IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v72y2017icp25-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Staffing and scheduling flexible call centers by two-stage robust optimization

Author

Listed:
  • Mattia, Sara
  • Rossi, Fabrizio
  • Servilio, Mara
  • Smriglio, Stefano

Abstract

We study the shift scheduling problem in a multi-shift, flexible call center. Differently from previous approaches, the staffing levels ensuring the desired quality of service are considered uncertain, leading to a two-stage robust integer program with right-hand-side uncertainty. We show that, in our setting, modeling the correlation of the demands in consecutive time slots is easier than in other staffing approaches. The complexity issues of a Benders type reformulation are investigated and a branch-and-cut algorithm is devised. The approach can efficiently solve real-world problems from an Italian call center and effectively support managers decisions. In fact, we show that robust shifts have very similar costs to those evaluated by the traditional (deterministic) method while ensuring a higher level of protection against uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Mattia, Sara & Rossi, Fabrizio & Servilio, Mara & Smriglio, Stefano, 2017. "Staffing and scheduling flexible call centers by two-stage robust optimization," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 25-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:72:y:2017:i:c:p:25-37
    DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2016.11.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048316308489
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.omega.2016.11.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Athanassios N. Avramidis & Alexandre Deslauriers & Pierre L'Ecuyer, 2004. "Modeling Daily Arrivals to a Telephone Call Center," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(7), pages 896-908, July.
    2. Mehmet Tolga Cezik & Pierre L'Ecuyer, 2008. "Staffing Multiskill Call Centers via Linear Programming and Simulation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 310-323, February.
    3. Dimitris Bertsimas & Melvyn Sim, 2004. "The Price of Robustness," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 35-53, February.
    4. Gorissen, Bram L. & den Hertog, Dick, 2013. "Robust counterparts of inequalities containing sums of maxima of linear functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 30-43.
    5. M. Segal, 1974. "The Operator-Scheduling Problem: A Network-Flow Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 808-823, August.
    6. Linda V. Green & Peter J. Kolesar & João Soares, 2001. "Improving the Sipp Approach for Staffing Service Systems That Have Cyclic Demands," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 549-564, August.
    7. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    8. Michel Minoux, 2011. "On 2-stage robust LP with RHS uncertainty: complexity results and applications," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 521-537, March.
    9. Itai Gurvich & James Luedtke & Tolga Tezcan, 2010. "Staffing Call Centers with Uncertain Demand Forecasts: A Chance-Constrained Optimization Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(7), pages 1093-1115, July.
    10. Shuang Qing Liao & Ger Koole & Christian van Delft & Oualid Jouini, 2012. "Staffing a call center with uncertain non-stationary arrival rate and flexibility," Post-Print hal-00713790, HAL.
    11. James B. Orlin, 1993. "A Faster Strongly Polynomial Minimum Cost Flow Algorithm," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 41(2), pages 338-350, April.
    12. S. Liao & Christian van Delft & J.-P. Vial, 2013. "Distributionally robust workforce scheduling in call centres with uncertain arrival rates," Post-Print hal-01069123, HAL.
    13. Robbins, Thomas R. & Harrison, Terry P., 2010. "A stochastic programming model for scheduling call centers with global Service Level Agreements," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1608-1619, December.
    14. Defraeye, Mieke & Van Nieuwenhuyse, Inneke, 2016. "Staffing and scheduling under nonstationary demand for service: A literature review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 4-25.
    15. A. Ben-Tal & A. Nemirovski, 1998. "Robust Convex Optimization," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 769-805, November.
    16. Júlíus Atlason & Marina A. Epelman & Shane G. Henderson, 2008. "Optimizing Call Center Staffing Using Simulation and Analytic Center Cutting-Plane Methods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 295-309, February.
    17. Refael Hassin, 1992. "Approximation Schemes for the Restricted Shortest Path Problem," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 36-42, February.
    18. Ward Whitt, 2006. "Staffing a Call Center with Uncertain Arrival Rate and Absenteeism," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 15(1), pages 88-102, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pei, Zhi & Dai, Xu & Yuan, Yilun & Du, Rui & Liu, Changchun, 2021. "Managing price and fleet size for courier service with shared drones," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Yanıkoğlu, İhsan & Gorissen, Bram L. & den Hertog, Dick, 2019. "A survey of adjustable robust optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(3), pages 799-813.
    3. Sara Mattia & Michael Poss, 2018. "A comparison of different routing schemes for the robust network loading problem: polyhedral results and computation," Computational Optimization and Applications, Springer, vol. 69(3), pages 753-800, April.
    4. Jiun-Yan Shiau & Ming-Kung Huang & Chu-Yi Huang, 2020. "A Hybrid Personnel Scheduling Model for Staff Rostering Problems," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Xiang, Xi & Liu, Changchun, 2021. "An almost robust optimization model for integrated berth allocation and quay crane assignment problem," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    6. Cho, David D. & Stauffer, Jon M., 2022. "Tele-medicine question response service: Analysis of benefits and costs," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    7. Perla, Abhinav & Nikolaev, Alexander & Pasiliao, Eduardo, 2018. "Workforce management under social Link Based Corruption," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 222-236.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ta, Thuy Anh & Chan, Wyean & Bastin, Fabian & L’Ecuyer, Pierre, 2021. "A simulation-based decomposition approach for two-stage staffing optimization in call centers under arrival rate uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(3), pages 966-979.
    2. Defraeye, Mieke & Van Nieuwenhuyse, Inneke, 2016. "Staffing and scheduling under nonstationary demand for service: A literature review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 4-25.
    3. Robbins, Thomas R. & Harrison, Terry P., 2010. "A stochastic programming model for scheduling call centers with global Service Level Agreements," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1608-1619, December.
    4. Noah Gans & Haipeng Shen & Yong-Pin Zhou & Nikolay Korolev & Alan McCord & Herbert Ristock, 2015. "Parametric Forecasting and Stochastic Programming Models for Call-Center Workforce Scheduling," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 571-588, October.
    5. René Bekker & Dennis Moeke & Bas Schmidt, 2019. "Keeping pace with the ebbs and flows in daily nursing home operations," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 350-363, June.
    6. Albrecht, Tobias & Rausch, Theresa Maria & Derra, Nicholas Daniel, 2021. "Call me maybe: Methods and practical implementation of artificial intelligence in call center arrivals’ forecasting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 267-278.
    7. Merve Bodur & James R. Luedtke, 2017. "Mixed-Integer Rounding Enhanced Benders Decomposition for Multiclass Service-System Staffing and Scheduling with Arrival Rate Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2073-2091, July.
    8. Smirnov, Dmitry & Huchzermeier, Arnd, 2020. "Analytics for labor planning in systems with load-dependent service times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(2), pages 668-681.
    9. Kaan Kuzu & Refik Soyer, 2018. "Bayesian modeling of abandonments in ticket queues," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(6-7), pages 499-521, September.
    10. Ran Liu & Xiaolan Xie, 2018. "Physician Staffing for Emergency Departments with Time-Varying Demand," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 588-607, August.
    11. Ingolfsson, Armann & Campello, Fernanda & Wu, Xudong & Cabral, Edgar, 2010. "Combining integer programming and the randomization method to schedule employees," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(1), pages 153-163, April.
    12. Boris N. Oreshkin & Nazim Réegnard & Pierre L’Ecuyer, 2016. "Rate-Based Daily Arrival Process Models with Application to Call Centers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 510-527, April.
    13. Heemskerk, M. & Mandjes, M. & Mathijsen, B., 2022. "Staffing for many-server systems facing non-standard arrival processes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(3), pages 900-913.
    14. Rouba Ibrahim & Pierre L'Ecuyer, 2013. "Forecasting Call Center Arrivals: Fixed-Effects, Mixed-Effects, and Bivariate Models," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 72-85, May.
    15. Alex Roubos & Ger Koole & Raik Stolletz, 2012. "Service-Level Variability of Inbound Call Centers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(3), pages 402-413, July.
    16. Kinshuk Jerath & Anuj Kumar & Serguei Netessine, 2015. "An Information Stock Model of Customer Behavior in Multichannel Customer Support Services," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 368-383, July.
    17. Hamed Mamani & Shima Nassiri & Michael R. Wagner, 2017. "Closed-Form Solutions for Robust Inventory Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1625-1643, May.
    18. Benjamin Legros & Sihan Ding & Rob Mei & Oualid Jouini, 2017. "Call centers with a postponed callback offer," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 39(4), pages 1097-1125, October.
    19. Achal Bassamboo & Assaf Zeevi, 2009. "On a Data-Driven Method for Staffing Large Call Centers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 714-726, June.
    20. James W. Taylor, 2012. "Density Forecasting of Intraday Call Center Arrivals Using Models Based on Exponential Smoothing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(3), pages 534-549, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:72:y:2017:i:c:p:25-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.