COMM 225 Chapter 18: Waiting-Line (Queuing) Analysis (Production and Operations Management - Second Custom Ed for Concordia)
Document Summary
Happen when there is a temporary imbalance between supply (capacity) and demand. More capacity than needed to handle demand = idle/unproductive capacity. Key is to determine balance that will provide adequate level of service at reasonable cost. In designing service systems, the designer must weigh the cost of providing a given level of service capacity against cost of having customers wait for service, leading to. Queuing theory - mathematical approach to analysis of waiting lines. Queuing analysis important because customers tend to associate waiting with poor service quality, especially if wait is long. Arrival times and service durations exhibit high degree of variability. Systems sometime become temporarily overloaded, making waiting lines. To minimize total costs of: customers waiting for service, provision of capacity, ex. determining cashier number at market or repair people number. Identify level of service capacity that will minimize total cost.