Mitan Ltd
Grouped queues
When tills, or other servers, are grouped together but each having their own queue, they are not independent.
- Customers will join the shortest queue.
- After joining a queue and finding that it moves very slowly, they may move to a different queue. (This is called "jockeying".)
- A server with no customers waiting will take a customer from another queue.
The chart shows the average wait when customers join the shortest queue, without jockeying. The performance is very simlar to the common queue.
There is little difference between average waiting times for a common queue and for grouped queues, although.
- shorter or longer waits occur more often
- overtaking by another queue is frustrating
Grouped queues can sometimes be better than a common queue. Click to find out why.
Gallery of queueing
Common or separate queues
Grouped queues
Overheads
Hesitation time
Walk speed/time
Call-forward systems