The AVGWAIT function calculates the average waiting time for a request or call to be processed.
Syntax
AVGWAIT(Number of servers, Arrival rate, Average duration)
Arguments
| Argument | Data type | Description |
| Number of servers (required) | Number | The number of servers (for example, call center agents) available to process requests. |
| Arrival rate (required) | Number | The interval between the arrival of each request. |
| Average duration (required) | Number | The average duration it takes to process each request. |
The AVGWAIT function returns a number. This is the average waiting time for a request to be processed, using the same time unit as the Arrival rate and Average duration arguments.
Calculation engine functionality differences
Call center planning functions are unavailable in Polaris. Learn more about the differences between Anaplan calculation engines.
Additional information
How the AVGWAIT function is calculated
The ANSWERTIME function calculates the solution to this equation:
In this equation:
- x is the Number of servers.
- y is the Arrival rate.
- z is the Average duration.
- a is the offered load, which is y multiplied by z.
- p is the offered load per server, which is a divided by x.
Constraints
Time unit for arguments
The Arrival rate and Average duration arguments do not have to use a specific time unit. For example, they can use seconds or minutes. However, both arguments must use the same time unit.
Maximum number of servers
The maximum number you can use for the Number of servers argument is five million.
Examples
In this example, the Call Centers list is on columns, and line items on rows. The first three line items contain the data for the AVGWAIT function for each call center:
- The scheduled number of servers to process requests
- The arrival rate, or interval between each request arriving
- The average duration it takes to complete requests
The fourth line item uses the AVGWAIT function to calculate what the average waiting time for a request to be processed given the number of servers, arrival rate, and average duration to process requests.
The fifth line item enables you to adjust the arrival rate of requests. The formula in the sixth line item uses the adjusted arrival. This enables you to see how the average waiting time changes given a different arrival rate. A value of Infinity is given for Call Center 2 because the rate of incoming requests is higher than the ability to process them, which means that calls have to wait indefinitely.
| Call Center 1 | Call Center 2 | Call Center 3 | Call Center 4 | |
| Scheduled Number of Servers | 25 | 45 | 50 | 39 |
| Request Arrival Rate | 0.84 | 0.93 | 0.69 | 0.68 |
| Average Duration | 25 | 46 | 45 | 45 |
Average Waiting Time
| 1.9213063 | 13.4641512 | 0.00270453 | 0.53752576 |
| Adjusted Arrival Rate | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.89 | 0.77 |
Adjusted Average Waiting Time
| 5.07923029 | Infinity | 0.40000875 | 3.82731801 |
