Wait Times and Queuing Theory

Queuing Theory and Wait Times
Queuing, otherwise known as waiting in line, is something that most people feel they know how to do, yet struggle with in practice. Efficient queuing is critical for businesses. For airlines and other businesses which provide time-dependent services, queuing is necessary to ensure efficiency. For the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), queuing is also a matter of safety. To ensure all passengers are appropriately screened, the TSA must ensure that flyers are able to wait in an orderly line and receive appropriate direction. Yet when people are forced to wait in line, they are often angry and agitated. This is especially true in situations such as an airport in which passengers may be worried about missing flights or have gotten up very early in the morning, endured a hectic commute, or face other pressures regarding their flight. Waiting in line is yet another inconvenience.
The fact that TSA officials are a representative of a public agency is an added responsibility. If people are treated poorly by TSA officials, this reflects poorly upon public servants and the government agency the officials serve. It may also make otherwise law-abiding citizens think worse of their government and be less compliant in the future with security regulations, including queuing for searches. Moving lines quickly and making the experience a positive one is important. This underlines the psychological dimension of queueing and expediting queuing that is only a factor when dealing with human beings.
As noted by Ferreira (et al. 2011), there are many ways in which inventory can be organized in terms of a queue, such as a first in and last out method, or a last in and first out method. In the case of human beings, efficiency is not always possible. Rather, fairness and perceptions of fairness are; for example, while it can be useful to expedite the passage of some individuals through a queue if they have additional security background checks, this must be weighed with the potential negative of the ire it tends to stir among those who are waiting. Still, even in other industries, there have been attempts to have different waiting and queueing times for people, based upon segmenting their status, as noted by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (n.d.). For example, individuals with less lengthy appointments may have staggered appointments with those who are being seen for more intensive procedures. While this is a useful technique in healthcare, it is more difficult to deploy in security screening. However, passengers who are flagged as more problematic (for example, because of objects they are carrying or other high-risk factors, such as they fact that they come from countries with more liberal drug or weapon restrictions than the United States) may be subjected to more intensive screening in different lines, versus passengers who are considered less potentially problematic, based upon their personal details.
Appropriate queuing and effective management of queueing benefits the public sector by creating a positive, friendly face of security; ever since 9/11 flyers have tended to have ambiguous feelings about airport security. On one hand, they wish to feel protected. On the other hand, they want their personal privacy to be predicted. Through a combination of expediting flyers in a discrete fashion who have agreed to go through preboarding security checks and directing individuals through different queues, speed can be enhanced without sacrificing security. The critical, additional factor is that given the public nature of airport queueing, this should be done in a manner to minimize hurt feelings as much as possible. A final way to improve queueing may be to introduce more online services, such as the current ability to print boarding passes online. Although it is unlikely all security can be shifted to a virtual format, in the future, through fingerprinting or other forms of technology, it may at least enhance some of the objectives of psychologically sensitive, secure, yet expedient queuing.
Resources
Ferreira, M. A. M., & Andrade, M., Filipe, J. A., Coelho, M. P. (2011). Statistical queuing theory
with some applications. International Journal of Latest Trends in Finance & Economic Sciences, 1(4), 190-185.
Shortening waiting times: Six principles for improved access. (n.d.). Institute for Healthcare
Improvement. Retrieved from: http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/ImprovementStories/ShorteningWaitingTimesSixPrin ciplesforImprovedAccess.aspx