BIJ BIJU PATNAIK INSTITUTE OF IT & MANAGEMENT STUDIES, BHUBANESWAR, ODISHA

Queuing Theory (Waiting Line Theory) (Module-III)

Queuing Theory

 Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues.

 A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted.
 Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the results are often used when
making business decisions about the resources needed to provide a service.
 Queueing theory has its origins in research by Agner Krarup Erlang when he created models to describe the
Copenhagen telephone exchange.
 The ideas have since seen applications including telecommunication, traffic engineering, computing and,
particularly in industrial engineering, in the design of factories, shops, offices and hospitals, as well as in project
management
 Waiting Line Theory or Queuing Theory, one has to understand two things which are;
1) Service
2) Customer or Element.
Customer or Element: customer or element represents a person or machine or any other thing, which is in need of
some service from servicing point.
Service: Service represents any type of attention to the customer to satisfy his need.
For example,
 Person going to hospital to get medical advice from the doctor is an element or a customer,
 A person going to railway station or a bus station to purchase a ticket for the journey is a customer or an
element,
 A person at ticket counter of a cinema hall is an element or a customer.

All the customer or elements will arrive and waits to avail the service at service station. When the service station has
no desired capacity to serve them all at a time the customer has to wait for his/its chance resulting the formulation of
a waiting line of customers which is generally known as a Queue.

Queues or waiting lines stands for a number of customers waiting to be serviced. Queue does not include the
customer being serviced. The process or system that performs the services to the customer is termed as Service
Channel or Service Facility.

Queue Model of a Hospital (Medical Service)

Benefits of Queueing Theory:

Queueing theory has been used for many real life applications to a great advantage. It is so because many problems
of business and industry can be assumed/simulated to be arrival-departure or queueing problems. Queueing theory
techniques can be applied to problems such as:
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a) Planning, scheduling and sequencing of parts and components to assembly lines in a mass production
system.
b) Scheduling of workstations and machines performing different operations in mass production.
c) Scheduling and dispatch of war material of special nature based on operational needs.
d) Scheduling of service facilities in a repair and maintenance workshop.
e) Scheduling of overhaul of used engines and other assemblies of aircrafts, missile systems, transport fleet etc.
f) Scheduling of limited transport fleet to a large number of users.
g) Scheduling of landing and take off from airports with heavy duty of air traffic and air facilities.
h) Decision of replacement of plant, machinery, special maintenance tools and other equipment base on
different criteria

Limitation of Queueing Theory:

a) Mathematical distribution, which are assume while solving queueing theory problems , are only a close
approximation of the behaviour of customers, time between their arrival and service time required by each
customer.
b) Most of real life queuing problems are complex situation and very difficult to use the queueing theory
technique.
c) Many situations in industry and service are multi-channel queueing problems. When a customer has been
attended to and the service provided, it may still have to get some other service from another service and
may have to fall in queue once again. Here the departure of one channel queue becomes the arrival of other
queue. In such situations, the problem becomes still more difficult to analyse.
d) Queueing model may not be ideal method to solve certain very difficult and complex problems and one may
have to resort to other techniques like Monte-Carlo simulation method.

Structure of Queuing System:

Queuing system deal with two elements, i.e. Arrivals and Service facility. Entire queuing system can be completely
described by:

a) The input (Arrival pattern)

b) The service mechanism or service pattern,
c) The queue discipline and
d) Customer behavior.

Components of the queuing system are arrivals, the element waiting in the queue, the unit being served, the service
facility and the unit leaving the queue after service.

Structure of Queuing System

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a) Input Process: The input describes the way in which the customers arrive and join the system. In
general customer arrival will be in random fashion, which cannot be predicted, because the customer is an
independent individual and the service organization has no control over the customer.

b) The service mechanism : Service facilities are arranged to serve the arriving customer or a customer in the
waiting line is known as service mechanism.

c) Queue discipline or Service discipline: When the customers are standing in a queue, they are called to serve
depending on the nature of the customer. The order in which they are called is known as Service discipline.

d) Customer behaviour : The length of the queue or the waiting time of a customer or the idle time of the
service facility mostly depends on the behaviour of the customer. Here the behaviour refers to the impatience
of a customer during the stay in the line. Customer behaviour can be classified as:

Calling Population Characteristics:

The arrivals or inputs to the system are characterized by;

1) Size of calling population

2) Behavior of the arrivals
3) Pattern of the arrivals at the system

The calling population need not be homogeneous and may consist several populations. For example patients arriving
at the OPD of a hospital are usually of three categories: walk in patients, patients with appointment and emergency
patients. Each patient class places different demand on service on service facility, but the waiting expectations of
each category differ significantly.
Calling populations deals with how service organizations obtain customers. It can be
a) Homogenous or heterogeneous
b) Finite number of people to be served or infinite number
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Calling Population in Queuing System

Example of Calling Population in Queuing System of Hospital

Queue Process:

The service process and the distribution of service time depends on the following factors.

Number of servers: Large number of servers provides more capacity and hence can handle more customers to
reduce waiting time. In such case server may handle variety of requests and can give more time to each customer,
which impacts the service time distribution.

Time taken at service counter or at server: It varies with different requirements of customers, capability of the
employee at server and standardized versus customized service rendered. The service time is constant for
standardized services. Whereas, the service time becomes random for customized service.

Arrangement of servers: The arrangement of servers either in parallel or in series impact the service time. An
assembly like structure may make the customer visit more than one server to complete the service. In such
arrangement the server is specialized only for his/her task. In parallel arrangement of servers, all servers can be
capable of performing all tasks and the customer can complete whole procedure at one server only.

Server behavior: An employee may behave depending on the length of queue. If an employee has a long queue,
he/she may speed up the service process and may compromise on the quality of service.
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Service Mechanism or Service Facility:

Service facilities are arranged to serve the arriving customer or a customer in the waiting line is known as service
mechanism. The time required to serve the customer cannot be estimated until we know the need of the customer.
Many a time it is statistical variable and cannot be determined by any means such as number of customers served in a
given time or time required to serve the customer, until a customer is served completely. Service facility design and
service discipline and the channels of service as shown in figure may generally determine the service mechanism.

(a) Service facility design: Arriving customers maybe asked to form a single line (Single queue) or multi line (multi
queue) depending on the service need. When they stand in single line it is known as Single channel facility when
they stand in multi lines it is known as multi channel facility.

Single channel facility

Multiple channel facility

(b) Queue discipline or Service discipline: When the customers are standing in a queue, they are called to serve
depending on the nature of the customer. The order in which they are called is known as Service discipline. There are
various ways in which the customer called to serve. They are:

1. FCFS (First Come First Served): Fair policy where all customers are treated alike.

2. Shortest processing time: Give priority to the customer require short processing time to minimize the average
time a customer spends in the system.
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3. Priority: preemptive priority rule for emergency services where current service is interrupted to serve a
newly arrived customer with higher priority.

4. Round robin: Start partial service for customers who are waiting in queue. Customers face waiting time & get
service alternatively. Give drinks to the waiting customers in a restaurant or share menu with them.

Steady & Transient in a Queue System:

The distribution of customer’s arrival time and service time are the two constituents, which constitutes of study of waiting
line. Under a fixed condition of customer arrivals and service facility a queue length is a function of time. We can identify
three states of nature in case of arrivals in a queue system. They are named as steady state, and transient state.

Performance Measures of Queuing System (steady State):

Steady State: The system will settle down as steady state when the rate of arrivals of customers is less than the rate
of service and both are constant. The system not only becomes steady state but also becomes independent of the
initial state of the queue. Then the probability of finding a particular length of the queue at any time will be same.
Though the size of the queue fluctuates in steady state the statistical behaviour of the queue remains steady. Hence
we can say that a steady state condition is said to prevail when the behaviour of the system becomes independent of
time.
Performance Measures of Queuing System (Transition State):

Transient State: Queuing theory analysis involves the study of a system’s behaviour over time. A system is said to
be in ‘ transient state,’ when it’s operating characteristics or behaviour are dependent on time. This happens usually
at initial stages of operation of the system, where its behaviour is still dependent on the initial conditions. So when
the probability distribution of arrivals, waiting time and servicing time are dependent on time the system is said to be
in transient state.

Classification of Queue Models:

Most elementary queuing models assume that the inputs / arrivals and outputs / departures follow a birth and death
process. Any queuing model is characterized by situations where both arrivals and departures take place
simultaneously. Depending upon the nature of inputs and service faculties, there can be a number of queuing models
as shown below:

a. Probabilistic queuing model: Both arrival and service rates are some unknown random variables.
b. Deterministic queuing model: Both arrival and service rates are known and fixed.
c. Mixed queuing model: Either of the arrival and service rates is unknown random variable and other known and
fixed.

Numericals on Queue Models:

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Formulae:

1) Average number of arrivals per unit of time = λ

2) Average number of units served per unit of time = μ
3) Traffic intensity or utility ratio =ρ = λ /μ the condition is : (μ > λ)
4) Probability that the system is empty = P0 = (1- ρ)
5) Probability that there are ‘n‘ units in the system = Pn = ρ n P0
6) Average number of units in the system = E (n) = ρ/ (1- ρ) or = λ/ (μ − λ)
7) Average number of units in the waiting line = EL = (ρ 2)/ (1-ρ) or = λ2/ μ (μ – λ)
8) Average waiting length (mean time in the system) = 1/ (1-ρ) or =1/(μ – λ)
9) Average length of waiting line with the condition that it is always greater than zero

= V n = ρ/(1-ρ)2 = λ/ (μ – λ)2

10) Average time an arrival spends in the system = E (v) = 1 / μ (1- ρ) =1/(μ – λ)
11) P (w > 0) = System is busy = ρ
12) Idle time = (1− ρ)
13) Probability distribution of waiting time = P (w) dw = μρ(1− ρ)e−μw(1−ρ)
14) Probability that a consumer has to wait on arrival = (P (w > 0) = ρ
15) Probability that a new arrival stays in the system = P(v)dv = μ(1− ρ) e−μv(1−ρ) dv.

Example-1

A T.V. Repairman finds that the time spent on his jobs have an exponential distribution with mean of 30 minutes. If
he repairs sets in the order in which they come in, and if the arrival of sets is approximately Poisson with an average
rate of 10 per 8 hour day, what is repairman’s expected idle time each day? How many jobs are ahead of the average
set just brought in?
Solution

Data Given: λ = 10 sets per 8 hour day = 10 / 8 = 5/4 sets per hour.
Given 1/μ = 30 minutes, hence μ = (1/30) × 60 = 2 sets per hour.
Hence, Utility ratio = ρ = (λ /μ) = (5/4) / 2 = = 5 / 8. = 0.625. This means out of 8 hours 5 hours the system is busy
i.e. repairman is busy.
Probability that there is no queue = The system is idle = (1− ρ) = 1 - (5 / 8) = 3 / 8 = That is out of 8 hours the
repairman will be idle for 3 hours.
Number of sets ahead of the set just entered = Average number of sets in system = λ / (μ − λ) = = ρ / (1− ρ) = 0.625 /
(1-0.625) = 5 / 3 ahead of jobs just came in.

Example-2

A branch of a nationalized bank has only one typist. Since typing work varies in length (number of pages to be
typed), the typing rate is randomly distributed approximating a Poisson distribution with a mean service rate of 8
letters per hour. The letter arrives at a rate of 5 per hour during the entire 8-hour workday. If the typist is valued at
Rs. 1.50 per hour, determine: (a) Equipment utilization, (b) The percent time an arriving letter has to wait, (c)
Average system time, and d) Average idle time cost of the typewriter per day.
Solution
Data Given = arrival rate = λ = 5, Service rate μ = 8 per hour.
Hence ρ = (λ /μ) = 5 / 8 = 0.625
(a) Equipment utilization = Utility ratio = ρ = 0.625, i.e. 62.5 percent of 8 hour day the equipment is engaged.
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(b) Percent time that an arriving letter has to wait = As the machine is busy for 62.5 % of the day, the arriving
letter has to wait for 62.5 % of the time.
(c) Average system time = Expected (average) a customer spends in the system = 1/(μ − λ) = [1 / (8- 5)] = 1/3 hour.
= 20 minutes.
d) Average idle time cost of the typewriter per day = 8 hours × idle time × idle time cost = = 8 × (1- 5 / 8) × Rs. 1.50
= Rs. 4.50.

Example-3

In large maintenance department fitters draw parts from the parts stores, which is at present staffed by one
storekeeper. The maintenance foreman is concerned about the time spent by fitters in getting parts and wants to know
if the employment of a stores helper would be worthwhile. On investigation it is found that:
(a) A simple queue situation exists,
(b) Fitters cost Rs. 2.50 per hour,
(c) The storekeeper costs Rs. 2/- per hour and can deal on an average with 10 fitters per hour.
(d) A labour can be employed at Rs. 1.75 per hour and would increase the capacity of the stores to 12 per hour.
(e) On an average 8 fitters visit the stores each hour.
Solution
Data: λ = 8 fitters per hour, μ = 10 per hour.
Number of fitters in the system = E (n) = λ /(μ − λ) or ρ/(1− ρ) = 8 / (10 - 8) = 4 fitters.
With stores labour λ = 8 per hour, μ = 12 per hour.
Number of fitters in the system = E (n) = λ /(μ − λ) = 8 / (12-8) = 2 fitters.
Cost per hour = Cost of fitter per hour + cost of labour per hour = 2 × Rs. 2.50 + Rs. 1.75 =Rs. 6.75.
Since there a net savings of Rs. 3.25 per hour, it is recommended to employ the labourer.

Example-4
In a departmental store one cashier is there to serve the customers. And the customers pick up their needs by
themselves. The arrival rate is 9 customers for every 5 minutes and the cashier can serves 10 customers in 5 minutes.
Assuming Poisson arrival rate and exponential distribution for service rate, find:
(a) Average number of customers in the system.
(b) Average number of customers in the queue or average queue length.
(c) Average time a customer spends in the system.
(d) Average time a customer waits before being served.

Solution
Data: Arrival rate is λ = (9 / 5) = 1.8 customers per minute.
Service rate = μ = (10 / 5) = 2 customers per minute. Hence ρ = (λ /μ) = (1.8 / 2 ) = 0.9
(a) Average number of customers in the system = E (n) = ρ / (1− ρ) = 0.9 / (1- 0.9) = 0.9 / 0.1
= 9 customers.
(b) Average time a customer spends in the system = E (v) = 1/μ(1− ρ) =1/(μ − λ) = 1 / (2-1.8) = 5 minutes.
(c) Average number of customers in the queue = E (L)= ρ2 /(1− ρ) = λ2 /μ(μ − λ) = (ρ)× λ /(μ − λ) = 0.9 × 1.8 / (2-–
1.8) = 8.1 customers.
(d) Average time a customer spends in the queue = ρ /μ(1− ρ) = λ /μ(μ − λ) = 0.9 / 2 ( 1- 0.9)= 0.9 / 0.2 =4.5 minutes.

Prepared By: Er. Manoj kumar Rout,

Asst. Prof., BIITM, Bhubaneswar.