The Queueing ToolPak (QTP) is a Microsoft Excel add-in consisting of a library of functions that perform basic calculations for waiting line analysis. Once the Queueing ToolPak is installed on your computer you can use the functions as you would any other Excel function.  The functions allow integration of queueing performance measures into spreadsheet models without the limitations imposed by templates with fixed input and output areas that are commonly used for analysis of waiting lines.

Disclaimer: The Queueing ToolPak is provided as is, with no expressed or implied guarantees.

If you wish to bookmark a link to the Queueing ToolPak then link to this page. Its URL is less likely to change than that for other pages describing the ToolPak.

Table of Contents

• List of Functions
• New in Version 4.0
• Credits
• Other Spreadsheet Add-Ins

List of Functions

The functions in version 4.0 calculate the following quantities, for waiting line systems consisting of a single waiting line, one or more parallel servers, a Poisson arrival process, and exponentially distributed service durations (mathematically, M/M/s and M/M/s/s+C systems):

• Average traffic intensity
• Average server utilization
• Average number of customers in the system
• Average number of customers in the queue
• Average time a customer spends in the system
• Average time a customer spends in the queue
• Probability that the system is empty of customers
• Probability that the system is full
• Probability that a customer has to wait before receiving service
• The probability distribution for the number of customers in the system
• Service level, defined as the fraction of customers that wait less than a specified threshold time
• The minimum number of servers needed to provide a specified level of service

In addition, there are functions that calculate approximations for the following quantities for more general G/G/s systems:

• Average traffic intensity
• Average server utilization
• Average number of customers in the system
• Average number of customers in the queue
• Average time a customer spends in the system
• Average time a customer spends in the queue
• Probability that a customer has to wait before receiving service

New in Version 4.0

• Function for the traffic intensity
• Functions for G/G/s approximations
• A function for the standard normal CDF (alternative to Excel's built-in NORMSDIST function)
• All known bugs in QTP 3.0 have been fixed

Credits

• Programming and design, version 1.0: Armann Ingolfsson and Steven Kabanuk
• Programming and design, version 2.0: Armann Ingolfsson and Jay Baraniecki
• Funding provided by the University of Alberta Teaching Research Fund
• Useful suggestions for versions 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0: Tom Grossman
• Bugs in versions 2.0 and 3.0 found by:  Armann Ingolfsson, Tom Grossman
• Programming and design, versions 3.0 and 4.0: Armann Ingolfsson and Fraser Gallop

If you find the Queueing ToolPak useful, or if you have suggestions for how to improve it, then I would appreciate hearing about it. E-mail me at Armann.Ingolfsson@UAlberta.ca.

Other Spreadsheet Add-Ins

Mathtools.net has links to many useful technical computing resources, including Excel add-ins.

The Spreadsheet Analytics page lists many useful resources for doing management science and operations research with spreadsheets.

Opensolver.org is an open source optimization solver for MS Excel.

Version 4.0 release date: October 24, 2003

Address: http://queueingtoolpak.org/default.shtml
Last Update: 2 June 2014
Updated By: Armann.Ingolfsson@UAlberta.ca
©2003-14 Armann Ingolfsson