Study of Queuing System of a Busy Restaurant and a Proposed Facilitate Queuing System

Abstract

In a restaurant waiting for service is a common phenomenon for the customer. Restaurant owners are not concerned about the matter of waiting customer though they do not want their customer would go another competitor's door. There are several determining factors for a restaurant to be considered as a good or a bad one. Taste, cleanliness, the restaurant layout and settings are some of the most important factors. These factors, when managed carefully, will be able to attract plenty of customers, However, there is also another factor that needs to be considered especially when the restaurant has already succeeded in attracting customers. This factor is the customers queuing time. Queuing theory is the study of queue or waiting lines. Some of the analysis that can be derived using queuing theory include the expected waiting time in the queue, the average time in the system, the expected queue length, the expected number of customers served at one time, the probability of balking customers, as well as the probability of the system to be in certain states, such as empty or full. Hence, queuing theory is suitable to be applied in a restaurant setting since it has an associated queue or waiting line where customers who cannot be served immediately have to queue (wait) for service. Researchers have previously used queuing theory to model the restaurant operation reduce cycle time in a busy fast food restaurant as well as to increase throughput and efficiency. In this study, the average service time, average idle time, and average waiting time at cash counter are measured.