When there is greater demand for a service offered, a server line is a daily line formed by customers waiting to be served. The quantity of customers to be serviced and the quality of the service are the two main indicators of waiting times. Single server line systems and multiple server line systems make up the majority of server line classifications (Van Der Aalst, 2015).
Being forced to wait in line to be serviced has a significant impact on how customers view a company because of the time it wastes and the likelihood that they won't return for that service. Reneging, when a consumer waits in line, where a customer switches positions, are examples of how customers express their displeasure and frustration jockeying where a customer changes from one service line to another in multiple server systems. My essay will focus on identifying the properties, advantages, and disadvantages of both lines and how they may be improved to make them more effective (Van Der Aalst, 2015).
Single Server Waiting Line
Single server waiting line system is the simplest of all the systems and is mostly used in demonstrating the fundamentals of a queuing system. Single server line model is applied to waiting for lines that meet the following assumptions i.e. waiting line as a single server, the queue discipline is first to come first to be served, no bulking or reneging and arrival pattern follows a poisson probability distribution (Kumar, 2016).
Single waiting lines are majorly used in gas station and movie theatres with one checkout counter or fast food sellers like McDonald's. Single waiting line system has one checkout counter and one employee operating the cash register. The employee and the cash register make the service facility, and the customers in queue make the line following the first come first serve discipline.
Advantages of Single Server Waiting Line
Benefits of a single server line system include the fact that it is efficient in a store that is still developing hence one server will efficiently serve available customers; it also boosts customer server relationship as a frequent customer will build a relationship with the only server available over time hence winning the customer. Single server line system also cheap and easy to set up as compared to multiple server systems (Kumar, 2016).
Disadvantage of a Single Server Waiting Line
The disadvantage of the single server queuing system includes the fact that in peak times customers in a rush may avoid the store due to the long queues associated with the single server system hence losing profits (Kumar, 2016).
Multiple Servers System
The multiple server systems involve several servers attending to customers. This type of system is used in banks i.e. Barclays bank. In this system, customers wait in line and gradually move over to the next available server, and this greatly improves the check in and check out process as compared to the single line system server system (Van Der Aalst, 2015).
In this system the line is attended by two or more identical servers where the mean rate is identical for both servers, no bulking or reneging is allowed and the service times are perceived to have an exponential distribution (Van Der Aalst, 2015).
Advantages of Multiple Server System
Multiple server systems are very efficient in service delivery as customers are hardly crowded as compared to the single line server system hence helps in service delivery which will attract more customers as minimum or no time is wasted is involved in the queuing (Van Der Aalst, 2015).
Where every server works on a special service, quality delivery is improved as the particular server gets specialized in handling a particular type of service over time maximizing performance on that particular task, as they say, specialization leads to optimization.
Disadvantages of Multiple Servers System
Multiple server systems is costly and complex to set up as compared to the single line server system, and during the off peak times, a lot of idling occurs with the servers, and they still have to be paid which is not efficient for the company (Van Der Aalst, 2015).
Changing Operational Characteristics.
The operational characteristics of a waiting system may be altered in an effort to make the best performance out of it for the reason that both single and multiple line systems have their advantages and situations they are best suited (Rosemann & Brocke, 2015).
Changing Customer Arrival Rates
Customer arrival rates may be changed by introducing discounts and promotions during the off peak seasons; this will help in attracting customers and reduce idleness in the multiple server systems i.e. Barclays where servers may be idle during off peak seasons due to few customers (Rosemann & Brocke, 2015).
Server Efficiency
Server efficiency is improved by bringing in calculators and all other gadgets that will fasten service delivery and speed up the serving process hence reducing queues and will help improve customer flow even in a single server system i.e. McDonald's and even in multiple server systems i.e. Barclays bank during the peak seasons of business (Rosemann & Brocke, 2015).
Conclusion
Both the single server and multiple server systems are efficient in a different situation after considering customer populations hence, in the end; there isn't a right-wrong choice between using the single server or the multiple server systems. While the multiple server approaches will out-perform the single-server approach with excess customers, it underperforms with limited customers, and the single server system will be efficient.
References
Kumar, R. (2016). A single-server Markovian queuing system with discouraged arrivals and retention of reneged customers. Yugoslav Journal of Operations Research, 24(1).
Van Der Aalst, W. M. (2015). Business process simulation survival guide. In Handbook on Business Process Management 1 (pp. 337-370). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Rosemann, M., & vom Brocke, J. (2015). The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
