WHY QUEUING NEVER VANISHES

This tutorial aims to address and illustrate that queuing theory has a wider potential than generally perceived, while at the same time a va riety of practical problems, both in daily-life and industry, are open for fundamental research. To this end, it will: (i) Highlight basic q ueuing insights for daily-life purposes. (ii) Provide exact and boundi ng results for queuing network applications. (iii) Present a number of practical illustrations (case studies) taken from areas as: Daily-lif e situations (postal offices and supermarkets); Transportation (railwa ys and air-traffic); Administrative logistics (reengineering); Telecom munications (call-centers). (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.