Quantitative Analysis for Management, 13/e

12.7 Some General Operating Characteristic Relationships

Certain relationships exist among specific operating characteristics for any queuing system in a steady state. A steady state condition exists when a queuing system is in its normal stabilized operating condition, usually after an initial or transient state that may occur (e.g., having customers waiting at the door when a business opens in the morning). Both the arrival rate and the service rate should be stable in steady state. John D. C. Little is credited with the first two of these relationships, and hence they are called Little’s Flow Equations:

$$L=\lambda W \left(\text{or} W=L/\lambda \right)$$ (12-29)

$$L_q=\lambda W_q \left(\text{or} W_q=L_q/\lambda \right)$$ (12-30)

A steady state is the normal operating condition of the queuing system.

A queuing ...