On Yelp, Doctors Get Reviewed Like Restaurants — And It Rankles

(8/6/2015) Do you have an experience waiting at a doctor's office for more than a hour? And when the doctor comes and apologizes, all you can say is "It's OK, I understand" because you cannot leave without their treatment? Hospital's waiting line management is probably one of the worst if patients do have a chance to rank. Now people can go to Yelp to complain about it. To some degree, I would agree with one doctor's comment "ranking on doctor's waiting line management, but not on how doctors treat patients professionally."

However, knowing how a waiting line system is mostly influenced by service time uncertainty (the time spent on a patient can varies from several minutes to several hours, which is mostly beyond doctor's control and cause a wide range variation) in healthcare, I also understand the improvement won't be easy. It's very unlikely that we can educate patients to understand the complexity of a waiting line system (most OM/SCM programs don't even cover in their undergraduate curriculum), so it's administrator's responsibility to make it right.

Airlines try to save time with speedier boarding process

(6/2/2015) If you fly with several different airlines, you will notice the processed that airlines use are very different. Southwest does not assign seats and board passengers by A/B/C groups that passengers compete (with extra payments) on their seats. Other airlines that assign seats normally have different boarding groups, among them some board passengers in the front first, some board passengers in the back first. You may wonder what is the operational logic behind their processes. Now, Southwest and Delta are trying new approaches to improve their boarding process. If you are their frequent flyer, check if their new process makes a difference.

Mile Long Security Check Line @ Midway Airport

(12/4/2014) Mile long of airport security check line? No kidding. It is hard to believe that Midway Airport made such a big mistake at the busiest day of air travel. But seeing is believing. What is the cause? The airport says they opened the security check too late and did not have enough staff working for security checking.

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Nobody Loves Waiting, but Dancing? Maybe

(9/22/2014) Not many people will say they love waiting. But we wait all the time in the modern society. Here is an interesting design for people waiting for red light.

Restaurant Watches Old Surveillance And Shares Shocking Results On Craigslist

(7/14/2014) I found an interesting article about the back-office angle of waiting in the restaurant. I don't know how 'real' this article is, but it shows some interesting stories about waiting line management.  Are you shocked by the discovery too?

McDonald's Menu Issue

(1/27/2014) When I walked with my friend on the street in a night market in Taipei, there are plenty of food vendors. My friend commented: "If a restaurant serves good foods, it only needs to be good in a few items. When a food vendor tries to sell everything, it means it is no good in any." This is very true especially for Taiwanese, which eating is very important in its culture.
       When we look at McDonald's recent performance, we see the exact problem: McDonald offers too many options to its customers. Extensive menu can be destructive for fast food restaurant, in which the service speed is critical for its fast-speed customers. The more options customers have, the longer time it takes to make a decision, then the more slowly it can finish an order. A minor increase in the service time can trigger significant performance downgrade in customer's perception if you analyze the queuing problem. So it is not surprising to see McDonald's lackluster performance in recent quarters.

McDonald's recent dollar menu.

The famous "阿桐阿寶四神湯" in Taipei. It's famous of its soup, fishballs, Siu-mai, ... It has 6 items on its menu.  

Traffic Controversy of Chris Christie

(12/26/2013) The bridge traffic controversy of Chris Christie (NJ's governor) just could not be distinguished. After reading the details of the whole event, I found it interesting. The controversy is Bill Baroni (deputy director of the Port Authority of New York and Jersey) and David Wildstein (then the director of interstate capital projects and an ally of Christie's) were accused to conduct a unapproved traffic study at the town of Fort Lee in September 2013 on a highway entrance to the George Washington Bridge. Two of three lanes of Fort Lee "to the George Washington Bridge had been closed, causing dangerous traffic jams in the borough on the first day of school." A potential reason of this traffic disaster was that the Mayer of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich (D), did not endorse Christie's reelection bid and the controversial part is "Neither he nor Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye -- who was appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) -- were given any advance warning." And another development is that Mr. Baroni "acknowledged that no one ever sought approval for the study, which, without an alternative route, was guaranteed to create traffic congestion.... Wildstein and Baroni have since resigned and hired attorneys to represent them."

Definitely the person who caused the traffic disaster know Queuing theory very well. Highway traffic is one example of queuing management. The traffic of Fort Lee is extremely busy in the normal time since "the George Washington Bridge, which is the busiest bridge in the United States," which implies that the highway system at that part has been reached close to its system capacity (maybe close to 90 or 95 % utilization in this case). In a queuing system that it's utilization rate has reached close to its capacity, any cut in the capacity will make the highway utilization reach above 100%, which implies that traffic will be backlogged till the capacity increases or the demand diminishes. In this article, it says "On approximately 20 occasions in the last forty days, our Borough has been completely gridlocked," wrote Sokolich to Baroni, who was Christie's top official at the Port Authority. "Traveling from the south to the north end of our Borough takes upwards of one hour. Our safety vehicles are unable to traverse our own thoroughfares to attend to emergencies which place our residents in harms way."

(1/8/2014) In Chinese, we say "Paper cannot cover the fire." Now this scandal exploded in the Governor's office as emails revealed that Christie's administration is linked to the Bridge Traffic retaliation. Christie's trouble is far from over due to these potential lawsuits.

McDonald Add 3rd Drive Through Window

(11/16/2013) Do you order at McDonald's drive-through? Do you think the waiting time of McDonald is getting worst? McDonald finally heard your complaint. McDonald announced that they will add a 3rd windows in their drive-through to improve their ailing service. One factor that deteriorated McDonald's service is their expanding menu items. The more items on the menu, the more options customers can choose, the more complex the service has become. With a third window, maybe you don't have to park you car and wait for your food next time when you order at McDonald's drive-through, .

Queuing Analysis Simulator

(11/13/2013) I found these two online queuing analysis simulators when I was preparing for my class.  This first one is provided by supositorio.com. It provides only queuing systems with Poisson arrival rate and Exponential distributed service time. (that is M/M/.... system). You can imbed its link of this calculator Queueing Theory Calculator on your webpage:

The second simulator, which is provided by Dr. Jaroslav Sklenar, is more powerful and flexible. It allows you to set different distribution patterns in the arrival rate and service time of the queuing system. You can also configure batch arrival/service or configure an open/closed queuing system. However, you have to really understand the details of your queuing systems and know how to write simple coding for it.

Zurich's Drive-in Sex Box

(8/27/2013) "Swiss city aims to increase safety of sex workers and contain trade with doorless, alarmed buildings in a former industrial area. Zurich has launched a novel experiment to make prostitution safer: publicly funded drive-in "sex boxes"."

I will be happy to do queuing management research for the sex box business.

Restaurant's Retaliation to No-Shows

(3/27/2013) Taking reservations is common in the service industries: restaurant, airlines, spa, doctors, dentist, lawyers, etc. We know taking reservations is one way to improve the resource utilization of the service provider because the wasted time of the doctor or lawyer is losing potential revenue. If the patient or client doesn't show, some doctors or lawyers may still charge you fees for no show. But most restaurants don't charge for no show customers. The owner of one Vietnamese restaurant is so pissed by no show customers, (s)he posts their names and grumpy complaints on the twitter account. Will that get them even? See the video below

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Psychology of Waiting

(1/23/2013) Here I summarize some interesting psychological observations of waiting:

1. Skinner’s Law – “The other lines always move faster.” Everybody knows this feeling on the highway or at the toll booth.
2. Jenkin’s Corollary: However, when you are stuck in traffic and decide to switch to another other lane, the lane you left moves faster. 
3. Occupying customers: While entertained or occupied, the customers feel much less  waiting. For example, Disney theme park's waiting line management (see the picture below) or the mirrors in the elevator. However, the music played by the 800 customer service call center is often tolerated only when the waiting is reasonable.
4. Unoccupied time goes slowly
5. Pre-service waits seem longer that in-service waits: For example, at the pharmacy you are less impatient if the pharmacist keeps you waiting when (s)he is doing your prescription than you are waiting in the line. 
6. The Light at the End of the Tunnel: Reduce anxiety with attention, this is extremely important in undesirable waitings. For example, when there are aircraft mechanical problems airlines should give delayed passengers some information about how long they have to wait (but don't go far...).
7. Under promise, Over deliver (not the other way around): restaurant hosts tell you you will be waiting for 25 minutes, but your waiting is only 15 minutes.  

Before a new ride starts, Disney entertains visitors with videos or arrange employees dancing, playing, or telling you a story to make you feel you are not waiting. 

Wholefood's Waiting Line

(1/22/2013) People don't like to wait, however, we wait quite a lot in our whole lifetime. Coffee shop, highway, bus, cross the traffic line, surfing internet.... Supermarket's checkout is often configured as a multi-waiting-line system. Customers often find a line with a shortest queue to load their grocery on the belt; however, it does not guarantee you will be served earlier than other customers who come later than you. Do you see the lady in front of you just takes out her check book? Gee....

Wholefood's shop in New York City changed its multi-queue system into a single-queue system in 2007. Read this article to see how their customers react. Very interesting.