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A new appointment rule for a single‐server, multiple‐customer service system
Author(s) -
Yang Kum Khiong,
Lau Mun Ling,
Quek Ser Aik
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
naval research logistics (nrl)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1520-6750
pISSN - 0894-069X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6750(199804)45:3<313::aid-nav5>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - service (business) , computer science , idle , parameterized complexity , session (web analytics) , operations research , function (biology) , operations management , database , operating system , business , world wide web , mathematics , algorithm , marketing , engineering , evolutionary biology , biology
This paper proposes a new appointment rule for the single‐server, multiple‐customer service system. Unlike previous appointment rules, which perform well only in specific service environments, the new rule can be parameterized to perform well in different service environments. The new appointment rule is presented as a mathematical function of four environmental parameters, namely, the coefficient of variation of the service time, the percentage of customers' no‐shows, the number of appointments per service session, and the cost ratio between the server's idle and customers' waiting cost per unit time. Once the values of these environmental parameters are estimated, the new appointment rule can be parameterized to perform well. The results show that new rule performs either as well as or better than existing appointment rules in a wide range of service environments. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 45: 313–326, 1998