

Input Source The Queuing System

Served
Calling Jobs Service Jobs
Queue Mechanism
Population
leave the
system

Arrival Queue
Process Discipline
Service
Queue
Process
Configuration
7
 Components of a Basic Queuing Process

❖ The calling population

– The population from which customers/jobs originate
– The size can be finite or infinite (the latter is most
common)
– Can be homogeneous (only one type of customers/ jobs)
or heterogeneous (several different kinds of
customers/jobs)
❖ The Arrival Process
– Determines how, when and where customer/jobs arrive
to the system
– Important characteristic is the customers’/jobs’ inter-
arrival times
– To correctly specify the arrival process requires data
collection of interarrival times and statistical analysis.
8
 Components of a Basic Queuing Process

❖ The queue configuration

– Specifies the number of queues
• Single or multiple lines to a number of service
stations
– Their location
– Their effect on customer behavior
• Jockeying, balking and reneging
– Their maximum size (# of jobs the queue can hold)
• Distinction between infinite and finite capacity

9
Example – Two Queue Configurations

Multiple Queues Single Queue

Servers Servers

10
 Multiple vs Single Customer Queue
Configuration
Multiple Line Advantages Single Line Advantages

1. The service provided can be 1. Guarantees fairness

differentiated – FIFO applied to all arrivals
– Ex. Supermarket express lanes 2. No customer anxiety regarding
choice of queue
2. Labor specialization possible
3. Avoids “cutting in” problems
3. Customer has more flexibility
4. The most efficient set up for
4. Balking behavior may be
minimizing time in the queue
deterred
– Several medium-length lines are
5. Jockeying (line switching) is
less intimidating than one very avoided
long line

11
 Components of a Basic Queuing Process

❖ The Service Mechanism

– Can involve one or several service facilities with one or several parallel
service channels (servers) - Specification is required
– The service provided by a server is characterized by its service time
• Specification is required and typically involves data gathering and
statistical analysis.
❖ The queue discipline
– Specifies the order by which jobs in the queue are being served.
– Most commonly used principle is FIFO.
– Other rules are, for example, LIFO etc.…
– Can entail prioritization based on customer type.

12
 Mitigating Effects of Long Queues
1. Concealing the queue from arriving customers
– Ex. Restaurants divert people to the bar or use pagers, amusement
parks require people to buy tickets outside the park, banks broadcast
news on TV at various stations along the queue, casinos snake night
club queues through slot machine areas.
2. Use the customer as a resource
– Ex. Patient filling out medical history form while waiting for physician
3. Making the customer’s wait comfortable and distracting their
attention
– Ex. Complementary drinks at restaurants, computer games, internet
stations, food courts, shops, etc. at airports
4. Explain reason for the wait
5. Provide pessimistic estimates of the remaining wait time
– Wait seems shorter if a time estimate is given.
6. Be fair and open about the queuing disciplines used

13
 Queuing Theory Variables
• Lambda ( λ ) is the average
arrival rate
of people or items into the
service system.

• It can be expressed in
seconds, minutes, hours, or
days.

• From the Greek small letter

“ L “.
 Queuing Theory Variables
• Mu ( μ ) is the average
service rate of the service
system.

• It can be expressed as the

number of people or items
processed per second,
minute, hour, or day.

• From the Greek small letter

“ M “.
Queuing Theory Variables

• Rho ( ρ ) is the % of time

that the service facility is
busy on the average.
• It is also known as the
utilization rate.
▪ From the Greek small letter
“ R “.

“BUSY” IS DEFINED AS AT LEAST ONE

PERSON OR ITEM IN THE SYSTEM
 Queuing Theory Variables
• Mu ( M ) is a channel or
service point in the ser-vice
system.

• Examples are gasoline

pumps, checkout coun-ters,
vending machines, bank
teller windows.

• From the Greek large letter

“ M “.
 Queuing Theory Variables

• Phases are the number of

service points that must be
negotiated by a customer
or item before leaving the
service system.

• They have no symbol.

A CARWASH TAKES A VEHICLE
THROUGH SEVERAL PHASES:
PRE-WASH, WASH, WAX, AND
DRY BEFORE IT IS ALLOWED
TO LEAVE THE FACILITY.
 Queuing Theory Variables

• Po or ( 1 – ρ ) is the percentage of time that

the service facility is idle.

• L is the average number of people or items

in the service system both waiting to be
served and currently being served.

• Lq is the average number of people or items

in the waiting line ( queue ) only !
Queuing Theory Variables

• W is the average time a customer or item spends

in the service system, both waiting and receiving
service.

• Wq is the average time a customer or item spends

in the waiting line ( queue ) only.

• Pw is the probability that a customer or item must

wait to be served.
Queuing Theory Variables

“Mμ” is the effective service rate.*

The average number of customers
or items processed by the entire
service system
It can be expressed in seconds, minutes, hours, or days

* [ NUMBER OF SERVERS ] x [ AVERAGE SERVICE RATE PER SERVER ]

 IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION

• The average service rate

must always exceed the
average arrival rate. μ>λ
• Otherwise, the queue will
grow to infinity.

THERE WOULD BE NO SOLUTION !

 Single-Channel / Single-Phase System

EXIT

❑ ONE WAITING LINE or QUEUE

❑ ONE SERVICE POINT or CHANNEL
 Dual-Channel / Single-Phase System

EXIT EXIT

No
Jockeying
❑ ONE OR TWO WAITING LINES Permitted
❑ TWO DUPLICATE SERVICE POINTS Between Lines
 Dual-Channel / Triple-Phase
System
EXIT C C EXIT

B B

A A

ENTER ENTER Jockeying

Is Permitted
❑ TWO IDENTICAL SERVICE CHANNELS. Between
Lines !
❑ EACH CHANNEL HAS 3 DISTINCT SERVICE POINTS ( A-B-C )
 Stealth Queuing Systems
NORMAL CHARACTERISTICS MISSING

VISITING NURSES,
PLUMBERS,
ELECTRICIANS

Moving waiting lines

may be replaced by
sitting customers
or stockpiled items.
Fixed channels may
be replaced by BROKEN MACHINES WAITING FOR A
mobile servers who MECHANIC, OR SEATED PATIENTS
IN A DENTIST’S OFFICE, OR
carry portable WORK-IN-PROCESS INVENTORY
equipment and WAITING FOR PROCESSING.

make housecalls.
 Behavioral Considerations
QUEUING THEORY

• Customer willingness to wait • Customer willingness to wait is

depends on what is perceived as higher if they know that others
reasonable. are also waiting their turn.

• Waiting lines that are always

• Customers should be permitted
moving are perceived as less
to perform the services that they
painful.
can easily provide for
themselves.
 Behavioral Considerations
QUEUING THEORY

• Well projected waiting times • Customers should be rewarded

allow customers to adjust their with price discounts or gifts if
expectations and therefore their they must wait beyond a certain
aggravation. period of time.

• If customers are kept busy, their

IT SHOWS THAT THE FIRM VALUES
waiting time may not be THEIR TIME AND IS WILLING TO PAY
THEM FOR IT IF THE WAIT IS TOO LONG
construed as wasted time.

FILLING OUT SURVEYS AND FORMS,

BEING ENTERTAINED
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
The Average Number of Customers in the System

λ
L =
μ - λ
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
The Average Number Just Waiting in Line

2
λ
Lq =
μ(μ- λ)
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
Average Customer Time Spent in the System

1
W =
(μ- λ)
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
Average Customer Time Spent in the System

λ
Wq =
μ( μ - λ )
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
Percentage of Time the System is Busy

λ
ρ =
μ
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
APPLICATION

• A clerk can serve thirty

Therefore:
customers per hour on
average. μ = 30

λ = 20
• Twenty customers arrive
each hour on average. M= 1
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
APPLICATION

The Average Number of Customers in the System

20
L = = 2
( 30 - 20 )
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
APPLICATION

The Average Number Just Waiting in Line

2
( 20 )
Lq = = 1.33
30 ( 30 - 20 )
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
APPLICATION

The Average Customer Time Spent in the System

1
W = = .10 hrs
( 30 - 20 ) ( 6 minutes )
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
Average Customer Time Spent in the System

20
Wq = =0.066 hours
30( 30 - 20 ) ( 3.96 minutes )
Single-Channel / Single-Phase Model
APPLICATION

The Percentage of Time the System is Busy

20
ρ = = 67%
30
THANK YOU