Author:
Rhonda Righter
Affiliation:
University of California, United States
Keyword(s):
Customer Flexibility, Routing, Scheduling, Service Systems, Call Centers.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Methodologies and Technologies
;
Operational Research
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Queuing Theory
;
Routing
;
Scheduling
;
Software Engineering
;
Stochastic Processes
Abstract:
In many service systems with multiple types of customers, providing server flexibility, e.g., by cross-training servers, is very expensive. On the other hand, there is often inherent flexibility in some of the customers that is not used by the system. I argue that taking advantage of such flexibility can create a win-win-win situation, in which overall performance can be greatly improved, and in which both flexible and non-flexible customers benefit. Moreover, only a small subset of customers needs to be flexible to obtain nearly the benefit of full flexibility.