19-1 Waiting Lines

PART SEVEN
WAITING LINES AND
SIMULATION
•Chapter Nineteen
•Waiting Lines
•Chapter 19 Supplement
•Simulation

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-2 Waiting Lines

Chapter 19

Waiting Lines

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-3 Waiting Lines

Waiting Lines

• Queuing theory: Mathematical approach

to the analysis of waiting lines.
• Goal of queuing analysis is to minimize
the sum of two costs
– Customer waiting costs
– Service capacity costs

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-4 Waiting Lines

Implications of Waiting Lines

• Cost to provide waiting space
• Loss of business
– Customers leaving
– Customers refusing to wait
• Loss of goodwill
• Reduction in customer satisfaction
• Congestion may disrupt other business
operations

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-5 Waiting Lines

Queuing Analysis
Figure 19-1

Total Customer Capacity

cost = waiting cost + cost
Cost

Total cost
Cost of
service
capacity

Cost of
customers
waiting

Service capacity Optimum

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-6 Waiting Lines

System Characteristics

• Population Source
– Infinite source: customer arrivals are
unrestricted
– Finite source: number of potential
customers is limited
• Number of observers (channels)
• Arrival and service patterns
• Queue discipline (order of service)

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-7 Waiting Lines

Elements of Queuing System

Processing
order

Arrivals Waiting Service Exit

line
System

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-8 Waiting Lines

Queuing Systems

Multiple channel

Multiple phase

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-9 Waiting Lines

Poisson Distribution
Figure 19-4

0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-10 Waiting Lines

System Performance

Measured by:
• Average number of customers waiting
• Average time customers wait
• System utilization
• Implied cost
• Probability that an arrival will have to wait

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-11 Waiting Lines

Waiting Time vs Utilization

Figure 19-6
Average number on
time waiting in line

0 100%
System Utilization

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-12 Waiting Lines

Queuing Models: Infinite-Source

• Single channel, exponential service time
• Single channel, constant service time
• Multiple channel, exponential service
time
• Multiple priority service, exponential
service time

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-13 Waiting Lines

Queuing Models

• Single channel, exponential service time

• Single channel, constant service time
• Multiple channel, exponential service time
• Multiple priority service

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-14 Waiting Lines

Priority Model

Processing
order

1 3 2 1 1

Arrivals Waiting Service Exit

line
Arrivals are assigned
a priority as they arrive System

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-15 Waiting Lines

Finite-Source Formulas
Table 19-6

T
Service factor X=
T+U
Average number waiting L = N (1 − F )
L( T + U ) T (1 − F )
Average waiting time W= =
N−L XF
Average number running J = N F(1 − X )
Average number being served H = FNX
Number in population N = J + L+ H

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
19-16 Waiting Lines

Finite-Source Queuing

Not waiting or Being

Waiting
being served served

J L H

U W T

J+H
F=
J + L+ H

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.