NEW MANAGEMENT POLICIES TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MULTI-STATIONSERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

Clark et al. (1992) reported on the use of a computer simulation model to show that significant reduction in customer 'waiting time' could b e achieved by new management policies for multi-station service organi zations. They modelled a multi-phase queuing structure and showed redu ctions in the system variable 'time in system' when servers were poole d at the first reception desk, rather than having single servers at mu ltiple desks to provide service. Their model also demonstrated a great er savings in system transit time when the servers moved with the cust omers through subsequent tasks (multi-phase systems). This paper uses classical queuing theory to evaluate these results. We conclude that C lark et al.'s findings can be supported through use of the classical w aiting line formulas.