Queuing theory analyzes waiting in line and helps reduce wait times. It’s used in business, customer service, healthcare, and engineering. Different queuing disciplines include FIFO, LIFO, Processor Sharing, and Priority. Examples of queuing theory in daily life include multiple tellers and roaming employees in shops.
Queuing theory is used to study the phenomenon of waiting in line. Some people use information gleaned from queuing theory to determine how best to serve customers and thereby prevent them from waiting in line longer than necessary. The theory allows researchers to analyze several things like getting in line, waiting in line, and the time it takes to serve customers. This allows them to collect and derive information about a customer’s wait time, the expected amount of customers that will be on the line, the likelihood of a customer hitting a line, and other data. This information is used to find ways to reduce lines and wait times.
Applications of queuing theory are used in many aspects of business, customer service, commerce, industry, healthcare and engineering. Customer service applications can especially use the information gleaned from queuing theory. This information can be used to make decisions about the type of resources needed to provide a service to customers. The data can also be applied to call centers, network server queues, telecommunications, and traffic flow. It can also be used to dictate the type of line customers will find themselves waiting for different types of service.
There are several queuing disciplines that have been developed due to queuing theory, four of which are First In First Out (FIFO), Last In First Out (LIFO), Processor Sharing, and Priority. FIFO describes the practice of serving customers in the order they arrive so that the person waiting longest is served first, while LIFO describes the practice of serving customers so that the person who arrives last exits first , as in the case of an elevator. Processor sharing serves customers at the same time so that the average wait time for all customers is roughly the same. The priority discipline serves the customer with the highest priority first. It is important to note that these disciplines may apply to applications other than customer service.
Examples of how queuing theory works are present in many aspects of daily life. At bank tellers and credit unions you may see one line and multiple tellers. This happens to ensure that a slow transaction doesn’t hold the entire line. Some shops open multiple registers if there are more than three people in line. There are also other shops that have roaming employees. These clerks phone purchases and give customers a number so the cashier can complete the transaction quickly, thus reducing wait times for everyone.
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