This paper examines a stochastic model to determine optimal pricing, waiting time, output, and sizing decisions for service firms which compete on time in an uncertain environment. Sizing decisions concern optimal service capacity and maximum physical waiting room (with a given probability)....

This paper presents a profit-oriented shift scheduling approach for inbound contact centers. The focus is on systems in which multiple agent classes with different qualifications serve multiple customer classes with different needs. We assume that customers are impatient, abandon if they have to...

In this paper, we analyze the performance of call centers of financial service providers with two levels of support and a time-dependent overflow mechanism. Waiting calls from the front-office queue flow over to the back office, if a waiting-time limit is reached and at least one back-office...

We report an empirical analysis of the responses of the supply and demand for secondary care to waiting list size and waiting times. Whereas previous empirical analyses have used data aggregated to area level, our analysis is novel in that it focuses on the supply responses of a single hospital...

Hintergrund: In Deutschland werden die Wartezeiten auf medizinische Dienstleistungen öffentlich und ordnungspolitisch immer wieder problematisiert. Dies gilt vor allem für den niedergelassenen Ärztebereich. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird erstmalig der akutstationäre Sektor analysiert....

Von Lichtsignalsteuerungen, die vorrangig auf das lokale Verkehrsgeschehen vor Ort reagieren, sind einerseits positive verkehrliche Wirkungen zu erwarten. Eine ausgewogene ÖV-Beschleunigung gehören ebenso dazu wie eine flexible Kolonnenführung in Form dynamischer Grüner Wellen. Andererseits...

This paper deals with estimating small tail probabilities of thesteady-state waiting time in a GI/GI/1 queue withheavy-tailed (subexponential) service times. The problem ofestimating infinite horizon ruin probabilities in insurancerisk processes with heavy-tailed claims can be transformed into...

Queueing networks are studied with finite capacity constraints forclusters of stations. First, by an instructive tandemcluster example it is shown how a product-form modification methodfor networks with finite stations can be extended tonetworks with finite clusters. Next, a general result is...

In this paper, we consider deterministic (both fluid and discrete) polling systems with N queues with infinite buffers and we show how to compute the best polling sequence (minimizing the average total workload). With two queues, the best polling sequence is always periodic when the system is...

We develop a methodology for studying large deviations type questions. Our approach does not require that the large deviations principle holds, and is thus applicable to a larg class of systems. We study a system of queues with exponential servers, which share an arrival stream. Arrivals are...