how queuing theory works
queuing theory aims to design balanced systems that serve customers quickly and efficiently but do not cost too much to be sustainable as a branch of operations research queuing theory can help inform business decisions on how to build more efficient and cost effective workflow systems the origin of queuing theory can be traced to the early 1900s in a study of the copenhagen telephone exchange by agner krarup erlang a danish engineer statistician and mathematician his work led to the erlang theory of efficient networks and the field of telephone network analysis 1at its most basic level queuing theory involves the analysis of arrivals at a facility such as a bank or a fast food restaurant and an analysis of the processes currently in place to serve them the end result is a set of conclusions that aim to identify any flaws in the system and suggest how they can be ameliorated the fundamental unit of telecommunications traffic in voice systems is called the erlang queuing theory as an operations management technique is commonly used to determine and streamline staffing needs scheduling and inventory in order to improve overall customer service it is often used by six sigma practitioners to improve processes queues are not necessarily a negative aspect of a business as their absence suggests overcapacity in queuing theory the process being studied is broken down into six distinct parameters these include the following special considerationsqueues can occur whenever resources are limited some queuing is tolerable in any business since a total absence of a queue would suggest a costly overcapacity the psychology of queuing is related to queuing theory this is the component of queuing that deals with the natural irritation felt by many people who are forced to queue for service whether they re waiting to check out at the supermarket or waiting for a website to load a call back option while waiting to speak to a customer representative by phone is one example of a solution to customer impatience a more old fashioned example is the system used by many delis which issues customer service numbers to allow people to track their progress to the front of the queue supositorio com offers free online queuing theory calculators with a choice of queuing models applications of queuing theorythe queuing theory can be used and applied in a number of different situations for instance it can be applied to 