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Waiting Lines

In: Business and Management

Submitted By sevenjameseleven
Words 950
Pages 4
P-3 Waiting Lines

Waiting lines and delays occur when there is either not enough capacity in general for demand, or when short-term rises in demand occur1. These incidents are so common as to be daily occurrences. Every day we wait at traffic lights or if we are less fortunate we get stuck in traffic jams. Still we wait in lines at banks, restaurants, and theaters ….. The study of waiting lines is an exploration of the probabilistic phenomena of frequent disparate outcomes. That is to say, sometimes having to wait for long periods of times, while at other times being so fortunate as to have no wait at all.

Operations management places a great deal of consideration into the anticipated performance of waiting line systems. These systems are of vital importance in many contexts, but particularly important in the realm of service operations management.
Certainly, in our everyday lives we dislike waiting. Truthfully, for the consumer such a delay is little more than a nuisance; however, from an operational standpoint the same delay has far greater consequences for a business. When you consider, for instance, the machinery and various equipment that may be lying idle, there are great costs at stake. In the case of our HVAC scenario, customers would be quite content if there was a technician available at a moment’s notice to service their particular heating and air-conditioning needs. Unfortunately, the costs associated with maintaining the necessary infrastructure would be unreasonable at best and more than likely would drive the costs of HVAC service through the roof.
This situation demonstrates that there will always be a tradeoff between production capacity and the surfeit of work to be done. This is not surprising when you examine the nature of our HVAC company or any other service provider for that matter. Such services cannot be inventoried and while

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