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The queuing theory or waiting line theory owes its development to A.K. Erlang. He, in 1903,
took up the problem on congestion of telephone traffic. The difficulty was that during busy periods,
telephone operators were unable to handle the calls the moment they were made, resulting in
delayed calls. A.K. Erlang directed his first efforts at finding the delay for one operator and later on
the results were extended to find the delay for several operators. The field of telephone traffic was
further developed by Molins ( 1927) and Thornton D-Fry ( 1928). However, it was only after World
War II that this early work was extended to other general problems involving queues or waiting lines.
Waiting lines or queues are omnipresent. Businesses of all types, industries, schools, hospitals,
cafeterias, book stores, libraries, banks, post offices, petrol pumps , theatres - all have
queuing problems. Queues are also found in industry -in shops where machines wait to be
repaired , in tool cribs where mechanics wait to receive tools and in telephone exchanges where
incoming calls wait to be handled by the operators. Further examples of queues, though less
apparent are: waiting for a telephone operator to answer, a traffic light to change, the morning
mail to be delivered and
the like.
Waiting line problems arise either because
(i) there is too much demand on the facilities so that we say that there is an excess of
waiting time or inadequate number of service facilities.
(ii) there is too less demand, in which case there is too much idle facility time or too many
facilities.
In either case, the problem is to either schedule arrivals or provide proper number offacilities
or both so as to obtain an optimum balance between the costs associated with waiting time and
idle time.
Operations research can quite effectively analyse such queuing or congestion phenomena.
However, a sound understanding of queuing theory combined with imagination is required to apply
the theory to practical situations.

10.1 APPLICATIONS OF QUEUING MODELS

Waiting line or queuing theory has been applied to a wide variety of business situations.
All situations where customers are involved such as restaurants , cafeterias, departmental stores,
cinema halls, banks, post offices, petrol pumps, airline counters, patients in clinics, etc., are likely
to have waiting lines. Generally , the customer expects a certain level of service, whereas the firm
providing service facility tries to keep the costs minimum while providing the required service.
Waiting line theory is also widely used by manufacturing units. It has been popularly used
in the area of tool cribs. There is a general complaint from the foremen that their workmen wait
too long in line for tools and parts. Though the management wants to reduce the overhead charges,
engaging more attendants can actually reduce overall manufacturing costs, since the workers will
be working instead of standing in line.
Another problem that has been successfully solved by waiting line theory is the determination
of the proper number of docks to be constructed for trucks or ships. Since both dock costs and
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demurrage costs can be very large, the number of docks should be such that the sum of the two
costs is minimized.
Queuing methods have also been used for the problem of machine breakdowns and repairs.
There are a number of machines that breakdown individually and at random times. The machines
that breakdown form a waiting line for repairs by maintenance personnel and it is required to find
the optimum number of repair personnel which makes the sum of the cost of repairmen and the
cost of production loss from downtime, a minimum.
Queuing theory has been extended to decide wage incentive plans. For example, some
workers are asked to operate, say, two machines while the others, four machines. Since the
machines are identical, the base rate of payment is same for all workers. However, the incentive
bonus for production in excess of quota is half as much per unit for operators with four machines
as for those with two machines. Apparently , the arrangement appears to be fair. However, a study
of downtime for repairs shows that while the two machines run by one man would have 12 per
cent downtime , four machines run by one man would have 16% downtime. The reason is that
two (or more) machines can breakdown at once in the four-machine group which is generally
not true for two-machine group. Thus the worker operating four machines would have to operate
at a higher efficiency than his counterpart in order to earn the same incentive. The problem was
solved by paying the operators of the four-machine group a higher base rate determined by using
the probabilities computed from queuing theory.
Queuing theory has also been applied for the solution of problems such as
l. Scheduling of mechanical transport fleets.
2. Scheduling distribution of scarce war material.
3. Scheduling of jobs in production control.
4. Minimization of congestion due to traffic delay at tool booths.
5. Solution of inventory control problems.

10.2 INTRODUCTION
Waiting lines or queues are familiar phenomena , which we observe quite frequently in our
daily life. The basic characteristics of a queuing phenomenon are
l. Units arrive, at regular or irregular intervals of time, at a given point called the service
centre. For example, trucks arriving a loading station, customers entering a department
store, persons arriving a cinema hall, ships arriving a port, letters arriving a typist's desk,
etc. All these units are called entries or arrivals of customers.
2. One or more service channels or service stations or service facilities (ticket windows,
salesgirls, typists , docks, etc.) are assembled at the service centre. If the service station
is empty (free), the arriving customer(s) will be served immediately ; if not, the arriving
customer(s) will wait in line until the service is provided. Once service has been
completed , the customer leaves the system. Whenever we have customers coming to a
service facility in such a way that either the customers or the facilities have to wait, we
have a queuing problem. Figure. 10. l shows the major constituents of a queuing system
(or delay phenomenon). They are

Customers 0 0 0 0 0 0
arriving
Queue or
waiting
line
LService
j
r--
fac ility
i.-- --- System ---- -
Fig. 10.1
 QUEUING MODELS •• 965

1. Customer: The arriving unit that requires some service to be performed. As already
described , the customers may be persons , machines, vehicles, parts, etc.
2. Queue (Waiting line): The number of customers waiting to be serviced. The queue does
not include the customer(s) currently being serviced.
3. Service Channel: The process or facility which is performing the services to the customer.
This may be single or multi-channel. The number of service channels is denoted by the
symbol c.

10.3 ELEMENTS OF A QUEUING SYSTEM (STRUCTURE OF A QUEUING

SYSTEM)
A queuing system is specified completely by seven main elements:
l. Input or arrival (inter-arrival) distribution
2. Output or departure (service) distribution
3. Service channels
4. Service discipline
5. Maximum number of customers allowed in the system
6. Calling source or population
7. Customer 's behaviour.
1. Arrival Distribution. It represents the pattern in which the number of customers arrive at
the service facility. Arrivals may also be represented by the inter-arrival time, which is the period
between two successive arrivals.
Arrivals may be separated by equal intervals of time or by unequal but definitely known
intervals of time or by unequal intervals of time whose probabilities are known ; these are called
random arrivals.
The rate at which customers arrive to be serviced, i.e., number of customers arriving per unit
of time is called arrival rate. When the arrival rate is random , the customers arrive in no logical
pattern or order over time. This represents most cases in the business world.
When arrivals are random, we have to know the probability distribution describing arrivals,
specifically the time between arrivals. Management scientists have demonstrated that random
arrivals are often best described by the Poisson distribution , which was discussed in some details in
chapter 8. Of course, arrivals are not always Poisson , and we need to be certain that the assumption
of Poisson distribution is appropriate before we use it. Mean value of arrival rate is represented
by 'A. It may be noted that the Poisson distribution with mean arrival rate 'A is equivalent to the
(negative) exponential distribution of inter-arrival times with mean inter-arrival time 11,...
2. Service (Departure) Distribution. It represents the pattern in which the number of
customers leave the service facility. Departures may also be represented by the service (inter
departure) time, which is the time period between two successive services.
Service time may be constant or variable but known or random (variable with only known
probability).
If service times are randomly distributed , we have to find out what probability distribution best
describes their behaviour. In many cases where service times are random , management scientists
have found that they are best described by the exponential probability distribution. If service times
are exponentially distributed and arrivals Poisson distributed, the mathematics necessary to study
waiting line behaviour is somewhat easier to develop and use. Fig. 10.2 illustrates an exponential
probability distribution of service times ; from this we find that the probability of long service
times is rather small.