Queuing Analysis Lecture

Rationale for Queuing Analysis

Providing quick service is an important aspect of quality customer service Because Time is a valuable resource, the reduction of waiting time is an important topic for analysis Queuing analysis is a probabilistic form of analysis, not a deterministic technique The operating statistics are used by the operations manager containing the queue to make decisions.

Factors in Waiting Line Analysis

Operating Characteristics are average values for characteristics that describe the performance of a waiting line system. These average values are customer arrivals and service times. The most important factors to consider in analyzing a queuing system are the following: 1. The queue discipline (in what order customers are served). 2. The nature of the calling population(where customers come from). 3. The arrival rate(how often the customers arrived at the queue. 4. The service rate (how fast customers are served)

Single Server Waiting Line System

Components of a waiting line system include: 1. arrivals 2. servers 3. waiting line structure

Waiting Line System

The Queue Discipline is the order in which waiting customers are served. Ex. First in , First-out, Last in last-out, Random The Calling Population is the source of customers: it may be infinite or finite. The arrival rate the rate at which customers arrive at the service facility during a specified period of time. It is also the frequency at which customers arrived at a waiting line according to a probability distribution. This arrival rate is most frequently described by a Poisson distribution.

Waiting Line System

The Service Rate is the average number of customers who can be served during a time period. The service time can be described by the negative exponential distribution. Note: both arrivals and service must be in compatible units of measure. Service time must be expressed as a service rate to correspond to an arrival rate.

Possion Distribution
The essence of queuing theory is that it takes into account the randomness of the arrival process and the randomness of the service process. The most common assumption about the arrival process is that the customer arrival epochs follow a Poisson process. One way to describe a Poisson arrival process is to imagine that time is divided into small intervals of length . Assume that in each interval either an arrival occurs (with probability , say, where the proportionality constant is the arrival rate) or it doesn't, independently of the occurrence or nonoccurrence of arrivals in the other intervals. Finally, imagine that 0 (that is, take limits to pass from discrete time to continuous time). Then the arrivals are said to follow a Poisson process; and one of the properties of the Poisson process is that the times between arrivals (the interarrival times) are exponentially distributed. (A random variable X is said to be exponentially distributed if its distribution function Fx(t) is given by Fx(t)=1-e-t for all t0, where 1/ is the average value of X.

The Single Server Model

Basic Assumption of the single server model 1. An infinite calling population 2. A first-come, first-served queue discipline 3. Poisson arrival rate 4. Exponential service time Customers must be served faster than they arrive, or an indefinitely large queue will build up.

Single Server Model

Basic single-server queuing formulas = mean arrival rate(the average number of arrivals per time period) = mean service rate (average number served per time period) The probability that no customers are in the queuing system (either in the queue or being served) is P = ( 1 / ) The probability that n customers are in the queuing system is n n Pn = (/ ) * P = (/ ) (1 - / )
0 0

Single Server Model

The average number of customers in the queuing system (the customers being served and in the waiting line) is L = /( - )
The average number of customers in the waiting line

is: Lq = ( /( - ) The average time a customer spends waiting in the total queuing system (Waiting and being served) is W = 1 /( - ) = L /

Single Server Model

The average time a customer spend waiting in the queue to be served is: Wq = ( /( - ) The probability that the server is busy (the probability that the customer has to wait) known as the utilization factor is U=/ The probability that the server is idle (the probability that the customer can be served0 is I = 1 U = 1 ( / ) = P0
The probability of no customers in the queuing system is the probability that the server is idle.

Single Server Model

Queuing system operating statistics are steady state or constant over time. Utilization factor U must be less than one. The service rate must be greater than the arrival rate if the model is used.

Undefined and Constant service Times

Constant service times occur with machinery and automated equipment Constant service times are a special case of the single server model with undefined service times. The operating characteristics of the undefined service time are as follows: P0 = ( 1 / ) Wq = Lq / Lq = 2 2 + (/)2 ( 1 / )
L = Lq + /
W = Wq + 1/

U = /

Finite Queue Length

In finite queue length, the length of the queue is limited. The length of the queue maybe limited ty the physical area in which the queue forms. M is the max no in the system P = ( 1 / ) Pn = (P0) ((/)n for n <= M
0

1 ((/)M+1 L = ( / ) - (M + 1) ((/)M+1 ( 1 / ) 1 ((/)M+1

Lq = L - (1 P W =

L / (1 P

Wq = W - 1/

Finite Calling Population

The customers from which arrivals originate are limited.

Multiple Server Waiting Line

In multiple server models, two or more independent servers in parallel serve a single waiting line. Assumptions: a. FIFO discipline b. Poisson arrivals c. exponential service times d. Infinite calling population. The total number of servers must be able to serve customers faster than they arrive.

Other types of Queuing System

Queuing systems in which customers balk from entering the system or leave the line if it is too long; Servers who provide service on some basis other than FIFO Service times that are not exponentially distributed or are undefined or constant Arrival times that are not Poisson distributed Jockeying (movement between queues) which can often occur when there are multiple servers, each preceded by a separate queue.