BU283 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Longrun, Mathematical Analysis, Tim Hortons
Document Summary
Our objective is to understand terminology and concepts. The really interesting waiting line problems are studied via simulation! We spend a significant proportion of our lives waiting in lines. London escalator example: there"s space on the side for people in a hurry to walk past ppl just standing there. They did the experiment, had people stand side by side and filled the full capacity. It did, in fact, get more people through. Ppl think that if there is space for people to get by, more people would be able to get through, however it"s not true, because there"s so much capacity wasted between the people speeding up/down. Which in return makes the queue/line of getting on the escalator longer. Capacity is the output rate possible/ hour: not a stock concept but a flow concept. The basis of queuing theory is the trade-off between the cost of improving service and the costs associated with making customers wait.
