This research examines crowd management at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, with a focus on the Al-Rawda area, where visitors can view the Prophet’s tomb. We used a systems management approach with process flows. Additionally, we used available data on pilgrims’ arrivals at the Al-Rawda facility to conduct a crowd management analysis. The study found high visitor numbers, especially on Saturdays, and the current entry/exit system creates bottlenecks and overcrowding. We analyzed data and designed a service blueprint to identify these issues and propose improvements for future crowd management strategies. It includes planning for emergencies and potentially utilizing the data for crowd simulation in various scenarios. The Al-Rawdah faces a bottleneck on Saturdays due to the highest average visitor influx (15,249.8). The average visit duration and batch size result in approximately 23.5 batches per day on Saturdays, exceeding the ideal capacity. A multivariate model was developed to address daily visitor flows, considering visiting requirements and data available through the NUSUK application. The model is robust, as indicated by the p-value being less than the significance level.
Published in: 3rd GCC International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Publisher: IEOM Society International
Date of Conference: February 2
-4
, 2026
ISBN: 979-8-3507-6175-7
ISSN/E-ISSN: 2169-8767