Queuing models

Mr. Mgaya, S
 Queuing models
• Queuing models are model for services system
• Services systems are system where the services are
provided, example banks, hospitals, libraries, postal
offices, libraries, retails and whole shops, etc.
• Queuing models can be used in two situation.
i. To investigate and solve operational problems
facing given service system
ii. Establishing the operating characteristics of
existing or new services system
 General Structure of Queuing System
. Service system
In put
population Customers leave
Queue the system

Queue
Displine

Arrival Queue Service

process structure mechanism
 Key elements of queuing
systems
• Customer: refers to anything that arrives at a
facility and requires service, e.g., people,
machines, trucks, emails.
• Server: refers to any resource that provides the
requested service, e.g., repair persons, retrieval
machines, runways at airport.
Principal Queue Parameters
1. Calling Population
2. Arrival Process
3. Service Process
4. Number of Servers
5. Queue Discipline
Calling population
• The population of potential customers, may be
assumed to be finite or infinite.
• Finite population model: if arrival rate depends on the
number of customers being served and waiting, e.g.,
model of one corporate jet, if it is being repaired, the
repair arrival rate becomes zero.
• Infinite population model: if arrival rate is not affected
by the number of customers being served and waiting,
e.g., systems with large population of potential
customers.
Calling population …
• Population can be homogeneous or heterogeneous
• Can be homogeneous means only one type of
customers/ jobs
• Or heterogeneous means several different kinds of
customers/jobs
Arrival Process
• Is the arrivals of customers at the service system.
• Size of the arrival population – either infinite or limited
• Arrival distribution:
i. Either fixed or random
ii. Random due to fact that the arrival of a customer
is independent of arrivals of other customers and
cannot be predicted
iii. Either measured by time between consecutive
arrivals, or arrival rate
iv. Random arrivals: inter arrival times usually
characterized by a probability distribution.
 Poisson Distribution
iv. The Poisson distribution is often used for random
arrivals
λ = the average arrival rate per time unit
P(x) = the probability of exactly x arrivals occurring

during one time period

P(x) = e-λ λx
x!
• Average arrival rate is known
• Average arrival rate is constant for some number of time
period
• Number of arrivals in each time period is independent
Service Process
• Service process also called service time are defined as
the time that a customer spend at a given service
facility
• How long does it take to service a job or customer?
• They are continuous random variables are described
by a specific continuous distribution called The
exponential distribution.
• Exponential service times often assumed
– Works well for maintenance or unscheduled
service situations
Exponential Distribution
μ = average service time
t = the length of service time (t > 0)
P(t) = probability that service time will be greater
than t

P(t) = e- μt
Number of Servers
 Queue Discipline
• Queue discipline is the logical ordering of customers
in a queue that determines which customer is chosen
for service when a server becomes free.
• Examples of queue discipline are:
i. First-in-first-out (FIFO)
ii. Last-in-first-out (LIFO)
iii. Service in random order (SIRO)
iv. Shortest processing time first (SPT)
v. Service according to priority (PR).
 Types of Queuing Model
• Using members of facilities in a given service
systems. Queuing models can be categorized as the
i. The single channel queuing model
ii. The mult-channel queuing model
 Operating characteristics of
services system
• The time that customer spend in the
queues waiting for the services is called
waiting time. Both customers and
manager are concerning with the long
waiting time. This concern is the
operational problem in nature which leads
to the development of
a) The construction of Queuing model
b) Identification of performance measures
of the services system called operating
characteristics of the services system
 Operating characteristics of
services system
Operating characteristics of the services system are
1. P0 = Probability that there are no customers in the
system
2. Lq = Average number of customers in the queue
3. L = Average number of customers in the system
4. Tq = Average time a customer spends in the queue
5. Ts = Average time a customer spends in the system
6. Pw = Probability that an arriving customer must wait
for service
 Operating characteristics of
services system …
7. Pn = Probability that there are “n” customers
in the system
8. ρ = Utilization rate for each server (the
percentage of time that each server is busy)
9. The cost of operating the service system
 Operating characteristics of
services system …
• The operating characteristics above provide the
information which help to decide on
a) How the operations of a given services system
take place
b) The quality of service provided by a given service
system
c) The cost of operating the service system
d) Whether cost of operating the service system and
providing the quality of services are balanced or
not
 TYPES OF QUEUING MODELS
• Queuing Models of the service systems
include formula and relationships which
help to determine operating
characteristics of the services system
• By using the members of facilities in a
given systems. Queuing models can be
categorized as
1. The single channel Queuing Model
2. The single channel Queuing Model
SINGLE CHANNEL
QUEUING MODEL
 SINGLE CHANNEL QUEUING MODEL
• The following assumption made when constructing the
single channel queuing Model
i. That the services system has only one services
facility
ii. That customer arrivals at the service system have
poison distribution with a mean of λ customer
arrivals. λ is a mean customer arrival rate
iii. That service time at the service system have the
exponential distribution with a mean of μ customer
arrivals. That is μ is the mean service rate
iv. That the queue discipline at the services system is
the FCFS
 SINGLE CHANNEL QUEUING MODEL
• From those assumption , the operating characteristics
are determined as
1. Probability that there are no customers in the system

p0  1 

2. Average number of customers in the queue
λ2
Lq 
μ μ  λ 
3. Average number of customers in the system
λ
L  Lq 
μ
 SINGLE CHANNEL QUEUING MODEL
4. Average time a customer spends in the queue
Lq
Tq 

5. Average time a customer spends in the system
1
Ts  Tq 

6. Probability that an arriving customer must wait
for service
λ
Pw 
μ
 SINGLE CHANNEL QUEUING MODEL
7. Probability that there are “n” customers in the system

 
P n    nP 0 where n  1 , 2 , 3 ,...
 
8. The cost of operating the service system

Total opportunity cost = (opportunity cost per unity

time)(length of queue)(total operating time of the
service system)
Example
• A take-away restaurant in Dar es salaam
has a mean arrival rate of 0.75 customer
per minute and a mean service rate of 1
customer per minute. If the opportunity
cost is Tsh 50/= per hour and the
restaurant operate for 8 hours daily then
determine the operating characteristics
of the restaurant.
Solution
• The single channel queuing model will be used to
determined operating characteristics for restaurant
• Given, mean arrival rate (λ) = 0.75
mean service rate (μ) = 1
1. Probability that there are no customers in the system
0 . 75
p0  1   0 . 25
1
There is 25% chance of having no customer in the restaurant

2. Average number of customers in the queue

0 .75 2
Lq   2 .25
11  0 .75 
On average there 2 customers in the queue
Solution …
3. Average number of customers in the system
λ2 0.75
L  Lq   2.25  3
μ 1
On average there 3 customers in the restaurant. This means 2
customer on the queue and 1is at the service facilities.

4. Average time a customer spends in the queue

Lq2 . 25
Tq    3
 0 . 75
On average a customer spends 3minutes in the queue
Solution
5. Average time a customer spends in the system
1 1
Ts  Tq   3   4
 1
On average customers spends 4 minutes in the restaurant. 3 min
in the queue and 1 minute at the service facility

6. Probability that an arriving customer must wait

for service
λ 0 . 75
Pw    0 . 75
μ 1
This means that an arriving customer has two wait for service
75% of the time
 SINGLE CHANNEL QUEUING MODEL
7. Probability that there are “n” customers in the system
 
P n    nP 0 where n  1 , 2 , 3 ,...
 
P n  0 . 75  0 . 25  for n  1, 2 , 3 ,...
n

n 1 2 3 4 5
pn 0.1875 0.1406 0.1055 0.079 0.059

There decrease pattern of the value of Pn as become larger.

There are to 3 customer at any time
Solution
8. The cost of operating the restaurant
= sum of total opportunity cost and cost of services

Total opportunity cost = (opportunity cost per unity

time)(length of queue)(total operating time of the
service system)
= 50 x 2.25 x 8
= 900/=
The total cost of operating the restaurant is Tshs
900/= per day
THE MULT – CHANNEL
QUEUING MODEL
The Mult – Channel Queuing Model
• This is the model system which contains two or more
service facilities
• Service systems with two or more service facilities
include commercial banks, post offices, supermarkets
etc
• Mult- Channel queuing model are guided by the
following assumptions
i. There is service system with k services facilities,
where k = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, …
ii. The pattern of arrivals joining the service system is
described by the Poisson distribution with the
mean of λ.
 Mult- Channel Model assumptions …
iii. The service times of the service facilities are
independent
iv. The service times at every service facility are
described by the exponential distribution with the
mean of μ
v. Arrivals at the service system wait for service in a
single queue and then move to any service facility
that falls vacant one by one
vi. The queue discipline observed at the service system
is the first Come Fist Served (FCFS)
vii. Kμ is a greater than λ
 The Mult – Channel Queuing Model
• From those assumption , the operating characteristics
are determined as
1. Probability that there are no customers in the system is
i k ( k )
   
k 
   
     
p0   
i 1 i! k!( k    )
2. Average number of customers in the queue is
k
 λ  P0
L q   
   ( k  1) k μ  λ 
1 2
The Mult – Channel Queuing Model
3. Average number of customers in the system
L q
L 

4. Average time a customer spends in the queue

Tq  L q 

5. Average time a customer spends in the system

1
Ts  Tq 

 The Mult – Channel Queuing Model …
6. Probability that an arriving customer must wait
for service k
λ k  P0
Pw 
 k (k   )k!
7. Probability that there are “n” customers in the system
λ n P0
Pn  n
where n  k
n!
λ n P0
Pn  nk
where n  k
k!k
n  0 ,1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ...
 The Mult – Channel Queuing Model …

8. The cost of operating the service system

Total opportunity cost = (opportunity cost per unity

time)(length of queue)(total operating time of the
service system)
Example
• The Tanzania post corporation intends to
investigate the operation of the main post office
based in Dar es salaam. Suppose its customers
arrive at the average rate of 87 per hour and are
served at the average rate of 2 per minute.
Suppose also the cost of waiting is Tshs 10/= per
hour, counter clerks are paid Tshs 5/= per hour
and the post office operates for 8 hours daily.
Then what is the operating characteristics of the
post office when there are only two counters
Solution
• The mult – channel queuing model is applied
Given, mean arrival rate (λ) = 87
The average service rate is 2 per minute
Mean (average )service rate (μ) = 120
There two customers at the post office, K = 2
• The operating characteristics are determined as
 The Mult – Channel Queuing Model
1. Average number of customers in the queue is
k
 λ  P0
Lq   
  ( k  1) k μ  λ 
1 2


(87 )(120 )( 0 .47 )

2
L q  ( 0 .725 )  0 .11
( 2  1) 24087 
1

This means that on average there is either o or one customer

in the queue
Solution
2. Average number of customers in the queue
L q 0 . 11
L    4 . 55
 87
3. Average time a customer spends in the post office
 87
Tq  L q   0 . 11   0 . 835
 120
4. Average time a customer spends in the system

1 1
Ts  T q   0 . 835   0 . 843
 120
Solution…
5. Probability that an arriving customer must wait for
service
λ k k  P 0
P w  k
 ( k    ) k !

87 ) 2 ( 240 )( 0 . 47 ) 12 !

120 2
240  87 

 0 . 1937
• This means that any arriving customer has to wait for service
19%of that time
Solution…
6. Probability that there are “n” customers in the
system
Pn 
λ n P0
where n  k 
87  0 . 47 
2
when n  2
n n
n! n ! (120 )

Pn 
λ n P0
where n  k 
87 n ( 0 . 47 )
nk
k!k 2 ! 2 ( n  2 ) ( 120 ) n
n  0 ,1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ...

• we use this formulae to obtain the value of Pn for n=

0,1, 2, 3, …
 Solution…
• The first five values of Pn are summarized in the table
n 0 1 2 3 4
pn 0.47 0.34 0.12 0.045 0.016

• The chance for the main post office has three or more customers
are very small. The post office has at most customers at any
given time

7. The cost of operating the post office

= (10Tshs)(8hrs)(0.11) + (2) (5x8) = 88.8 shillings
The total cost of operating the post office is Tshs 88.8 per day