Generalizing earlier work on staffing and routing in telephone call centers, we consider a processing network model with large server pools and doubly stochastic input flows. In this model the processing of a job may involve several distinct operations. Alternative processing modes are also...

We consider a non-stationary variant of a sequential stochastic optimization problem, where the underlying cost functions may change along the horizon. We propose a measure, termed variation budget, that controls the extent of said change, and study how restrictions on this budget impact...

We consider an ordinal optimization problem, where a decision maker learns the statistical characteristics of a number of systems using sequential sampling in order to ultimately determine the "best" one (with high probability). In so doing, the decision maker postulates a parametric model which...

We consider the one-armed bandit problem of Woodroofe [J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 74 (1979) 799-806], which involves sequential sampling from two populations: one whose characteristics are known, and one which depends on an unknown parameter and incorporates a covariate. The goal is to maximize...

We consider a call center model with multiple customer classes and multiple server pools. Calls arrive randomly over time, and the instantaneous arrival rates are allowed to vary both temporally and stochastically in an arbitrary manner. The objective is to minimize the sum of personnel costs...

We consider a single product revenue management problem where, given an initial inventory, the objective is to dynamically adjust prices over a finite sales horizon to maximize expected revenues. Realized demand is observed over time, but the underlying functional relationship between price and...