Does cross-training workers allow a firm to achieve economies of scale when there is variability in the content of work, or does it create a workforce that performs many tasks with consistent mediocrity? To address this question we integrate a model of a stochastic service system with models for...

We present an analytic model relating the mean cycle time or throughput as a function of the number of jobs in a closed production system composed of a tandem network of queues having exponential and/or IFR processing times. This model exhibits macroscopic behavior that is predicted by results...

Queueing networks have been used to model the performance of a variety of complex systems. Since exact results exist for only a limited class of networks, the decomposition methodology has been used extensively to obtain approximate results. In this paper, we consider open queueing networks with...

We present a model which enables efficient analysis of certain types of closed queueing networks with blocking due to limited buffer spaces. The networks analyzed are those in which the limited buffers occur in tandem subnetworks. A new model, with variable buffer-size, is introduced as a...

In this paper we consider a class of job shops with a dispatch area and a machine shop, where operational controls are exercised at the dispatch area as well as at the machine shop. For such dynamic job shops with these two levels of control, there are three categories of models. They are (1)...

In many cities, a substantial fraction of calls for police service require more than one patrol car. We compare Green's multiple dispatch queueing model to several M/M/c-based approximations for multiple car dispatching that are obtained by adjusting the parameters. We found that none of the...

Officers in police patrol cars operate in a complex stochastic environment. In addition to handling dispatcher-assigned calls for service from the public, they patrol to pose a threat of apprehension to would-be offenders and undertake certain on-site interventions to help improve general public...

In this paper an efficient numerical method is given for determining stationary probabilities and average cost in queueing systems where the customers arrive singly and the service mechanism is negative exponential. State dependent service and arrival rates and batch service are allowed. The...

This paper considers the problem of allocating personnel to provide service that involves travel to demand locations distributed over a geographical area. Assuming that each individual server will be responsible for demand in a certain territory on a first come first served basis, formulas are...