Finite-Source Queueing Systems and their Applications

János Sztrik 2001/08/05
or percentage of interference time.
The purpose of the following example is to show the advantages obtained in
system performances and productivity from the pooling of operators. In this
case several operators have the same assignment of machines.
Table 1 has values for operator utilization for pairs of (N, r) parameters that
have the same machine per operator ratio (N/r = 4 and then 15).
Notice that the operator utilization is increasing for a given ρ even though the
ratio of the number of machines per operator stays the same. This is an
indication that it is better, when feasible, to pool operators rather than to
assign a particular number of machines to each operator individually. The
example considers two cases: (1) 6 machines serviced by one operator and (2)
20 machines serviced by three operators. The results show that, even though
the workload per operator increased from system 1 (6 machines/operator) to
system 2 (62 3 machines/operator), the machines were serviced more efficiently
in system 2. The advantages of pooling are well known.
Finite-Source Queueing Systems and their Applications