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...

In this paper we introduce multi-server queueing systems that can be considered as extensions of conventional M/M/s queue to fractional number of servers. We show that the extended Erlang's delay function can be used to calculate delay probabilities for such systems. This approach enables the...

A group of agents are waiting for their job to be processed in a facility. We assume that each agent needs the same amount of processing time and incurs waiting costs. The facility has two parallel servers, being able to serve two agents at a time. We are interested in finding the order to serve...

We consider an economy where most of the health care is publicly provided, and where there is waiting time for several types of treatments. Private health care without waiting time is an option for the patients in the public health queue. We show the effects of a tax (positive or negative) on...

In recent years, the performance-based approach to contracting for medical services has been gaining popu-larity across different healthcare delivery systems, both in the US (under the name of "Pay-for-Performance",or P4P), and abroad ("Payment-by-Results", or PbR, in the UK). One common element...

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)....