The bilingual server system: A queueing model featuring fully and partially qualified servers

Numerous organizations are required to provide service in two languages in the same local area. Within each such region, one language (the majority language) predominates, but adequate service in the second (the minority language) must be maintained. The servers hired by the organization either speak both languages (bilingual), or only speak the majority language (unilingual). This paper presents a server provisioning scenario for handling this mix of traffic. The queueing model for this problem is then presented. Performance measures that are derived include the average queueing delays, the queue length distribution, and the probability of a language mismatch for a minority language customer. From these, it is possible to find the minimal number of bilingual servers required to maintain ‘satisfactory’ service for the minority-language customers. Numerical examples are given.