EBM 508 Assignment: Queuing and Resource Allocation

Student group assignment answers. The first question explains the components of a basic queuing process, a model of a waiting line built to make the length of the queue and the waiting time predictable: the input source that generates customers over time, the finite or infinite size of the calling population, which may be as small as a number of processes for a computer to run, the arrival distribution and inter-arrival distribution, the queue discipline, and the service mechanism with its one queue to one station, one queue to several stations, several queues to one station, multi-channel and multi-stage multi-channel arrangements, together with the measures of average customers served per unit time and average service time. The second question turns to resource allocation inside an organisation, arguing that unbalanced task allocation breeds team animosity, disorganisation and failure of teamwork, that the loss of good people through voluntary attrition is the final cost, and that linking related tasks for one resource, such as assigning market research for two projects to the same person, is the logistical remedy.