Waiting Line and Queuing Theory Solutions
REVISED
M14_REND6289_10_IM_C14.QXD 5/12/08 1:01 PM Page 217
C H A P T E R
Waiting Line and Queuing Theory Models
14
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
Teaching Suggestion 14.1: Topic of Queuing. Here is a chapter that all students can relate to. Ask about student experiences in lines. Stress that queues are a part of our everyday lives and how things have changed at banks, post offices, and airports in just the past decade. (We now wait in a common line for the first available server.) Teaching Suggestion 14.2: Cost of Waiting Time from an Organizational Perspective. Students should realize that different organizations place different values on customer waiting time. Ask students to consider different scenarios, from a drive-through restaurant to a doctor’s office to a registration line in their college or motor vehicle office. It becomes clear that organizations place different values on their customers’ time (with most colleges and DMVs unfortunately placing minimal cost on waiting time). Teaching Suggestion 14.3: Use of Poisson and Exponential Probability Distributions to Describe Arrival and Service Rates. These two distributions are very common in basic models, but students should not take their appropriateness for granted. As a project, ask students to visit a bank or drive-through restaurant and time arrivals to see if they indeed are Poisson distributed. Note that other distributions (such as exponential, normal, or Erlang) are often more valid. Teaching Suggestion 14.4: Balking and Reneging Assumptions. Note that most queuing models assume that balking and reneging are not permitted. Since we know they do occur in supermarkets, what can be done? This is one of many places to prepare students for the need for simulation, the topic of the next chapter. Teaching Suggestion 14.5: Use of Queuing Software. The Excel QM and QM for Windows queuing software modules are among the easiest models in the program to use since there are so few inputs. Yet students should be
M14_REND6289_10_IM_C14.QXD 5/12/08 1:01 PM Page 217
C H A P T E R
Waiting Line and Queuing Theory Models
14
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
Teaching Suggestion 14.1: Topic of Queuing. Here is a chapter that all students can relate to. Ask about student experiences in lines. Stress that queues are a part of our everyday lives and how things have changed at banks, post offices, and airports in just the past decade. (We now wait in a common line for the first available server.) Teaching Suggestion 14.2: Cost of Waiting Time from an Organizational Perspective. Students should realize that different organizations place different values on customer waiting time. Ask students to consider different scenarios, from a drive-through restaurant to a doctor’s office to a registration line in their college or motor vehicle office. It becomes clear that organizations place different values on their customers’ time (with most colleges and DMVs unfortunately placing minimal cost on waiting time). Teaching Suggestion 14.3: Use of Poisson and Exponential Probability Distributions to Describe Arrival and Service Rates. These two distributions are very common in basic models, but students should not take their appropriateness for granted. As a project, ask students to visit a bank or drive-through restaurant and time arrivals to see if they indeed are Poisson distributed. Note that other distributions (such as exponential, normal, or Erlang) are often more valid. Teaching Suggestion 14.4: Balking and Reneging Assumptions. Note that most queuing models assume that balking and reneging are not permitted. Since we know they do occur in supermarkets, what can be done? This is one of many places to prepare students for the need for simulation, the topic of the next chapter. Teaching Suggestion 14.5: Use of Queuing Software. The Excel QM and QM for Windows queuing software modules are among the easiest models in the program to use since there are so few inputs. Yet students should be