INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

OPERATIONAL RESEARCH PROFESSOR: K.SRINIVASAN PROJECT REPORT ON WAITING LINE MODEL AT EGMORE RAILWAY TICKET RESERVATION CENTRE DONE BY: UGP/FWO8-11 MIRA RAMESH BABU LOKAMITRA.A PGP/FW09-11 DHVANI.M.V AISHWARYA.R DIVYA K.R VIJAYRAJ.K

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We as a group would like to express our whole hearted gratitude to our professor and guide, Mr.K.Srinivasan for giving us this opportunity to learn and explore the WAITING LINE MODEL which we were able to apply in a practical situation at the Egmore Railway ticket reservation center. We are also thankful to the authorities at the Egmore station who helped us in completing this project successfully.

INDEX
THE RAILWAY RESERVATION CENTER CHOSEN STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM MODEL THAT CAN BE APPLIED BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL ELEMENTS OF THE MODEL QUEUE DISCIPLINE BASIC WAITING LINE STRUCTURES APPLICATION OF THE MODEL SUGGESTIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE RAILWAY RESERVATION CENTRE CHOSEN

One of the Railway Reservation Centers in Chennai is located at Egmore about a five minutes drive from the Commissioner Office in Chennai. The hall is slightly old. It has ten reservation counters which operate in turns and one common waiting line.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

During the hours of selling the ticket, the hall management faces a problem of queue and people generally complain of the inefficient system leading to commotion. A lot of time is spent in standing in the line and people often tend to get irritated by the end. Even the person behind the counter finds it difficult to handle so many people, so they end up taking turns for the same.

MODEL THAT CAN BE APPLIED

The model that can be applied to this particular case is the queuing model or the waiting line model. This model will help determine the best approach to reduce waiting times and improve service. One of the most important managerial applications of random processes is the prediction of congestion is a system, as measured by delays caused by waiting in line for a service. Customers arriving at a bank, a checkout counter in a clothing store, a theatre ticket office, a fast food drive-through, a supermarket checkout, etc. may perceive that they are wasting their time when they have to wait in line for service. Repeated and excessive delays may ultimately influence the customers shopping preferences. The customers do not have to be physically present at a place of business to be waiting in line. Waiting lines (also called queues) can form when people use the telephone to call a business to place a catalogue e-order or request customer support for problems they are having with computer equipment or software.

It doesnt matter to the customers whether elevator music is played while waiting on hold, with frequent interruptions to assure them that their call is important. If the wait is too long, the customer may balk, which means leave the system entirely, in this case by hanging up the telephone.

Many people today do business online over the Internet. Here, a long waiting line is apparent when the computer responds slowly because the server is overloaded. The order may be lost during checkout, or the customer may choose to log off and try again later. Sometimes the customers come from within the organization itself. Computers or other equipment that break down must wait for a technician to finish repairing other items that are already queued up for service. Delivery vehicles may have to wait to use a loading dock.

Hence, organizations should design their waiting line systems by considering the consequences of having a customer wait in line or balk, versus the costs of providing more service capacity. Reason for choosing this model is such that not only the management gets to know a clean statistical data of the problem, also they can work towards making the entire process more efficient and faster. It will also help the people who have to wait in the queue as it will benefit the. If a clean outline of the model is known, tickets can be sold out much faster and efficiently.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL

In the current Egmore Railway Reservation Center, a service takes place on an arrival request, handing over of the filled form, determination of the available seats as requested, fixing the seats and class, taking the money and finally handing over the ticket. Once the first customer orders the ticket, he gets entertained for the service while the others wait for their chance in the line. The operation is an example of the single channel, waiting line model. When more customers arrive, they tend to increase the length of the queue. Using this model we have to find a method of how they can reduce the waiting time for customers, and get their request addressed quicker.

ELEMENTS OF THE MODEL

DISTRIBUTORS OF ARRIVALS / ARRIVAL RATE ()

The arrival rate is the rate at which customers arrive at the service facility during a specific period of time. This rate can be estimated from the data collected. Example: If 100 customers arrive at the ticket reservation center in around 10 hours a day, then we have to analyze for each hour the average arrivals based on the number of counters open and the crowd during that period.

In general the arrivals are said to be independent of each other which may vary randomly over time.

THE SERVICE RATE ()

The service rate is the average number of customers which can be served during a specific period of time. A service rate is similar to arrival rate in that it is a random variable. In other words, such factors as different number of tickets a customer purchases, the amount of change the sever must count out, ticket cancellation and different forms of payment alters the number of the customers that can be served over time. Again, it is possible that only 12 customers are checked out in the first hour and 32 customers in the next hour.

ALWAYS ( )

If ( ), that is the service rate is less than the arrival rate, then queue unit would always be there to be served, which as per our observation happens during the hour of 8:00-9:00p.m.

QUEUE DISCIPLINE
Queue discipline is the order in which waiting customers will be served. At the Egmore railway ticket reservation counter, the customers are served on first come first served basis. This is the most common type of queue discipline which is followed. Queues lengths can be infinite or finite.

Infinite is most common.

Finite is limited by some physical structure, like a driveway that can accommodate only a limited number of cars.

BASIC WAITING LINE STRUCTURES

Waiting lines are generally categorized into four basic structures, according to the nature of the service facilities: single-channel, single-phase; single-channel, multiple-phase; multiple-channel, single-phase; and multiple-channel, multiplephase.

APPLICATION OF THE MODEL

STEP 1 : FIND THE AVERAGE ARRIVAL RATE() - for each hour TIME 8:00-9:00 9:00-10:00 10:00-11:00 10:0010:30 10:30 11:00 11:00 12:00 12:00 1:00 2:00- 3:00 3:00-4:00 4:00-5:00 5:00 6:00 CUSTOMERS 46 27 20 23 30 28 8 32 11 21 COUNTERS 2 5 5 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 AVG.CUSTOMER PER HOUR 23 5.4 4 7.666 10 9.333 4 5.5 10.5 7

STEP 2: FIND THE AVERAGE SERVICE RATE() TOTAL TIME FOR SERVICE = 1169 minutes TOTAL CUSTOMERS = 228 AVG. SERVICE TIME = 1169 / 228 = 5.1272 minutes per customer = 60/5.1272 = 11.71 customers per hour STEP 3: FIND THE UTILIZATION RATE ()-for each hour UTILIZATION RATE () = AVG. ARIVAL TIME / AVG SERVICE TIME

TIME 8:00 - 9:00 9:00 -10:00 10:00-11:00

10:00-10:30 10:30 -11:00 TOTAL OF 10:00-11:00

AVG. ARIVAL RATE / UTILIZATION AVG. SERVICE RATE RATE 23 / 11.71 1.964 5.4 / 11.71 0.461 4 / 11.71 7.666 / 11.71 10 / 11.71 9.33 / 11.71 4 / 11.71 5.5 / 11.71 10.5 /11.71 7 / 11.71 0.342 0.655 0.997 0.854 0.797 0.342 0.47 0.90 0.598

11:00 -12:00 12:00 - 1:00 2:00 - 3:00 3:00 - 4:00 4:00 - 5:00 5:00 -6:00

Hence from the above data we can understand that during the early morning hour of 8:00 -9:00a.m., 10:00 -11:00a.m. and during the evening around 4:00 5:00p.m. , the utilization rate is more in comparison to rest of the day. Hence, the Railways Department should open up more counters in order to reduce the waiting time for the customers during that time, as the rush is more then.

STEP 4: FIND THE PROBABILITY OF ZERO CUSTOMERS IN THE SYSTEM (0)

0 = 1-
TIME 8:00 9:00 9:00 10:00 10:00 11:00 11:00 12:00 12:00 1:00 3:00 - 4:00 4:00 5:00 5:00 6:00

0
(-) 0.964 0.539 0.003 0.146 0.203 0.061 (-) 0.793 0.402

STEP 5 : FIND AVERAGE NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS IN THE WAITING LINE

If the acceptable waiting time is 10 minutes then:

10/ 60 = 2 ( - ) 6 2 + 11.71 137.124 = 0

Substitute these values in the formula: -b +- b2 -4ac 2a

where, a=6, b=11.71, c= (-) 137.124

On substituting the values we find out that it takes around 4 minutes per customer, so in an hour 15 customers can be serviced. Now, we shall derive x (number of counters), using Lq. Lq= ()2 / x ( - /x) 10/60 = (15)2 / x 11.71 (11.71 15/x) Hence x =11.12 = 11 counters

STEP 6 : FIND AVERAGE TIME SPENT IN THE SYSTEM (Ls) Ls = / x ( - /x) =15/11 (11.71-15/11) = 0.1317

SUGGESTIONS

Facility should be given to the Waitlisted passengers to opt for Tatkal scheme without cancelling the waitlisted ticket or option to be given at the time of booking for upgrading to Tatkal Scheme through online use without approaching the counter or re booking online

While reservation tickets can be obtained via internet through IRCTC. The service should also be extended for non-reserved second class tickets including MSTs. It will help a lot of daily/weekly passengers who commute between workplace and residence.

Internet booking of the Railway tickets should be encouraged by cutting on commission, as in this way the railway can save on manpower and stationary. It also reduces the crowd for manual reservation of tickets.

If the customer is not able to get a ticket on a specific day for a train, the system should suggest alternative trains available between the two places. This will be very useful to the customers and reduces a lot of time which is spent on querying for each train. This also reduces load on IRCTC server. A system/process similar to the Electronic Prepaid top up like in the Telecom Industry can be used via agents across India to book tickets via the mobile phone for customers. The Customer will then get his PNR via SMS and he can board the train with his PNR & Identification.

 Online booking and cancellation of unreserved ticket will help the passengers and Railway a lot to avoid rush on booking counters. Make it convenient and user friendly.

Segregation of counters according to the service needed by customers. ( eg.: cancellation counter, booking within Chennai)

Increase in counters for local ticketing as a majority of the crowd is found there.

For credit card customers, they can have touch screen ticketing along with a machine to swipe their card for payment. (self service system like at Escape Theatre)

Fully automated system, for purchasing of tickets.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://archive.ite.journal.informs.org/Vol2No3/Ashley/qing.pdf http://www.cbpa.ewu.edu/~pnemetzmills/OMch16/OM16FAC.html