We developed a method for workforce scheduling that models both the structure of the set of permissible shifts, and the stochastic and time-varying demand process. A prototype implementation uses a genetic algorithm to search for good schedules, and evaluates the service level resulting from a...

We developed a method for workforce scheduling that models both the structure of the set of permissible shifts, and the stochastic and time-varying demand process. A prototype implementation uses a genetic algorithm to search for good schedules, and evaluates the service level resulting from a...

The performance of a process control algorithm based on EWMA statistic is analyzed. A simple condition relating the EWMA weight and the estimated process gain is shown to ensure that the control strategy is stable for a first-order multiple-input, single-output process that may be drifting or...

Monte Carlo simulation models of regular season and playoff games in the National Hockey League can be used to motivate students who are sports fans to study OR/MS models. I describe how such models can be implemented in a spreadsheet, how my colleagues and I have used them in our courses, and...

Graphical representations of spreadsheet queueing simulations can be used to teach students about queues and queueing processes. A customer graph shows the experience of every individual customer in a queue, based on arrival time, start of service, end of service, and showing clearly the length...

We offer an interactive spreadsheet to teach simple linear regression, which we have found to be an effective teaching tool. Unlike most textbooks that cover regression, this spreadsheet displays what is being minimized — the squares of the errors — and it allows students to experiment with...

Two Looks at the Spinner Experiment are presented. (1) “‘Obvious’ Abstractions: The Spinner Experiment” by Armann Ingolfsson, and (2) “Another Take on the Spinner Experiment” by David Zalkind

This paper proposes a new approach, entitled discrete event simulation with probabilistic event list (DESPEL), for approximating the project completion time and the critical path in a stochastic resource–constrained project network. Unlike the traditional discrete event simulation approach,...

Like many others, the St. Louis Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) Pharmacy help desk receives far more calls than can be processed by current staffing levels. The objective of the study is to improve pharmaceutical services provided by the call center, by using queueing theory and...