Queuing and Waiting, Mike Tanner (Mitan Ltd Consulting)
Abstract
The first part of this talk is about a video-based survey of a retail queue, investigating how such a queue corresponds to the usual assumptions of queuing theory, and technical and statistical considerations for surveying a queue. We look at how well an arriving customer, or the store management, can estimate waiting time, which is relevant to queue-management systems. This leads on to a mathematical model of waiting, showing how time “slows
down” in a queue, and explaining some aspects of how people feel about waiting, such as why customers typically over-estimate how long they have waited. Some responses to waiting which are generally believed to be psychological phenomena can be shown to be an objective assessment of the information available to a customer.
Venue: Room E32, John Dalton Building, Oxford Road, Manchester Metropolitan University
No charge is made to attend meetings and non-members are welcome.
