Waiting Line Management and Theory

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Waiting Line Managementand Theory

• BUSN 653

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Devotional
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Learning Objectives

• Emphasize the importance of providing fast
  service as a competitive advantage to companies.
• Demonstrate how service managers can design their
  operations and train their employees to provide
  faster service without incurring any additional
  costs.

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First Impressions..

• Customers encounters with waiting lines, which
  are often their initial encounter with the firm,
  can significantly affect their overall level of
  satisfaction with the organization.

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What are examples of fast service?

• Rental car return
• Hotel express check-in and check-out
• Overnight delivery of Internet orders
• Food delivery from excellent restaurants
• Served in 10 minutes or its free
• 30 minute appointment

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Is Quicker always better?

• Customization
• Panasonic bicycles
• Exotic car pick-up programs
• Value-added (Occupied wait)
• Disneys theme parks-- The Tiki Room
• Musak

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Which is more important?

• Actual waiting time
• or
• Perceived waiting time
• Ex Mirrors next to elevator doors

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Why the need for speed?

• Time is a commodity and becoming more and more
  valuable
• Can pay higher for more convenience
• Desire for return customers
• Technology (ATM, bar code scanners)

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Whats the real key?

• Ensure that customers are sufficiently satisfied
  with the level of service provided so that they
  will want to return in the future.

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Improving the customers satisfaction with the
wait time

• Unfair versus fair waits
• combined queue approach (Ex commissary, banks)
• telephone answering
• extend hours of operation
• Uncomfortable versus comfortable waits (lounge)
• Unexplained versus explained waits (delayed
  flight worker idleness delays)
• Initial versus subsequent waits

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What is the cost for rapid service?

• Ritz Carlton
• Disney theme parks
• Increased inventory and/or service capacity
• optimal weighting time -- To

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Level of Service versus Process Efficiency
Fast Service (Expensive)
Cost
Slow Service (Cheap)
Good (Fast)
Poor (Slow)
Level of Service
8-6
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The Tradeoffs in Waiting Line Management
To
8-7
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Waiting Line Characteristics

• Population source -- finite versus infinite
• Arrival pattern -- Poisson
• Lines -- length and number (limited?)
• Queuing -- FCFS
• Layout -- channels/phases
• Service pattern -- exponential
• Capacity

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EXHIBIT 8S.1 Framework for Viewing Waiting Line
Situations
Servicing System
Physical features
Service Facility V
Arrival
Exit
Population
Selection
I
II
III
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Supplement 8-4
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Queuing Problem

• Review Example Problem 1 on page 298
• Do problem 3 on page 304.

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Waiting Line Theory

• Call Management Example

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Performance Measurement

• Goals -- group and individual
• Monitoring tools
• Log
• Performance Review Sheet
• See next frame for comparison chart

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Comparison Chart