OR/MS Today - October 1998

October 1998

Kids say the Darndest Things

By Doug Samuelson

"I am so proud of them," the OR/MS analyst beamed. "I always thought my kids were great, but wait till you hear what they did now."

"OK," his car pool mate replied tolerantly. "What was it?"

"My son wound up in charge of the end-of-year party for his high school class," the analyst recounted. "These things usually turn into chaos, but not this year. He had all the food in one room, and he had a couple of big kids control access so everyone could only come in by one door and leave by the other. If the room got too crowded, they made people wait to come in. So the line flowed smoothly, in one direction, and everyone got food quickly. They could see there would be enough for everyone, and for seconds if they were still hungry, so they didn't waste much and there was still some left over for the workers to take home at the end."

"Sounds like a smart kid," the analyst's fellow commuter acknowledged.

"Yes, but that's not the best part," the analyst went on. "I asked him how he figured that out, and he just stared at me and said, ÔFrom you, of course!' It seems he was really paying attention to all the things I've said about queueing and queue management over the years, and when he got the chance, he put it all to work!"

"That's great!" his friend enthused. "But what had you told him?"

"Among other things," the analyst explained, "we go out to eat fairly often, and my kids know I'll never jump into line for the salad bar when the line is longest. There are only so many people in the restaurant, so the more who are in line now, the more likely there will be hardly anyone in line in a few minutes. And the wait staff is more likely to replenish the salad items when there isn't a big crowd trying to get at them, so not only do you wait less, but you may get fresher food. The kids can't work out the math yet — as far as I know, anyway — but they got the idea.

"And," the analyst added, "they were with me several years ago when I was in charge of local arrangements for a big OR/MS meeting. There was a big reception, which usually turns into a madhouse. Everyone charges into line for the food as soon as it opens, usually at the closest serving station to the entrance. The people arriving later can't see through the crowd to the other stations, so they join the big line, too. They take all the food they can carry, and end up leaving half of it over. People value their time, they want to be sure to get the food before it runs out, and there's no penalty for wasting food, so they minimize their probability of having to go back for seconds — and maybe not get them."

"I can understand that," his friend responded.

"This hotel's people knew what they were doing," the analyst continued. "They had several serving stations, and they opened the ones in the back of the room first. That way, people were already lining up in the back of the room before the front ones opened, and the new people coming in saw short lines nearby, plenty of room and plenty of food. Since we didn't look as if we'd run out, people took less food and went back if they were still hungry. We had a great event, and wound up using less food than usual."

"So this is what you talk to your kids about over dinner?" his friend asked, amused.

"Among other things," the analyst said. "We all talk over dinner about what we did that day. So they've seen and heard a lot of OR/MS, whether they knew it or not."

"And it sounds as if they did know, and some of it sank in," his friend said. "Nice going!"

"No kidding," the analyst grinned. "It's not every day you get to hear your teenage kid say he learned something useful from you. But let me tell you what the other kid did."

"I wouldn't even try to stop you," his friend assented wryly.

"My daughter's sixth-grade class also had an end-of-year party,"the analyst explained. "They announced that the pizza had arrived, and nearly every kid — out of about 120 — jumped into line immediately."

"Except your daughter?" his friend prompted.

"Except my daughter," the analyst confirmed. "She sat there and told her friends, ÔListen, it's been shown scientifically that you should wait instead of getting into line now.' She says they all looked at her funny and trotted off to get pizza. They laughed at her for sitting there, and she just smiled and said, ÔWait and see!'

"About 20 minutes later, her friends came back with their pizza, which was turning cold. My daughter told them, ÔNow watch this!' She went up there and arrived just as the people serving food brought some fresh pizzas out of the back room where they had been keeping them warm. So she got hot pizza with no wait."

"And were her friends impressed?" his friend asked.

"She told me, ÔThey all sat their with their eyes getting bigger and bigger and asked me, "How did you know?" I tried to explain that my daddy is an OR/MS analyst and analyzing queues — of course I had to explain that means waiting lines — is what he does, but they just sort of glazed over. So then I just said, "It's simple. My daddy's smart!"

NOTE: I can't disguise the obvious: This really happened. I'm so proud of them!

Doug Samuelson is Principal Scientist at PUMA Systems, Inc.

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