Improving the flow of customers in a hospital cafeteria.

Customer flow through a hospital cafeteria was modeled as a queuing system for the purpose of analyzing the problems of long lines and excessive waiting by customers during lunch hours. Different policies of the hospital affecting the arrival times of customers to the cafeteria were simulated on a computer. The key factor was found to be group arrivals because of the pattern in which the hospital departments released their employees for lunch. Alternative policies were simulated, and performance with those policies in effect was measured and reported.