Queuing Theory

Definition

Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the results are often used when making business decisions about the resources needed to provide a service.


Queuing Theory

What is the ‘Queuing Theory ‘

A mathematical method of analyzing the congestions and delays of waiting in line. Queuing theory examines every component of waiting in line to be served, including the arrival process, service process, number of servers, number of system places and the number of “customers” (which might be people, data packets, cars, etc.). Real-life applications of queuing theory include providing faster customer service, improving traffic flow, shipping orders efficiently from a warehouse and designing telecommunications systems such as call centers.

Explaining ‘Queuing Theory ‘

Queuing theory is used to develop more efficient queuing systems that reduce customer wait times and increase the number of customers that can be served. For example, a 2003 paper by Stanford School of Business professor Lawrence Wein used queuing theory to analyze the potential effects of a bioterrorism attack on U.S. soil and propose a system to reduce wait times for medications that would decrease the number of deaths caused by such an attack.

Further Reading

  • Multi-product costs and standby capacity derived from queuing theory: the case of Belgian hospitals – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
  • Queuing theoretic approaches to financial price fluctuations – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
  • The queuing theory application in bank service optimization – ieeexplore.ieee.org [PDF]
  • Application of queuing model to patient flow in emergency department. Case study – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
  • Waiting for a stroke bed: Planning stroke unit capacity using queuing theory – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
  • Green supply chain management using the queuing theory to handle congestion and reduce energy consumption and emissions from supply chain transportation fleet – www.econstor.eu [PDF]
  • Tutorial in medical decision modeling incorporating waiting lines and queues using discrete event simulation – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
  • Using queuing theory and simulated annealing to design the facility layout in an AGV-based modular manufacturing system – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
  • A Teller Scheduling Model Based on Queuing Theory and Integer Programming [J] – en.cnki.com.cn [PDF]