Balancing staffing and switching costs in a service center with flexible servers

European Journal of Operational Research

Volumn 177, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 924-938

  Batta, Rajan ^a   Berman, Oded ^b   Wang, Qian ^c  

^a State University of New York   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

^c UNIVERSITY OF CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES   (China)

Author keywords

Column generation; Workforce planning

Indexed keywords

COMPUTATIONAL METHODS; CONSTRAINT THEORY; COSTS; HEURISTIC METHODS; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; PROBLEM SOLVING; SERVERS;

SERVICE CENTERS; SERVICE LEVEL CONSTRAINTS; SERVICE REQUESTS; SWITCHING COSTS;

OPERATIONS RESEARCH;

EID: 33750455489     PISSN: 03772217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2006.01.008     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. Adenso-Diaz B., Gonzajez-Torre P., and Garcia V. A capacity management model in service industries. International Journal of Service Industry Management 13 (2002) 286-302
2. Agnihothri S.R., Mishra A.K., and Simmons D.E. Workforce cross-training decisions in field service systems with two job types. Journal of the Operational Research Society 54 (2003) 410-418
3. Ahuja R.K., Magnanti T.L., and Orlin J.B. Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms and Applications (1993), Prentice-Hall, New Jersey
4. Berman O., and Larson R.C. A queueing control model for retail services having back room operations and cross-trained workers. Computers & Operations Research 31 (2004) 201-222
5. Brusco M.J., and Jacobs L.W. Personal tour scheduling when starting-time restrictions are present. Management Science 44 (1998) 534-547
6. Brusco M.J., and Johns T.R. Staffing a multi-skilled workforce with varying levels of productivity: An analysis of cross-training policies. Decision Sciences 29 (1998) 499-515
7. Brusco M.J., Johns T.R., and Reed J.H. Cross-utilization of a two-skilled workforce. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 18 (1998) 555-564
8. Campbell G.M. Cross-utilization of workers whose capabilities differ. Management Science 45 (1999) 722-732
9. Campbell G.M., and Diaby M. Development and evaluation of an assignment heuristic for allocating cross-trained workers. European Journal of Operational Research 138 (2002) 9-20
10. Duder J.C., and Rosenwein M.B. Towards "zero abandonments" in call center performance. European Journal of Operational Research 135 (2001) 50-56
11. Easton E.F., and Rossin D.F. Sufficient working subsets for the tour scheduling problem. Management Science 37 (1991) 1441-1451
12. Felan J.T., Fry T.D., and Philipoom P.R. Labour flexibility and staffing levels in a dual-resource constrained job shop. International Journal of Production Research 31 (1993) 2487-2506
13. Finefrock J.W. Poisson traffic tables designed for practical use. Business Communications Review 4 2 (1974) 2-22
14. Finefrock J.W. Teletraffic engineering guidelines. Business Communications Review 4 2 (1974) 11-16
15. Green L.V., Kolesar P.J., and Soares J. An improved heuristic for staffing telephone call centers with limited operating hours. Production and Operations Management 12 1 (2003) 46-61
16. Gross D., and Harris C.M. Fundamentals of Queueing Theory. third ed. (1998), Wiley-Interscience
17. Kitaev M.Y., and Serfozo R.F. M/M/1 queues with switching costs and hysteretic optimal control. Operations Research 47 (1999) 310-312
18. Koole G. Assigning a single server to inhomogeneous queues with switching costs. Theoretical Computer Science 182 (1997) 203-216
19. McCune J.C. On the train gang. Management Review 83 10 (1994) 57-60
20. Park P.S., and Bobrowski P.M. Job release and labor flexibility in a dual resource constrained job shop. Journal of Operations Management 8 (1989) 230-249
21. Patel D.J., Batta R., and Nagi R. Clustering sensors in wireless ad hoc networks operating in a threat environment. Operations Research 53 (2005) 432-442
22. Pine II B.J. Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition (1993), Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA
23. Senne E.L.F., Lorena L.A.N., and Pereira M.A. A branch-and-price approach to p-median location problems. Computers & Operations Research 32 (2005) 1655-1664
24. Slomp J., and Suresh N.C. The shift team formation problem in multi-shift manufacturing operations. European Journal of Operational Research 165 (2005) 708-728
25. Stewart B.D., Webster D.B., Ahmad S., and Matson J.O. Mathematical models for developing a flexible workforce. International Journal of Production Economics 36 3 (1994) 243-254