We focus on a service system in which the customer arrivals are non-stationary and our goal is to determine a server staffing schedule that ensures that arriving customers do not experience long and/or unpredictable queue times.
Our goal is to optimize a service system operation like a check-in counter in an airport, by focusing on the staffing levels to best control the customers’ waiting times.
Our basic model’s characteristics are similar to the one used in Smith and Nelson (2015).
We start with the passenger arrival data for 5 days from an airport check-in counter.
From a customer service perspective, the best system is one that has lots of servers so that no arriving customer waits.
To clarify the importance of having appropriate staffing levels in non-stationary processes, we show some examples.
In real customer service systems, arrival processes are often non-stationary. This makes resource planning difficult due to competing objectives of customer satisfaction and cost control.
Samira Shirzaei is a doctoral student at Auburn University with research interests in simulation and operations research.
Jeffrey S. Smith is the Joe W. Forehand Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Auburn University.
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Whitt, W. (2007). Queueing Models to Set Staffing Requirements.