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Operator staffing and scheduling for an IT-help call centre

Author

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  • Hesham K. Alfares

Abstract

This paper describes the staffing and scheduling of IT help desk operators for a large petrochemical company. The objective is to reduce the labour cost by determining the best staffing level and employee weekly tour schedules required to meet the workload that varies over a 24-hr operating period. Several steps are taken for the staffing and tour scheduling of an IT help desk agents. First, data on the number of calls is used to estimate hourly labour requirements. Next, new scheduling options are proposed to better match these requirements. An Integer Programming (IP) model is then formulated and solved to determine tour scheduling assignments. Finally, alternative schedules are evaluated in terms of tradeoffs between workforce size and cost, service level and employee utilisation. The chosen tour schedules provide better service with a lower cost and a smaller number of employees.[Received 10 November 2006; Revised 23 April 2007; Accepted 18 June 2007]

Suggested Citation

  • Hesham K. Alfares, 2007. "Operator staffing and scheduling for an IT-help call centre," European Journal of Industrial Engineering, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(4), pages 414-430.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:eujine:v:1:y:2007:i:4:p:414-430
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    Cited by:

    1. Ferdinand Kiermaier & Markus Frey & Jonathan F. Bard, 2020. "The flexible break assignment problem for large tour scheduling problems with an application to airport ground handlers," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 177-209, April.
    2. Van den Bergh, Jorne & Beliën, Jeroen & De Bruecker, Philippe & Demeulemeester, Erik & De Boeck, Liesje, 2013. "Personnel scheduling: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 226(3), pages 367-385.
    3. Emir Hüseyin Özder & Evrencan Özcan & Tamer Eren, 2019. "Staff Task-Based Shift Scheduling Solution with an ANP and Goal Programming Method in a Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-26, February.
    4. Jaime Miranda & Pablo A. Rey & Antoine Sauré & Richard Weber, 2018. "Metro Uses a Simulation-Optimization Approach to Improve Fare-Collection Shift Scheduling," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 48(6), pages 529-542, November.

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