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Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues

Armann Ingolfsson, Thomas A. Grossman, Jr.,

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Armann Ingolfsson, Thomas A. Grossman, Jr., (2002) Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues. INFORMS Transactions on
Education 2(2):27-39. https://doi.org/10.1287/ited.2.2.27

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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
Graphical Spreadsheet
Simulation of Queues
Armann Ingolfsson
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School of Business
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6, Canada
Armann.Ingolfsson@UAlberta.Ca
Thomas A. Grossman, Jr.
Faculty of Management
University of Calgary
2500 University Dr. NW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4
grossman@UCalgary.ca
Abstract
Graphical representations of spreadsheet queueing
simulations can be used to teach students about
queues and queueing processes. A customer graph
shows the experience of every individual customer
in a queue, based on arrival time, start of service,
end of service, and showing clearly the length of
time in queue and service time for each individual
customer. The cumulative effect is powerful, illus-
trating how one long service time (or short
interarrival time) can cause delays for many succeed-
ing customers. The server graph (a Gantt chart)
shows the experience of each server, illustrating how
customers stack up, and the nature of periods of idle
time. The graphs are linked to a spreadsheet simula-
tion and update instantly when the simulation is rep-
licated. The graphs illustrate the complete evolution
of a queue (which simulation animations cannot do)
and help provide a holistic view of queues. They
can be used to teach students about the nature of
queues and support active learning where the stu-
dents articulate for themselves the cause of queue
behaviors.
27
INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39)
This paper shows how graphical representations of
spreadsheet queueing simulations can be used to give
students a richer understanding of queues, provide
a deeper understanding of simulation, and to serve
as a lead-in to teaching queueing theory results. This
paper builds on previous work on spreadsheet queue-
ing simulation (Grossman, 1999), with the relevant
material summarized in sections 2-4. The contribu-
tion of this paper (sections 5-8) is the development
and use of "live" simulation graphs to provide a rich
visual means for understanding queues and simula-
tion, and techniques for using these graphs to moti-
vate students, enhance their learning, and stimulate
their interest in simulation.
The queueing simulation and their graphical repre-
sentations were implemented in Microsoft Excel 97,
and any specific instructions below refer to this soft-
ware package.
1. Introduction
Queuing theory has always been a staple in survey
courses on management science. Queueing theory
is a powerful tool for computing certain steady-state
queue performance measures. However, queueing
theory is a poor vehicle for teaching students about
what transpires in queues. For example, queueing
theory tells us that, other things being equal, a queue
with higher service time variability has longer aver-
age queueing time than a queue with lower variabil-
ity. (Note that we are using "queueing theory" to
mean what it usually means to students taking a sur-
vey course in management science: a small collec-
tion of formulas, typically for single server Mark-
ovian queues.) However, queueing theory yields no
insight into why this occurs.
Spreadsheet queueing simulation can be used to give
students insight into queue behavior -- why queues
form, why they persist, the role of variability, and
the non-linear effect of increasing utilization on
queue performance. In this paper we extend previ-
ous work on spreadsheet queueing simulation to pro-
vide a graphical representation of queue behavior.
This graphical representation, which is connected
to a live simulation model, allows students to ar-
ticulate for themselves powerful insights about queue
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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
behavior. This enhances their intuition about queues
and stochastic phenomena in general, and gives them
a solid foundation to utilize queueing theory formu-
las when appropriate.
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2. Approaches to Teaching Queueing
There are three approaches to teaching about queue-
ing: analytical queueing theory, dedicated simula-
tion packages, and spreadsheet simulation.
Queueing theory is widely taught in business school
OR/MS survey courses, and students can use it to
quickly compute a handful of steady-state perfor-
mance measures for simple queueing systems. As
presented in textbooks for management science sur-
vey courses (for example, Camm and Evans 1996,
Winston and Albright 1997, or Ragsdale 1998),
queueing theory is limited because the models are
simplified to make them analytically tractable, the
results apply only to steady-state behavior, and the
number of performance measures that can be com-
puted is small. Because deriving results using queue-
ing theory models requires mathematics beyond the
scope of the survey course, they are presented as
black box formulas, and students do not gain the
insights that OR/MS professionals obtain by study-
ing the underlying theory.
Steady state queueing theory results are not particu-
larly useful for understanding what actually tran-
spires in queues: their dynamics, the effect of vari-
ability, human behavior while waiting in line, and
such important technical issues as the role of initial
conditions and the distinction between transient and
steady-state behavior.
Simulating queues using dedicated software pack-
ages is flexible, powerful and widely used. It is of-
ten the best technology for computing quantitative
results. Many simulation packages are available,
such as SLAM, GPSS, Extend+, and Arena. How-
ever, simulation packages hide the mechanics of
queues, are expensive and time-consuming to learn,
and are not widely used in survey courses on OR/
MS, although Liberatore and Nydick (1999) argue
that they should be.
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INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39)
3. Overview of Simulating Queues in Spread-
sheets
Any spreadsheet model can be simulated using tech-
niques that can be found in survey textbooks such
as Ragsdale (1998) or Winston and Albright (1997).
There are three classes of spreadsheet simulation
models (Evans and Olson, 1998), activity-driven,
event-driven, and process-driven, each of which can
be used for queueing simulation.
An activity-driven simulation describes the activi-
ties that occur during fixed intervals of time (for
example, an hour, day, or week), typically using one
row of the spreadsheet for each time interval. The
activity-driven approach (often used in textbook
inventory models) seems to have first been used for
queueing by Clauss (1996) for ship unloading. How-
ever, we think this approach oversimplifies most
queueing systems, unless the simulation time inter-
vals are made very small - which makes the spread-
sheet model very large.
An event-driven simulation describes the changes
in the system at the moment of each stochastic event,
typically using one row of the spreadsheet for each
event. This approach was apparently first used for
queueing by Winston (1996) for a single-server
queue. Evans and Olson (1998) describe a similar
model . The event-driven approach has technical
advantages of efficiency and flexibility, but it is not
good for teaching because it obscures the customer
experience of queues, and it is less intuitive than
the process-driven approach.
A process-driven simulation (Figure 1) models the
logical sequence of events for each customer, typi-
cally using one row of the spreadsheet for each cus-
tomer. This approach was apparently first used for
queueing by Chase and Aquilano (1992), who
present a model of two serial single-server queues
with zero queue size. Process-driven simulation was
first described in a management science textbook
by Plane (1994) for a model of a single-server queue.
Grossman, Tran, and Ursu (1997) developed proto-
types of multiserver process-driven models, includ-
ing balking, reneging, and multi-server serial queues.
Hesse (1997) extends Chase and Aquilano's model
by allowing the second queue to hold one customer.
Camm and Evans (1996) and Lawrence and
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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues

Cust. # Interarriv Arrival Service Server #1 Server #2 Wait Total

al Time Time Time Time Time
(hr:min) (min) (hr:min) (hr:min)
(min) Start End Start End
(hr:min) (hr:min) (hr:min) (hr:min)
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start 9:00
1 1 9:01 3 9:01 9:04 0:00 0:03
2 1 9:02 9 9:02 9:11 0:00 0:09
3 1 9:03 9 9:04 9:13 0:01 0:10
4 3 9:07 9 9:11 9:20 0:04 0:13
5 3 9:10 9 9:13 9:22 0:03 0:12
Figure 1: A two-server queueing simulation template. The entries in bold are included on the template.
Students use the bold entries to compute the italicized entries.

Pasternack (1998) contain single-server process- 4. Process-Driven Spreadsheet Queueing

driven models. Evans and Olson (1998) describe one-
and two-server process-driven models. Grossman
(1999) discusses in detail the use of process-driven
spreadsheet queueing simulations. Evans (2000) uses
a single-server process-oriented queueing model
similar to Figure 1. He presents live graphs of aver-
age performance measures, including average num-
ber in queue, average percent idle time, and average
waiting time per customer, and indicates that indi-
vidual replications demonstrate different times to
converge to the long-term average value.
Simulation
A process-driven spreadsheet queueing simulation
(Grossman 1999) uses one row for each customer.
We provide students with a paper template of the
spreadsheet (Figure 1) with all cells except
interarrival times and service times blank and work
with them to fill out the template, computing for
each customer the arrival time, service start time,
end time, wait time, and so forth. This by-hand simu-
lation insures that every student understands how
the model functions.
In the spreadsheet model, the user
enters the start time and end time
of the simulation. The user pro-
grams probability distributions
for interarrival time and service
time. The spreadsheet model
samples the distributions and
computes the values shown in
Figure 1. A screen shot of the
spreadsheet is in Figure 2. De-
tails of how these models are pro-
grammed and instructions for
downloading spreadsheet queue-
ing simulation template files can
be found in Grossman (1999).

Figure 2: A two-server queueing simulation model.

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INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39) INFORMS
 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
Figure 2: interactive version (opens new window;
requires Internet Explorer 4.01 or later)
We now discuss the key idea of this paper, which is
to represent graphically the results of a spreadsheet
queueing simulation such as the one shown in Fig-
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ure 2.
5. Graphical Representations of a Spreadsheet
Queueing Simulation
We have integrated two graphical representations
with the spreadsheet queueing simulation templates.
These graphs are "live" in the sense that when the
spreadsheet is recalculated (for example, by press-
ing the F9 key in Microsoft Excel) the graphs in-
stantly change to reflect a new replication. We refer
to the two representations as the customer graph and
the server graph. For each graph, we discuss the form
of the graph and how it can be programmed. In the
Appendix we indicate how spreadsheet queueing
simulations containing these graphs may be down-
loaded.
Figure 3: The Customer Graph
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INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39)
5.1 The Customer Graph
Figure 3 shows the "customer graph". The horizon-
tal axis measures time. The vertical axis displays
the customer number, with customer 1 the first to
arrive, customer 2 the second to arrive, etc. (column
A of Figure 2). A two-color horizontal bar repre-
sents the experience of each customer. The left hand
portion of the bar represents the customer's waiting
time (this is absent if the customer does not wait).
The right hand portion represents the customer's ser-
vice time. The left edge of the bar is placed at the
customer's arrival time (column C of Figure 2) to
the system. The separation between the colors is the
start of the customer's service (columns E and G of
Figure 2). The right edge of the bar is the time of
end of the customer's service (columns F and H of
Figure 2).
In contrast to animated simulation packages, the
customer graph shows the entire evolution of the
system on one graph.
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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues

When the simulation is replicated (that is, the spread- up by vertical lines to show when the server fin-
sheet is recalculated, by pressing the F9 key), the ished serving one customer and immediately began
customer graph is updated instantly and automati- serving the next customer.
cally. The updated graph reflects new samples from
the interarrival and service time distributions, and
the corresponding customer arrival times, service Like the customer graph, the server graph is updated
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start times, and service end times. instantaneously when the simulation is replicated
(that is, the spreadsheet is recalculated).
Figure 5 shows both the customer and server graphs
5.2 The Server Graph
for three replications. When viewed in a web
Figures 4 shows the "server graph" (a Gantt chart) browser, the Figure cycles automatically through the
corresponding to the same replication as Figure 3. three replications.
The horizontal axis measures time. The vertical axis
shows the server index. The server graph represents
each server by a horizontal bar whose length equals
the duration of the simulation. Each server bar is
divided into sections whose color indicates whether
the server was busy (serving a customer) or idle dur-
ing that time interval. The busy sections are broken

Figure 4: The Server Graph

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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
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Figure 5: Customer and server graphs. When viewed in a web browser, the Figure will cycle through
three different replications of the simulation.

5.3. Programming the Spreadsheet Queueing Simu-
lation Graphs
It is easy to program the spreadsheet queueing simu-
lation graphs. However, some non-standard tech-
niques are required. We summarize here the steps
required to program the graphs in Microsoft Excel
97.
The steps for constructing the customer graph are:
1 Program in this order each customer's arrival
time, time in queue, and time in service.
2 Graph these data using Excel's built-in "stacked
bar chart."
3 Format the arrival time series to have no area
and no border (this makes the series invisible
on the chart).
4 Format one of the visible series (time in queue
or time in service) to have zero gap width

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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
(double-click the series and choose the options
tab). The zero gap width will be applied to both
visible series. Now, one can interpret the upper
envelope of the bars to be the cumulative num-
ber of arrivals to the system as a function of time.
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Constructing the server graph is more complicated
than constructing the customer graph. The steps are
as follows.
1.Create a column for each server that contains
all the start and end times of services performed
by that server, sorted in ascending order. Excel's
SMALL(range, i) function (which finds the i-th
smallest number in range) can be used to do this,
assuming all the start and end times for a par-
ticular server are in a contiguous range (for ex-
ample, see columns E and F in Figure 2, for
server 1).
2.Select the columns corresponding to all the serv-
ers and plot them using Excel's built-in clustered
bar chart. Instruct Excel that the data is orga-
nized in rows, rather than columns.
3.Format one of the series to have an overlap of
100.
4.Reverse the order of the series.
5.Change the area color of the series so they alter-
nate - corresponding to busy and idle intervals.
The customer and server graphs display time on the
horizontal axis using Excel's time format, assuming
the underlying data is formatted to display as time.
Unfortunately, Excel defaults to using rather strange
times to display on the horizontal axis, such as 8:38.
The Appendix shows VBA code that overcomes this
problem. The code executes every time the
worksheet recalculates (and therefore, every time the
simulation is replicated). It sets the lower and upper
limits on the time axis to be the ones specified for
the simulation and chooses approximately ten time
instants to display between the upper and lower lim-
its. The interval between two consecutive displayed
times is constrained to be a multiple of 5 minutes.
33
INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39)
6. Uses of the Spreadsheet Queueing Simulation
Graphs
The spreadsheet queueing graphs help communicate
clearly the function of a complex model. Although
we have students in class fill out by hand the tem-
plate in Figure 1, the richness of the model does not
seem to be fully appreciated until the moment we
recalculate the worksheet while viewing the cus-
tomer graph. In addition, repeated replications seem
to help students more fully internalize the function
of simulation models. In contrast to queueing theory
formulas (and to some extent simulation packages)
the spreadsheet simulation is not a black box. Stu-
dents can do the simulation by hand, and hence it is
easier to grasp the functioning of the model.
Because of the rich graphical presentation, complex
data are easily interpreted, particularly by students
with weak quantitative skills. With some facilita-
tion from their instructor, students can articulate the
insights themselves. This reduces their dependence
on the instructor. Such active learning presumably
results in deeper understanding and better long-term
retention.
Students can see for themselves the impact of vari-
ability by observing multiple replications of two
models that differ only in the variance of service
time. This in turn leads to student insights into why
queues form -- particularly when utilization (arrival
rate divided by total service rate) is significantly
lower than 100%. Likewise, the simulation model
can quickly be programmed to have a very brief
interarrival time, or a very long service time (or one
can hit F9 several times until such an effect occurs)
so students can observe. This helps students under-
stand why queues persist after forming. These in-
sights are not possible with queueing theory formu-
las, and are harder to obtain with simulation anima-
tions.
The utilization performance measure often indicates
that servers have idle time. It is attractive to devote
this idle time to useful work, but this is problematic
in many real situations. The server graph shows the
nature of server idle time, and allows students to
observe the challenge of harnessing the idle time
periods. The graph makes obvious the stochastic
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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
nature of server idle time, which makes difficult any
attempt to plan useful work between customers. The
server graph also shows the length of server idle
periods, highlighting that they are often too short to
be useful.
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7. Advanced Topics Using Spreadsheet Queueing
Simulation Graphs
We use spreadsheet queueing simulation graphs to
teach several advanced topics to business students.
The graphs have proven useful for an intuitive proof
of Little's Law, to teach the craft skill (Powell 1998)
of cleaning flawed data, and for linking microscopic
features of queues (for example, arrival times of in-
dividual customers) with macroscopic measures (for
example l, the average arrival rate to the system),
and for understanding non-linear changes in queue
performance as utilization increases.
7.1 Little's Law
The idea for the customer graph originally came from
a diagram that is sometimes used to derive Little's
law - for example, see Figure 2.3 in Kleinrock (1975).
Our informal derivation goes as follows. Define A(t)
to be the cumulative number of arrivals up to time t,
D(t) to be the cumulative number of departures up
to time t and L(t) = A(t) - D(t) to be the number in
system at time t, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Informal derivation of Little's law.
34
INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39)
Then the average arrival rate of customers is
= A(t)/t (1)
Now let
F(t) = area of shaded region from 0 to t in Figure 6
= total system time for all customers
= total number of "customer-hours"
We now see that the average system time of a cus-
tomer is
W = (total system time for all customers)/(to
tal number of customers)
= F(t)/A(t) (2)
The average number of customers in the system is
L = (total "customer-hours")/(total hours)
= F(t)/t (3)
Combining (1), (2), and (3) we see that
L = W
of us has used this informal derivation in a 4th year
undergraduate business course for a few years. The
better students usually notice, and point out, that
equation (2) is only approximately true, unless t is
chosen so that L(t) = 0, that is, the system is empty
at time t. Otherwise, F(t) will not include all of the
system time for the last few arriving customers. This,
and the implicit assumption of first-in-first-out, is
what makes the derivation informal.
7.2 Cleaning Data and Checking Assumptions
One very real problem that anyone who tries to ap-
ply queueing theory is often faced with is imperfect
data. Figure 7 shows a particularly troublesome part
of a real dataset that one of us has used as the basis
for an assignment. The Figure shows the times at
which customers arrived to a "water kiosk" in a third
world country, entered service ("arrival at tap"), and
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 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues

departed after receiving service. Unfortunately, many will have to make sure the arrival time of a cus-
of the numbers are missing. Some students might tomer is always less than or equal to the "arrival at
have seen examples of imperfect data sets in a prior tap" time for that customer, if it is known.
statistics course. If the data set can be thought of as
The missing departure times can also be estimated
consisting of several independent draws from the
fairly easily. One can estimate the average service
same distribution, then one option is to simply re-
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time, using customers for which both "arrival at tap"

move the missing observations from the data set.
Here, the situation is more complicated - one cannot
simply remove a customer with one or more miss-
ing numbers from the dataset, because that customer
may interact with other customers in important ways.
The choice is really between modifying the data set
intelligently or not using the data set at all. The op-
tion to use the data set after removing all missing
observations is not realistic in this case.
and "departure time" are available. Then one can
estimate the missing departure times as "arrival at
tap" plus the average service time (2 minutes and 34
seconds in this case).
The tricky part is estimating the missing "arrival at
tap" times. These should be estimated in a way that
is consistent with the queue discipline (first-come-
first-serve) and the number of servers (two). This is

Arrival Arrival Arrival at Departur

Number Time Tap e Time
70 8:21 8:21 8:27
71 8:25 8:26 8:32
72 ? ? 8:30
73 8:28 8:31 8:34
74 ? ? 8:30
75 ? ? 8:31
76 ? 8:31 ?
77 8:33 ? 8:41
78 8:34 ? 8:37
79 8:35 8:41 8:49
80 ? ? 8:36
81 8:36 8:42 ?
82 ? ? 8:40
83 8:39 8:41 8:43

Figure 7: Imperfect transactional data for a water

kiosk.

Some of the missing data are easy to estimate, par-
ticularly the arrival times. For example, a reason-
able estimate for the missing arrival time for cus-
tomer 72 would be the average of the arrival times
of customers 71 and 73. When several arrival times
in a row are missing (such as for customers 74-76)
one can estimate the missing times such they are
equally spaced between the last known arrival time
and the next known arrival time. In addition, one
where the customer graph can help.
Figure 8 shows a customer graph for the data shown
in Figure 7, after the missing arrival times and de-
parture times have been estimated as explained
above. The "arrival at tap" times have been set equal
to the arrival time of the respective customers, to
provide initial estimates.

35

INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39) INFORMS
Figure 8: Customer gr
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Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
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A close look at Figure 8 shows that the "arrival at
tap" time for customer 72 must be adjusted from its
current value of 8:26:30. A server does not become
available until 8:27, when customer 70 departs. The
next customer with missing "arrival at tap" data is
customer 74. From the queueing graph, we see that
this customer will not have access to a server until
customer 72 departs, at 8:30. Continuing in this fash-
ion we can replace all the missing "arrival at tap"
times with estimates that are at least consistent with
how the system operates.
It is even possible to do the estimation graphically
in Excel, by grabbing the vertical line correspond-
ing to an "arrival at tap" time and moving it. When
one does this, Excel brings up the goal seek dialog
box, and asks what "changing cell" to use. Enter the
cell with the missing "arrival at tap" data and click
OK, and Excel will adjust the data to correspond to
the new position of the vertical line in the graph.
Some students enjoy applying this procedure because
the can concentrate on the graphical representation
rather than precise numbers on the time scale, but
for other students the complexity of the procedure
is an impediment.
36
INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39)
The customer graph can also be used to examine the
validity of assumptions about how the system oper-
ates. For example, we notice that customer 74 de-
parts from service before customer 73 enters ser-
vice. So the queue does not operate in a truly first-
come-first-serve manner at all times (and this is not
an artifact of how we estimated the missing data -
the "arrival at tap" for customer 73 and the depar-
ture time of customer 74 were both recorded). The
customer graph also shows that customers 71, 73,
and 76 are all receiving service simultaneously, de-
spite the system having only two servers (again, this
is based on numbers that were actually recorded,
not our estimates of missing number). Apparently,
customers "shared servers" at certain times.
It is easy to throw one's hands up in frustration and
ask for better data, but in reality that might not be an
option. Customer graphs can help pre-process the
data in an intelligent way to allow the best analysis
that is possible, given the quality of the data. Queue-
ing graphs also help the analyst see whether assump-
tions about how the system operates are supported
by the data.
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Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues
7.3 Linking Transactional Data to Macroscopic Pa-
rameters
The customer graph displays almost all there is to
know about a queueing system in one picture. To
use a term coined by Edward R. Tufte [Tufte, 1983],
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the customer graph has a high data-ink ratio. The
average arrival rate to the system (l) can be visual-
ized as the (average) slope of the A(t) curve in Fig-
ure 7, and estimated numerically as A(t)/t as dis-
cussed above. The number in system at any time t
can be visualized as the vertical distance between
A(t) and D(t). The average number in system (L)
can be visualized as the average vertical distance
between A(t) and D(t). Hence, the customer graph
can be used to illustrate both such macroscopic pa-
rameters as l and L, and microscopic transactional
data (arrival time, waiting time, service time) for
every customer -- all in one picture. This can help to
explain the link between the detailed behavior of a
queue over time (which students usually understand
easily) and average measures of performance, such
as L and W (which students usually have more dif-
ficulty interpreting).
7.4. The Effect of Increasing Utilization on Queues
As a first order approximation, many students be-
lieve intuitively that utilization less than 100% means
that no queue should form. The customer graph al-
lows them to see that a queue does form if there is
variability in arrivals or service, and the size of the
queue increases non-linearly as utilization gets close
to 100%. They can articulate for themselves why
this is so.
8. Benefits of Spreadsheet Queueing Simulation
Graphs
The use of spreadsheet queueing simulation graphs
can enhance student understanding of queues. By
providing a rich visual representation of the com-
plete evolution of a queue, complex queue behavior
can be presented to students so that they can articu-
late the insights themselves, rather than relying on
the instructor for wisdom. The ease with which rep-
lications can be made and instantly presented on the
37
INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39)
graph makes the basic concepts of simulation very
clear to students. It also shows how simulation (in a
spreadsheet or in dedicated simulation software) can
be used to model complex business processes.
Graphical spreadsheet queueing simulation is a
strong lead-in to traditional queueing theory results.
Students develop intuition regarding queues in gen-
eral. They easily grasp the distinctions among one
arrival, one particular day's queue (or one replica-
tion), average performance in a single day, and av-
erage performance across many days. It is easier for
students to understand the meaning of queueing
theory results, and to appreciate the limitations of
the average results that most queueing theory mod-
els yield. In turn, the hard work required to imple-
ment a spreadsheet queueing simulation makes them
appreciate the speed with which queueing theory
provides results.
Finally, spreadsheet queueing simulation increases
student interest in learning simulation software (and
taking elective courses in simulation). Business stu-
dents find spreadsheet simulation of queues to be
inherently interesting. This makes them excited
about simulation in general. However, programming
spreadsheet queueing simulations, even with the
templates in Grossman (1999) can be cumbersome.
When we demonstrate a simulation package such as
Arena and indicate that a queue which requires hours
of spreadsheet programming can be programmed in
under 1 minute in Arena, students take note. Simu-
lation elective enrolments have increased since we
started using spreadsheet queueing simulation in the
required course.
9. Conclusions
We discussed the use of spreadsheet queueing simu-
lation graphs to enhance student understanding of
queues and of simulation. Use of this technique
seems to increase student interest in elective courses
in simulation.
We look forward to using the server graph in re-
search work with call center managers exploring the
possibility of mixed inbound-outbound call centers
where outbound calls are made during periods of
INFORMS
 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues

idleness in a pure inbound call center. It is difficult ' will be a multiple of 5 minutes.
to understand and communicate the size and stochas-
tic nature of the time windows for outbound calls. X = Int(X / 10 / 5 + 1)
The server graph provides a powerful stochastic rep- For I = 1 To N
resentation of these time windows. With
Downloaded from informs.org by [202.67.38.6] on 10 September 2017, at 04:15 . For personal use only, all rights reserved.

ActiveSheet.ChartObjects(I).Chart.Axes(xlValue)
.MinimumScale = [start_time]
10. Appendix
.MaximumScale = [close_time]
10.1 Software Downloads
.MajorUnit = 1 / 24 / 60 * 5 * X
A family of spreadsheet queueing templates with End With
customer and server graphs for queues with balk-
Next I
ing, reneging, and both balking and reneging can be
downloaded from http://www.bus.ualberta.ca/ End Sub
aingolfsson/simulation/ [local copy] .

10.2 VBA Code

The following VBA code scales the time axis on the
customer and server graphs in a way that we find
more pleasing than Excel's default scaling. The code
needs to be associated with the worksheet that con-
tains the graph. The name of the worksheet does
not matter. Copies of this same subroutine can be
associated with several worksheets, if desired.
Cells with the names start_time and close_time must
exist somewhere in the workbook. The code scales
the value axis of every chart in the worksheet it is
associated with.

Private Sub Worksheet_Calculate()

Dim N As Long, I As Integer
Dim X As Double
N = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects.Count
' Find open time in minutes
X = ([close_time] - [start_time]) * 24 * 60
' Find how many 5 minute intervals in open
time.
' Then divide by ten and take integer value.
The result,
' times 5 minutes, will be the interval
length. Therefore,
' there will be approximately ten inter-
vals, and each interval

38

INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39) INFORMS
 INGOLFSSON & GROSSMAN
Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues

11. References Plane, D. R. (1994), Management Science, a Spread-

sheet Approach, Boyd and Fraser, Danvers, MA.
Camm, J. D. and J. R. Evans (1996). Management
Science: Modeling, Analysis and Interpretation, Powell, S. G. (1998), "The studio approach to teach-
South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnatti, OH. ing the craft of modeling," Annals of Operations
Research, vol. 82, no. 1, pp.29-47.
Chase, R. B. and N.J. Aquilano (1992), Production
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and Operations Management, sixth edition, Rich- Ragsdale, C. T. (1998), Spreadsheet Modeling and
ard D. Irwin, Chicago, IL. Decision Analysis, second edition, South-Western
College Publishing, Cincinnati, OH.
Clauss, F. J. (1996), Applied Management Science
and Spreadsheet Modeling, Duxbury Press, Belmont, Tufte, E. R. (1983), The Visual Display of Quantita-
CA. tive Information, Graphics Press, Cheshire, CT.
Evans, J. R. and D. L. Olson (1998), Introduction to Winston, W. L. (1996), Simulation Modeling Using
Simulation and Risk Analysis, Prentice Hall, Upper @RISK, Duxbury Press, Belmont, CA.
Saddle River, NJ.
Winston, W. L. and S. C. Albright (1997), Practical
Evans, J.R. (2000), "Spreadsheets as a Tool for Management Science, Spreadsheet Modeling and
Teaching Simulation", INFORMS Transactions on Applications, Duxbury Press, Belmont, CA.
Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, http://ite.informs.org/
Vol1No1/evans/evans.html
Grossman, T. A., Tran, K. and Ursu, G.D. (1997),
"Prospects and techniques for dynamic discrete event
simulation in spreadsheets," Proceedings of the In-
ternational Association of Science and Technology
for Development International Conference on Ap-
plied Modelling and Simulation, Banff, Canada, July,
available at http://www.ucalgary.ca/~grossman/
simulation/history.htm.
Grossman, T. A. (1999), "Spreadsheet Modeling and
Simulation Improves Understanding of Queues,"
Interfaces vol.29, no.3, pp.88-103. Templates avail-
able from http://www.ucalgary.ca/~grossman/simu-
lation/ .
Hesse, R. (1997), Managerial Spreadsheet Model-
ing and Analysis, Richard D. Irwin, Chicago, IL.
Kleinrock, L. (1975), Queueing Systems, Volume 1:
Theory, John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
Lawrence, J. A. and B.A. Pasternack (1998), Ap-
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Approach for Decision Making, John Wiley and
Sons, New York, NY.
Liberatore, M. J. and R. L. Nydick (1999), "Break-
ing the mold: A new approach for teaching the first
MBA management science course," Interfaces,
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INFORMS Transcations on Education 2:2 (27-39) INFORMS