Queues and Waiting Lines

Queues and Waiting Lines The queuing theory is all about the study of contention for the use of resources that are shared but limited. In other words, it is the mathematical study with the use of models to show results and show opportunities that lie within the processes of arrival, service and the departure. It is made up of models and formulas, which give a description of the relationships between service requests, congestion and delay.

This theory can be extended in order to cover a wide variety of situations including how different customers check-out lines form and how these lines can be minimized, how many calls can be handled by a telephone switch, how many users can actually share a mainframe and how many doors should an office building have.Generally, the queuing theory can be used in business settings mainly in the line of operations management and research related problems like scheduling of production, logistics or distribution, and the management of computer networks.

These applications are quite diverse but though their solutions all revolve around the same dynamics. Queuing theory calculations can yield information, which affects many variables in the operation of any business. Any organization that is concerned with the efficiency and with lowering of costs must take these waiting times into account in the course of their operatyions.Queuing analysis can be used in logistics in order to obtain optimal results. The nature of the queue is one that involves cost shifting and burden averaging.

Any provider of a service that has limited resources is likely to serve only a smallnumebr of people at a time. This also applies at the waiting line of trucks at the dock at EBBD. Any number of trucks at the EBBD waiting line beyond the stipulated number is obliged to wait for their turn. Assuming that every trucks time is worth something those who wait for service are normally expending a valuable possession, which is their time.

By waiting in line, the service provider EBBD is ensured that none of their resources will ever stand idle. In effect, the waiting trucks are forced to pay in time for the privilege of being served which now shifts the costs from that of the service provider to the customer. In the waiting lime at the dock, there is one line but served by different people the next person that is being served is the one who has stood longest in the line.

The burden of waiting is thus shared by all the people who are in the line, this means that the larger the line the longer the average wait will be. The question for the service provider is usually simple how to provide the service that is needed. The highest level of service would then be achieved through the provision of resources that are equal to the number of patrons that are in place. This however can be very costly and.