Thoughts about (and while) waiting in line at the neighborhood McD's. Mmm...fries.
The Most Evil Being mocked the last queueing theory post, but he actually read the whole thing to mock it. Apparently, so did Squishy. I approve, of course. But Squishy noticed, with some temerity, that I had tagged that post with "queueing theory," indicating a potential for future posts about same. Well, the future is now. That post dealt with queueing theory itself as little as I could manage, which, OK, is still quite a bit, I guess. Fair warning: There's a bit more of it in this one.
If you were so foolhardy as to look in a queueing theory textbook, you'd probably see a representation of a queue as something like this:
The thing at the left is the queue, or waiting line; the colored blocks inside the queue represent customers; and the circle at the right is the server. Nowadays, in the computer world, we think of servers as big honking machines, but in general, it could be anything that provides a service. Say, an order taker at a fast food restaurant.
That diagram up there represents only one potential way to hook customers up with servers: a single queue with a single server. Lots of places, like McDonald's, or the supermarket, or the bank, have multiple servers available at a given time. How do they connect their customers to their servers? Here are two diagrams representing two options, without any explanation. Before reading on, see if you can figure out what queueing systems they represent, and how the lines you wait in everyday are arranged.
The Most Evil Being mocked the last queueing theory post, but he actually read the whole thing to mock it. Apparently, so did Squishy. I approve, of course. But Squishy noticed, with some temerity, that I had tagged that post with "queueing theory," indicating a potential for future posts about same. Well, the future is now. That post dealt with queueing theory itself as little as I could manage, which, OK, is still quite a bit, I guess. Fair warning: There's a bit more of it in this one.If you were so foolhardy as to look in a queueing theory textbook, you'd probably see a representation of a queue as something like this:
The thing at the left is the queue, or waiting line; the colored blocks inside the queue represent customers; and the circle at the right is the server. Nowadays, in the computer world, we think of servers as big honking machines, but in general, it could be anything that provides a service. Say, an order taker at a fast food restaurant.That diagram up there represents only one potential way to hook customers up with servers: a single queue with a single server. Lots of places, like McDonald's, or the supermarket, or the bank, have multiple servers available at a given time. How do they connect their customers to their servers? Here are two diagrams representing two options, without any explanation. Before reading on, see if you can figure out what queueing systems they represent, and how the lines you wait in everyday are arranged.
System (a), on the left, represents a queueing system in which each server (e.g., checkout clerk, bank teller, etc.) has his or her own line. System (b), on the right, represents a system in which all the servers together share a single line. Where I live, in Los Angeles, McDonald's and the supermarket use (a), and the bank and some other fast food places use (b). Your mileage may vary, of course.
OK, that wasn't too hard, probably. Now think about this one: All other things remaining equal, which system is better? And by better, I mean that it improves the time that you have to wait, on average, before getting service. We'll assume, to make things easier, that once you enter a queue or line, you stay in it; you don't give up, and you don't defect to another line. We'll also assume, furthermore, that all the servers are equally fast (or slow, depending on your point of view). Would you prefer to wait in (a), or (b)?
Before I answer that, let me first define some terms. All queueing systems have what's called an arrival rate, which is the rate, on average, at which new customers enter the queueing system. All servers have a service rate, which is the rate, on average, at which they can serve customers, assuming they have any customers to serve. One of the things I mentioned in that last queueing theory post was that a system is stable (that is, it doesn't jam up) if the arrival rate doesn't exceed the service rate. With me so far?
All right, one last term: The utilization of a server, or a group of servers, is the arrival rate divided by the service rate. So, pretty obviously, if the utilization of a server or servers is less than one, it's stable, and if it's greater than one, it's unstable—the line or lines get longer and longer. Somewhat less obviously, the utilization of a server is also the fraction of time that it spends actually serving customers, rather than sitting idle (which is why it's called the utilization in the first place).
Suppose Store A is using queueing system (a). It's got, let's say, six servers, each capable of serving one customer a minute. Customers come into the store at a rate of three customers a minute. Since each server gets one-sixth of all the customers, on average, each server's customer arrival rate is half a customer a minute, and each server's utilization is 1/2 divided by 1, or 1/2.
Store B, on the other hand, is using queueing system (b). It also has six servers, each of which also serve at one customer a minute. Because they all get fed from the same line, it's convenient to think of them as together serving customers at a rate of six customers per minute. If the arrival rate to Store B is the same, three customers per minute, then the utilization of the six servers, combined, is 3 divided by 6, or again, 1/2. So far, it seems like the two systems are pretty equivalent.
However, Store A has a problem that Store B doesn't. Consider the situation diagrammed below:
OK, that wasn't too hard, probably. Now think about this one: All other things remaining equal, which system is better? And by better, I mean that it improves the time that you have to wait, on average, before getting service. We'll assume, to make things easier, that once you enter a queue or line, you stay in it; you don't give up, and you don't defect to another line. We'll also assume, furthermore, that all the servers are equally fast (or slow, depending on your point of view). Would you prefer to wait in (a), or (b)?
Before I answer that, let me first define some terms. All queueing systems have what's called an arrival rate, which is the rate, on average, at which new customers enter the queueing system. All servers have a service rate, which is the rate, on average, at which they can serve customers, assuming they have any customers to serve. One of the things I mentioned in that last queueing theory post was that a system is stable (that is, it doesn't jam up) if the arrival rate doesn't exceed the service rate. With me so far?
All right, one last term: The utilization of a server, or a group of servers, is the arrival rate divided by the service rate. So, pretty obviously, if the utilization of a server or servers is less than one, it's stable, and if it's greater than one, it's unstable—the line or lines get longer and longer. Somewhat less obviously, the utilization of a server is also the fraction of time that it spends actually serving customers, rather than sitting idle (which is why it's called the utilization in the first place).
Suppose Store A is using queueing system (a). It's got, let's say, six servers, each capable of serving one customer a minute. Customers come into the store at a rate of three customers a minute. Since each server gets one-sixth of all the customers, on average, each server's customer arrival rate is half a customer a minute, and each server's utilization is 1/2 divided by 1, or 1/2.
Store B, on the other hand, is using queueing system (b). It also has six servers, each of which also serve at one customer a minute. Because they all get fed from the same line, it's convenient to think of them as together serving customers at a rate of six customers per minute. If the arrival rate to Store B is the same, three customers per minute, then the utilization of the six servers, combined, is 3 divided by 6, or again, 1/2. So far, it seems like the two systems are pretty equivalent.
However, Store A has a problem that Store B doesn't. Consider the situation diagrammed below:
Five of the servers are busy, and they even have customers waiting in line behind them. The sixth server, however, is entirely idle, but because we've assumed that customers don't switch lines, it has nobody to serve. (Lest you think this is entirely unrealistic, I see it all the time at the supermarket, possibly because the idle server is a few counters away from the busy ones.) This is bound to happen from time to time, since the utilization is less than one. Servers are going to be idle every now and then, and if that happens when some other customers are waiting to be served, Store A is going to be inefficient at those times.
Note that this never happens to Store B. Certainly, servers are going to be idle from time to time, and customers are going to have to wait from time to time. But they never both happen at the same time. Any time a server comes idle, if there's any customer waiting for service, it can go straight to that server. As a result, Store B, and queueing system (b), is better for the customers: They wait for a shorter time, on average, than customers at Store A.
What's more, queueing system (b) is fairer, in the sense that customers that arrive first are served first. That doesn't always happen with queueing system (a). In the situation depicted above, if a customer now arrives to that sixth, idle server, it gets served immediately, without having to wait, even though customers that arrived previously to other lines are still waiting. So (b) is doubly better than (a).
In light of this, it shouldn't come as any surprise that Fry's Electronics, essentially the store for übergeeks, uses system (b) in every one of its stores I've been in. It even takes advantage of the longer single line (as opposed to an array of shorter lines) by snaking it between and amongst a panoply of impulse buys. One could argue that supermarkets can't really take proper advantage of system (b), because people usually have carts, and these take up a lot of room, which would obstruct other supermarket traffic. (I also haven't considered the effect of the 12-items-or-less express lanes.)
But a place like McDonald's has no such excuse. Even if you make the point that people switch lines when there's nobody waiting at a server (because the service counter is not so large), it's still unfair, in that it's not first-come-first-served. And other fast food places are perfectly willing to arrange a single line for all servers.
Note that this never happens to Store B. Certainly, servers are going to be idle from time to time, and customers are going to have to wait from time to time. But they never both happen at the same time. Any time a server comes idle, if there's any customer waiting for service, it can go straight to that server. As a result, Store B, and queueing system (b), is better for the customers: They wait for a shorter time, on average, than customers at Store A.
What's more, queueing system (b) is fairer, in the sense that customers that arrive first are served first. That doesn't always happen with queueing system (a). In the situation depicted above, if a customer now arrives to that sixth, idle server, it gets served immediately, without having to wait, even though customers that arrived previously to other lines are still waiting. So (b) is doubly better than (a).
In light of this, it shouldn't come as any surprise that Fry's Electronics, essentially the store for übergeeks, uses system (b) in every one of its stores I've been in. It even takes advantage of the longer single line (as opposed to an array of shorter lines) by snaking it between and amongst a panoply of impulse buys. One could argue that supermarkets can't really take proper advantage of system (b), because people usually have carts, and these take up a lot of room, which would obstruct other supermarket traffic. (I also haven't considered the effect of the 12-items-or-less express lanes.)
But a place like McDonald's has no such excuse. Even if you make the point that people switch lines when there's nobody waiting at a server (because the service counter is not so large), it's still unfair, in that it's not first-come-first-served. And other fast food places are perfectly willing to arrange a single line for all servers.
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