Seth Godin's sees queues everywhere he goes. Concessions at the airport, order taking on the phone are his examples. Having just returned from LA, my experience with a rental car agency, Star Bucks (twice daily), the US Border crossing in San Diego, and the line at In-And-Out Burger is similar. Some queue were serviced in a timely manner some were not.
All these experiences can be described by queuing theory. But all do not have fixes in the simple way the Lean and Agile proponents would have us believe. Yogi reminds us...
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is
Seth's suggests that the price of food be rounded up or down to hide the tax, so no change would be given. Turns out of course that change is ALWAYS given - unless the buyer has exact change. If the price of the sandwich at the United terminal in LAX were $3.00 and all I had was a $5.00 bill I'd want so change back. The register has to be opened and change provided. A receipt is needed and I'd have to exchange my money for the sandwich, get the receipt (which I may toss) and pocket my $2.00. If the price was $2.78, nearly - to a few seconds - the same transaction would take place.
His example of the phone sales is another issue all together. Dropped customers is a problem and a capacity plan would deal with that.
My experience at the US Border was similar to our rental car checkout. But at the border no one cares there is a line. It's not their job to care there is a line. They have another job to do. The Custom and Border Patrol agents have a protocol to enforce. We're just the raw materials for that process. 1.5 hour crossing is not uncommon on a weekend. We were there on Monday afternoon. Once we reached the check point, it was clear what the "problem" was. Every car was being checked for documents, and 1/2 for contents. Too many people and fixed capacity.
The rental car checkout was caused by staff that had "gone on break." Literally, GONE away from the exit. Now the un-named rental car agency could have had better management and a much better process - too much paper work, not enough agents, and someone on duty at the exit. But it didn't seem to impact their business when I was there. They were lowest price provider (we were on vacation) and you get what you pay for. Hertz was 3 times the price and my Gold Card business travel experience is walk in drive out, thank you Mr. Alleman for you business.
So here's the point.
- Queuing problems are not as simple as some would have us believe. Littles Law is a simplification of a M/G/1 queuing system. The variable capacity of the service is determined in many cases by external forces. Security, sunk cost, state and federal tax regulations, and at times even lack of concern for the customer of experience. The arrival rate is variable as well, depending on flight schedules, flow of traffic to opening the Pardes opener at PETCO field, and the pure lack of concern at one business.
- Demand many times overwhelms capacity, not matter the leanness or agileness of the service.
In practice, operating in saturation mode creates long lines. Operating in under utilization mode creates lost margin and even business failure. If you were the manager, operating in saturation mode is a better alternative - no matter the suggestions of a theorist.