Mark M.

Davis
Janelle Heineke

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
INTEGRATING MANUFACTURING AND SERVICES
FIFTH EDITION

PowerPoint Presentation by
Charlie Cook, The University of West Alabama
Copyright 2005, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

SUPPLEMENT

16

Waiting Line Theory

PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook

The University of West Alabama
Copyright 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved.

SUPPLEMENT OBJECTIVES
Introduce the major characteristics of waiting lines and
describe how they can affect a customers waiting time.
Identify the constraints and/or conditions that waiting line
theory and its associated equations require for the results
to be valid.
Present waiting line theory in the form of a set of
equations that represent the types of waiting line
configurations that can be encountered.

Copyright 2005 The McGraw-Hill

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Waiting Line Characteristics

Major Components
The source population
The way customers arrive at the service facility
The physical line itself
The way customers are selected from the line
The characteristics of the service facility itself
The condition of the customers when they exit
the system

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Framework for Viewing Waiting Line Situations

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Exhibit SU16.1

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Population Source
Finite Population
Limited size of the customer pool
Each customer leaving or returning to the pool changes the
probability of a customer requiring service.

Infinite Population
A customer pool so large that subtractions or
additions to the pool do not significantly affect
system probabilities.

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Arrival Characteristics
Pattern of Arrivals
Controllable or uncontrollable

Size of Arrival Units

One at a time or in batches

Distribution Pattern
Constant or statistically distributed rates of
arrivals

Degree of Patience
Whether the arrival stays in line or leaves
Balking or reneging
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Arrival Characteristics in Queues

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Exhibit SU16.2

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Physical Features of Lines

Length
Infinite potential length
limited line capacity

Number of Lines
Single or multiple lines

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Customer Selection
Queuing Discipline
A queuing discipline is a priority rule, or set of
rules for determining the order of service to
customers who are waiting in line.

Priority rules
First come, first served (FCFS), also known as
first in, first out (FIFO).
Reservations first, emergencies first, highestprofit customer first, largest orders first, best
customers first, longest waiting time in line,
and soonest promised date are other examples
of priority rules.
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Factors in a Queuing Discipline

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Exhibit SU16.3

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A Service
Facilitys
Structure

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Exhibit SU16.4

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Arrival Characteristics (contd)

Service Rate
The capacity of a service station, usually
expressed in terms of customers per hour.
The reciprocal of the service rate is the
average time to serve a customer.

Capacity Utilization
The percentage of time a service station is
busy serving a customer.

Exit
Customer returns to the waiting population.
Customer does not return to the population.
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Waiting Line Equations

Average total waiting time in the system is equal to
the average waiting time in the system plus the
average service time:

Littles Formulathe average total number of

customers in the system is directly related to the
total time in the system:

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Properties of Some Specific Waiting Line Models

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Exhibit SU16.5

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Equations for Solving Five Model Problems

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Exhibit SU16.6

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Equations for Solving Five Model Problems

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Exhibit SU16.6 (contd)

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Notations for
Equations
(Exhibit S16.6)

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Exhibit SU16.7

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Calculating the Relationship between

Capacity Utilization and Waiting Time

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Exhibit SU16.8

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The Relationship between

Capacity Utilization and Waiting Time

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Exhibit SU16.9

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The Trade-Off between Balking and Reneging

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Exhibit SU16.10

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