Operations Management: An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition

CHANGING OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

After calculating the operating characteristics for a waiting line system, sometimes you need to change the system to alter its performance. Let's look at the type of changes you can make to the different elements of the waiting line system.

Customer arrival rates. You can try to change arrival rates in a number of ways. For example, you can provide discounts or run special promotions during the nonpeak hours to attract customers.

Number and type of service facilities. You can either increase or decrease the number of server facilities. For example, a grocery store can easily change the number of cashiers open for business (up to the number of registers available). The store increases the number of cashiers open when lines are too long.

Another approach is to dedicate specific servers for specific transactions. One example would be to limit the number of items that can be processed at a particular cashier (ten items or less) or to limit a cashier to cash-only transactions. Still another possibility is to install self-service checkout systems.

Changing the number of phases. You can use a multiphase system where servers specialize in a portion of the total service rather than needing to know the entire service provided. Since a server has fewer tasks to learn, the individual server proficiency should improve. This goes back to the concept of division of labor.

Server efficiency. You can improve server efficiency through process improvements or ...