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Little's Law

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Building Intuition

The average waiting time and the average number of items waiting for a service in a service system are important measurements for a manager. Little's Law relates these two metrics via the average rate of arrivals to the system. This fundamental law has found numerous uses in operations management and managerial decision making.

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Little, J.D.C., Graves, S.C. (2008). Little's Law. In: Chhajed, D., Lowe, T.J. (eds) Building Intuition. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 115. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73699-0_5

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