VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY LE ANH THU A TANDEM QUEUEING MODEL TO OPTIMIZE THE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES MASTER'S THESIS VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY LE ANH THU A TANDEM QUEUEING MODEL TO OPTIMIZE THE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES MAJOR: Public Policy CODE: 8340402.01 RESEARCH SUPERVISOR: Associate Prof. PHUNG-DUC TUAN Hanoi, 2021 Acknowledgements Two years of studying at Vietnam Japan University passed quickly. I am very th honored and proud to have been a part of the 4 Intake of the Public Policy Program under Vietnam Japan University. Thanks to Vietnam Japan University, I was able to experience an international learning environment where I met many interesting friends and excellent professors.
th During the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, 4 Intake students had to face many difficulties, especially the cancellation of our internship at the University of Tsukuba. But, when one door closes, another opens. The experience at Vietnam Japan University would be the best memory of my life. First of all, I would like to express my most profound appreciation to my supervisor, Assoc.
Phung-Duc Tuan from the University of Tsukuba for his kindness, pa- tience, and support during the whole process of my study. Thanks to his enthusiastic encouragement, I chose a completely new and challenging thesis topic. This forced me to cultivate new knowledge and skills, and above all, meticulousness. I would like to thank Dr.
Dang Quang Vinh for giving me the opportunity to intern at Center Institute for Economic and Management - CIEM. Furthermore, I greatly appre-ciate the kind support of Dr. Vinh for helping me to collect the data for this research. I also would like to thank Vinh Phuc Provincial Public Administration Service Center for providing this data.
Besides, I would like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Nguyen Thuy Anh, Dr. Vu Hoang Linh and Prof. Naohisa Okamoto, and Ms.
Pham Thi Lan Huong for their support. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my dear friend Mr. Vu Ngoc Quang, who supported me in using Python for this research. In addition, I would like to thank Mr.
Nguyen Quoc Hung for sharing his valuable experience. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my family for always being by my side and supporting me throughout the last two years. th Finally, thanks also to all 4 Intake students who have been a part of my student life. Contents Acknowledgements List of Tables i List of Figures ii List of Abbreviations iii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.2 Research objective and research question .3 Method and Methodology .1 Public administration services .2 Tandem queueing model.
7 3 RESEARCH METHOD AND METHODOLOGY 9 3.1 M/M/c queues & Markov Chain .2 Description of the two-step public service model .1 Scenario 1 - Specify the maximum response time for each step of public administrative services .2 Scenario 2 - Specify the maximum response time for the entire execution of public administrative services .3 Scenario 3 - Classify dossiers in step 2 based on its complexity .1 Re-issue certificate of origin (C/O) .2 Vinh Phuc Business Registration Service .1 Scenario 1 - Specify the maximum response time for each step of public administrative services .1 Re-issue certificate of origin (C/O) .2 Vinh Phuc Business Registration Service .2 Scenario 2 - Specify the maximum response time for the entire execution of public administrative services .3 Scenario 3 - Classify dossiers in step 2 based on its complexity. 33 5 CONCLUSION, POLICY IMPLICATIONS, RESEARCH LIMINATIONS AND FURTHER STUDY 38 5.1 Conclusion and policy implications .2 Research limitations and further study direction. 39 Bibliography 40 A Appendix: Vinh Phuc Business Registration Service Data 43 B Appendix: Source Code 44 B.1 Source Code for Scenario 1 & 2 .2 Source Code for Scenario 3. 45 List of Tables 3.1 System parameters in step 2 of Vinh Phuc Business Registration Service.1 The average response time and the probability that the response time in step 1 of the C/O service is greater than 1 hour.2 The average response time and the probability that the response time in step 2 of the C/O service is greater than 4 hours.3 The average response time and the probability that the response time in step 2 of Vinh Phuc Business Registration Service is greater than 3 days.4 The total average response time and the probability that the total re-sponse time in both steps of the C/O service is greater than 5 hours.
32 i List of Figures 3.2 Queueing model in Scenario 3.3 Threshold policy for two multi-server queues.1 The average response time in step 1 of the C/O service.2 The probability that the response time in step 1 of the C/O service is greater than 1 hour.3 The average response time in step 2 of the C/O service.4 The probability that the response time in step 2 of the C/O service is greater than 4 hours.5 The average response time in step 2 of Vinh Phuc Business Registration Service.6 The average response time in both steps of the C/O service.7 The probability that the total response time in both steps of the C/O service is greater than 5 hours.8 The mean queue length of Q1 against the Q2’s threshold (N).9 The mean queue length of Q2 against the Q2’s threshold (N).10 The total mean queue length of both queues against the Q2’s threshold (N).11 The mean queue length of Q1 against the arrival rate in Q1.12 The mean queue length of Q2 against the arrival rate in Q1.13 The total mean queue length of both queues against the arrival rate in Q1.14 The mean queue length of Q1 against the arrival rate in Q2.15 The mean queue length of Q2 against the arrival rate in Q2.16 The total mean queue length of both queues against the arrival rate in Q2. 37 ii List of Abbreviations C/O Certificate of Origin GDP Gross Domestic Product ICTs Information and Communication Technologies JCER The Japan Center for Economic Research PAR Public Administration Reform QBD Quasi-Birth-and-Death process NPM New Public Management iii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research context In recent years, citizens’ satisfaction with public services has emerged as a focus of re- search and a major subject of the governmental interest. This is reflected in the general objective of the Public Administration Reform (PAR Master Plan) as stipulated in Deci- sion 225/QD-TTg, dated February 04, 2016, "Approving the state administrative reform for the period 2016-2020", and Resolution No.18-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017, "A number of issues on the continued renewal and organizational structure of the politi-cal system, streamlining, effective and efficient operation" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The improvement of civil servants is one of the four components of the PAR Master Program.
By 2020, the goal was to have a reasonable number of cadres and civil servants who were professional and capable of performing their public duties. Another aim was to restructure the salary system so that cadres and civil servants would be paid enough to maintain a minimum decent living standard. Despite some progress toward this lofty goal, PAR progress has been slow, and PAR has been implemented less effectively and inconsistently than planned. It is a fact that PAR effects have failed to meet the aim of establishing a democratic, effective, clean, modernized, and professionalized administration by 2020.
Vietnam’s GDP per capita increased 2.7 times between 2002 and 2018, reaching over US$ 2,700 in 2019, with more than 45 million people fleeing poverty. The poverty rate fell dramatically from moreover 70% to less than 6% between 2002 and 2019 according to the World Bank [1]. The Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER) [2] has re-leased the Mid-Term Asia Economic Forecast report, which forecasts that Vietnam may become a high-middle- income country by 2023 and will surpass Taiwan in GDP terms by 2035. However, as Vietnam approaches middle-income status, it will confront additional obsta- cles such as the scaling down of development funding, increasing citizen expectations, and having to compete worldwide with other middle-income countries.
What additional 1 reforms are required to ensure that the Vietnamese civil service will be fit for purpose in managing the country’s economy, its people and resources to secure the country’s long-term prosperity? The development of civil service reform policies needs to be founded on real analysis and understanding of the socio-political context as well as the intended pace of reform. The government has already made considerable efforts to respond to the new social challenges. A notable effort is implementing e-government through the launch of the Vietnam National Public Services Portal in December 2019. The Prime Minister asked ministries, state agencies, and localities to focus on increasing the ratio of public ser- vices to levels 3 and 4 to ensure the completion of the targets in Resolution 01/NQ-CP dated 2021, "On main tasks and solutions for the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and state budget estimate of 2021".
In which Public Services Level 3 are online public services allowing users to fill out and submit documents, level 4 is the highest level of an online public service with payment features added (The Ministry of Information and Communications [3]). However, even if the goal of providing 100% of public services at level 4 is achieved, there are still many problems with service quality. Some public services on the National Public Service Portal have regulations on max- imum response time in each step of the implementation process, such as "Procedures for adjusting the contents of the issued Certificate of registration for the provision of inspection, calibration, and testing services," "Procedures for canceling customs decla- ration," etc. Nevertheless, these regulations are set mainly on the basis of experience and qualitative measurement to ensure the achievement of objectives in the PAR plans.
The reallocation of workers in an administrative office is also based on the quotas and the targets in these plans. It raises the question of whether the maximum response time and the number of employees under existing regulations are optimal? This thesis aims to an-swer this question and propose a new approach for measuring public service efficiency, thereby recommending solutions to improve the quality of public service.2 Research objective and research question The main objective of this thesis is to build a queueing model for public services to help managers and policymakers optimize the efficiency of public services based on the allocation of human resources. This thesis will lay the groundwork for future studies on resource allocation based on queueing models for public administration and other domains. This thesis focuses on the main research question "What is the most optimal way of human resource allocation in the process of implementing two-step administrative services?" and the sub-question "How to measure the effectiveness of two-step admin-istrative services?".3 Method and Methodology There is a common queueing phenomenon in public services due to the inadequate re- sources in public administrations and rising demand for public services, typically in Immigration Department, Business Registration Office, etc.
This thesis examines pub-lic services as a type of service, and the citizens who participate in these services are considered customers. Customer arrivals cannot be scheduled or controlled because the customers usually arrive randomly. It can be seen that this phenomenon leads to three so-cial problems: (1) The customer satisfaction declines due to the discomfort spend hours in a crowded waiting room to access the services; (2) The employees endure the over-loading work stress, which reduces the efficiency and quality of work; (3) Worsening relationships between customers and staffs, and leading to more disputes. Motivated by this situation, the thesis approaches the research problem from the techni-cal efficiency aspect, which measures efficiency using a quantitative method, specifically a Tandem Queueing Model.
Queuing theory is introduced into many areas such as medical services, transportation, banking, etc., and becomes a practical solution to solving congestion problems. The theory has an advantage in creating simple models for large general hospitals, supermar- kets, banks, etc.