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Server Staffing to Meet Time-Varying Demand

Author

Listed:
  • Otis B. Jennings

    (School of Industrial and System Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332)

  • Avishai Mandelbaum

    (Industrial and Management Engineering, The Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel)

  • William A. Massey

    (Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Room 2C-120, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974-0636)

  • Ward Whitt

    (AT&T Laboratories, Room 2C-178, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974-0636)

Abstract

We consider a multiserver service system with general nonstationary arrival and service-time processes in which s(t), the number of servers as a function of time, needs to be selected to meet projected loads. We try to choose s(t) so that the probability of a delay (before beginning service) hits or falls just below a target probability at all times. We develop an approximate procedure based on a time-dependent normal distribution, where the mean and variance are determined by infinite-server approximations. We demonstrate that this approximation is effective by making comparisons with the exact numerical solution of the Markovian M t /M/s t model.

Suggested Citation

  • Otis B. Jennings & Avishai Mandelbaum & William A. Massey & Ward Whitt, 1996. "Server Staffing to Meet Time-Varying Demand," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(10), pages 1383-1394, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:42:y:1996:i:10:p:1383-1394
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.42.10.1383
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