{"id":2420,"date":"2010-05-30T05:02:20","date_gmt":"2010-05-30T12:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=2420"},"modified":"2014-10-04T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2014-10-04T10:32:14","slug":"a-fulfillment-center-is-a-queueing-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/a-fulfillment-center-is-a-queueing-system\/2420\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fulfillment Center is a Queueing System"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>A Queueing (Queuing) System is a structure where things arrive (anything, including people), they join a line, wait for service. \u00a0After being served, they exit the system. If this is true, then we can use the properties of <a title=\"articles on queueing theory\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/queueing-theory\/\">Queueing Theory<\/a> to help us better manage fulfillment centers, distribution centers, and any large facility that has the same properties as any line.<\/p>\n<p>One result of Queueing Theory is Little&#8217;s Law:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Little&#8217;s Law: For a Queueing (Queuing) System in steady state, the average length L of the queue equals the average arrival rate \u00ce\u00bb times the average waiting time W.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Or,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>L = \u00ce\u00bbW<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Given this definition, a warehouse (distribution center, fulfillment center) is a Queue in which Stock Keeping Units (SKU) are the customers that arrive at the receiving dock, where they join a queue (a line) to be processed and then wait for service (shipped). \u00a0The processing in this case is the Pick, Pack, Ship part of the internal warehouse process.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a simple example of how to use Little&#8217;s Law to expose information that is not obvious.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine a warehouse with 10,000 pallets, and the company has an average of 4 inventory turns per year. \u00a0How much labor is needed to support this activity? \u00a0Using Little&#8217;s Law, we get:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>10,000 pallets = \u00ce\u00bb(1\/4 year)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>so,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00ce\u00bb = 40,000 pallets \/ year<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Let&#8217;s assume an 8 hour shift and 250 working days per year and 2,000 working hours per year. \u00a0Then, we get:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00ce\u00bb = 20 pallets \/ hour<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, most systems aren&#8217;t conveniently in a steady state, but the principle still applies. \u00a0With the little information we had, we estimated the labor required to support the activity of this warehouse.<\/p>\n<h2>Other Applications of Little&#8217;s Law<\/h2>\n<p>Little&#8217;s Law can be applied to many areas of business. \u00a0Here are scenarios where Queueing Theory can be helpful:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>how to staff an emergency room (ER)<\/li>\n<li>how to staff a call center<\/li>\n<li>how many features a software engineering team can develop<\/li>\n<li>how many projects can be completed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are more. \u00a0Think about it &#8211; I bet you can find many applications of Queueing Theory. \u00a0Think about your areas of responsibility &#8211; how might you apply Little&#8217;s Law?<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Queueing (Queuing) System is a structure where things arrive (anything, including people), they join a line, wait for service. \u00a0After being served, they exit the system. If this is true, then we can use the properties of Queueing Theory to help us better manage fulfillment centers, distribution centers, and any large facility that has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":9574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[641,643,642,640],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Fulfillment Center is a Queueing System<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Fulfillment Center is really a very large queue. 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