12.6 Finite Population Model (M / M / 1 with Finite Source)
When there is a limited population of potential customers for a service facility, we need to consider a different queuing model. This model would be used, for example, if you were considering equipment repairs in a factory that has five machines, if you were in charge of maintenance for a fleet of 10 commuter airplanes, or if you ran a hospital ward that has 20 beds. The limited population model permits any number of repair people (servers) to be considered.
The reason this model differs from the three earlier queuing models is that there is now a dependent relationship between the length of the queue and the arrival rate. To illustrate the extreme situation, if your factory had five ...
Get Quantitative Analysis for Management, 13/e now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
