An Exact and Efficient Algorithm for the Constrained Dynamic Operator Staffing Problem for Call Centers

References

• Akamai Technologies Akamai technologies: Technical overview. (2003) . Akamai Technologies White Paper, http://www. akamai.comGoogle Scholar
• Altman A.Constrained Markov Decision Processes (1999) (Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, FL) Google Scholar
• Andrews B. H., Parsons H. L. Establishing telephone agent staffing levels through economic optimization. Interfaces (1993) 23:14–20Link, Google Scholar
• Balas E. Disjunctive programming: Properties of the convex hull of feasible points. Discrete Appl. Math. (1998) 89:3–44Crossref, Google Scholar
• Bertsekas D.Dynamic Programming and Optimal Control (1995) 2(Athena Scientific, Belmont, MA) Google Scholar
• Bhandari A. Stochastic optimization problems in the service industry with customer considerations. (2006) . Ph.D. dissertation, Carnegie Mellon University, PittsburghGoogle Scholar
• Brigandi A. J., Dargon D. R., Sheehan M. J., Spencer T. AT&T's call processing simulator (CAPS) operational design for inbound call centers. Interfaces (1994) 24:6–28Link, Google Scholar
• Deniz B., Karaesmen I., Scheller-Wolf A. Managing inventories of perishable goods: The effect of substitution. (2007) . Working paper, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, PittsburghGoogle Scholar
• Gans N., Koole G., Mandelbaum A. Telephone call centers: Tutorial, review and research prospects. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management (2003) 5:79–141Link, Google Scholar
• Hall R.Queueing Methods for Services and Manufacturing (1991) (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ) Google Scholar
• Harchol-Balter M., Osogami T., Scheller-Wolf A. Robustness of threshold policies in beneficiary-donor model. ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Rev. (2005) 33:36–38Crossref, Google Scholar
• Harchol-Balter M., Li C., Osogami T., Scheller-Wolf A., Squillante M. Analysis of task assignment with cycle stealing under central queue. 23rd Internat. Conf. Distributed Comput. Systems (ICDCS '03) (2003) Providence, RI:628–637Google Scholar
• Jennings O., Mandelbaum A., Massey W., Whitt W. Server staffing to meet time-varying demand. Management Sci. (1996) 42:1383–1394Link, Google Scholar
• Jongbloed G., Koole G. M. Managing uncertainty in call centers using Poisson mixtures. Appl. Stochastic Models Bus. Indust. (2001) 17:307–318Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lucantoni D., Donatiello L., Nelson R. The BMAP/G/1 queue: A tutorial. Models and Techniques for Performance Evaluation of Computer and Communications Systems (1993) (Springer-Verlag, Berlin) 330–358Crossref, Google Scholar
• Nain P., Núñez-Queija R. An M/M/1 queue in a semi-Markovian environment. Proc. ACM SIGMETRICS/Performance 2001 Conf. (2001) Cambridge, MA:268–278Google Scholar
• Nain P., Ross K. W. Optimal priority with hard constraints. IEEE Trans. Automatic Control (1986) 31:883–888Crossref, Google Scholar
• Nemhauser G., Wolsey L.Integer and Combinatorial Optimization (1988) (John Wiley & Sons, New York) Crossref, Google Scholar
• Neuts M.Matrix-Geometric Solutions in Stochastic Models (1981) (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore) Google Scholar
• Osogami T., Harchol-Balter M. Necessary and sufficient conditions for representing general distributions by Coxians. 13th Internat. Conf. Model. Techniques and Tools for Comput. Performance Evaluation (2003) Urbana, IL:182–199Google Scholar
• Porteus E.Foundations of Stochastic Inventory Theory (2002) (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA) Crossref, Google Scholar
• Puterman M.Markov Decision Processes: Discrete Stochastic Dynamic Programming (1994) (John Wiley & Sons, New York) Crossref, Google Scholar
• Shwartz A., Makowski A. M. Comparing policies in Markov decision processes: Mandl's lemma revisited. Math. Oper. Res. (1990) 15:155–174Link, Google Scholar
• Veeraraghavan S., Scheller-Wolf A. Now or later: A simple policy for effective dual sourcing in capacitated systems. Oper. Res. (2007) . ForthcomingGoogle Scholar
• Whitt W. Dynamic staffing in a telephone call center aiming to immediately answer all calls. Oper. Res. Lett. (1999) 24:205–212Crossref, Google Scholar
• Wong H., Van Houtum G. J., Cattrysse D., Van Oudheusden D. Multi-item spare parts systems with lateral transshipments and waiting time constraints. Eur. J. Oper. Res. (2006) 171:1071–1093Crossref, Google Scholar