Kc. So et Cs. Tang, ON MANAGING OPERATING CAPACITY TO REDUCE CONGESTION IN-SERVICE SYSTEMS, European journal of operational research, 92(1), 1996, pp. 83-98
Citations number
28
Categorie Soggetti
Management,"Operatione Research & Management Science
This paper presents an alternative framework in which service systems
are classified according to the 'visibility level' of the queue length
in the system to the customers. By directly considering the customer'
s behavior while waiting in the system, we develop two simple models t
hat analyze the benefit of adjusting the 'operating' capacity dynamica
lly for two different types of service systems: a system with invisibl
e queue length and a system with visible queue length. The first syste
m is motivated by a customer support service system in which the calle
r cannot 'see' the queue length while the second system is motivated b
y a check-out service system in which the queue length is highly 'visi
ble' to the customers. For each service system, we first specify a pol
icy for adjusting the 'operating capacity' dynamically according to th
e physical environment of the operation. Then we develop a queueing mo
del that analyzes the benefit of managing the capacity dynamically. Th
e analysis provides useful managerial insights for managing capacity i
n these types of service systems.