Abstract

LOPEZ HUNG, Eduardo  and  JOA TRIAY, Lai Gen. Queueing theory applied to the study of the service system of a pharmacy. RCIM [online]. 2018, vol.10, n.1, pp.3-15. ISSN 1684-1859.

Often the institutions that provide services must make decisions regarding the number of clients they receive, as well as the service capacity they have. However, there is a daily and everyday phenomenon: queues or waiting lines, which are generated when demand exceeds supply. In this context, queueing theory appears, which does not solve the problem, but provides information needed to make decisions, based on the prediction of some characteristics about the queue and the service system. A clear context in the health branch, where there are constantly waiting lines are pharmacies. In the Municipal Community Pharmacy of Santiago de Cuba, the sale of medicinal products was modeled from this approach, since there are no other applied tools that support decision making. Therefore, the objective of the work is to determine from the approach of queueing theory, the variables and measures of performance of the service system of the said Pharmacy, for the decision making in the short and medium term, in function of offering a greater and better service. As a result, it was determined that, for the current service system, there is a high probability that queues will be generated, and that customers will stay in it for more than 5 minutes; recommending to guarantee the availability of dependents, reduce the number of clients in the queue, make the stay in it more enjoyable, as well as assess and evaluate its redesign.

Keywords : pharmaceutical services; service systems; queueing systems; waiting lines; queueing theory; operations research.

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