IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v54y2008i2p310-323.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Staffing Multiskill Call Centers via Linear Programming and Simulation

Author

Listed:
  • Mehmet Tolga Cezik

    (GERAD and Département d'Informatique et de Recherche Opérationnelle, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal H3C 3J7, Canada)

  • Pierre L'Ecuyer

    (GERAD and Département d'Informatique et de Recherche Opérationnelle, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal H3C 3J7, Canada)

Abstract

We study an iterative cutting-plane algorithm on an integer program for minimizing the staffing costs of a multiskill call center subject to service-level requirements that are estimated by simulation. We solve a sample average version of the problem, where the service levels are expressed as functions of the staffing for a fixed sequence of random numbers driving the simulation. An optimal solution of this sample problem is also an optimal solution to the original problem when the sample size is large enough. Several difficulties are encountered when solving the sample problem, especially for large problem instances, and we propose practical heuristics to deal with these difficulties. We report numerical experiments with examples of different sizes. The largest example corresponds to a real-life call center with 65 types of calls and 89 types of agents (skill groups).

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:54:y:2008:i:2:p:310-323
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1070.0824
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0824
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0824?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre L'Ecuyer & Richard Simard & E. Jack Chen & W. David Kelton, 2002. "An Object-Oriented Random-Number Package with Many Long Streams and Substreams," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(6), pages 1073-1075, December.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Rodney B. Wallace & Ward Whitt, 2005. "A Staffing Algorithm for Call Centers with Skill-Based Routing," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 7(4), pages 276-294, August.
    5. Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2002. "Queueing Models of Call Centers: An Introduction," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 41-59, July.
    6. Júlíus Atlason & Marina Epelman & Shane Henderson, 2004. "Call Center Staffing with Simulation and Cutting Plane Methods," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 333-358, March.
    7. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Avramidis, Athanassios N. & Chan, Wyean & Gendreau, Michel & L'Ecuyer, Pierre & Pisacane, Ornella, 2010. "Optimizing daily agent scheduling in a multiskill call center," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(3), pages 822-832, February.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Vijay Mehrotra & Thomas A. Grossman, 2009. "OR Process Skills Transform an Out-of-Control Call Center into a Strategic Asset," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 39(4), pages 346-352, August.
    5. 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.
    6. Achal Bassamboo & J. Michael Harrison & Assaf Zeevi, 2006. "Design and Control of a Large Call Center: Asymptotic Analysis of an LP-Based Method," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 419-435, June.
    7. Ward Whitt, 2007. "What you should know about queueing models to set staffing requirements in service systems," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(5), pages 476-484, August.
    8. 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.
    9. J. Michael Harrison & Assaf Zeevi, 2005. "A Method for Staffing Large Call Centers Based on Stochastic Fluid Models," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 20-36, September.
    10. Ward Whitt & Jingtong Zhao, 2017. "Many‐server loss models with non‐poisson time‐varying arrivals," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 177-202, April.
    11. 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.
    12. Tien Thanh Dam & Thuy Anh Ta & Tien Mai, 2022. "Joint chance-constrained staffing optimization in multi-skill call centers," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 354-378, August.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Noah Gans & Yong-Pin Zhou, 2007. "Call-Routing Schemes for Call-Center Outsourcing," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(1), pages 33-50, May.
    16. 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.
    17. Sandjai Bhulai & Taoying Farenhorst-Yuan & Bernd Heidergott & Dinard Laan, 2012. "Optimal balanced control for call centers," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 201(1), pages 39-62, December.
    18. Haipeng Shen & Jianhua Z. Huang, 2008. "Interday Forecasting and Intraday Updating of Call Center Arrivals," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 391-410, July.
    19. Elvin Coban & Aliza Heching & Alan Scheller‐Wolf, 2019. "Service Center Staffing with Cross‐Trained Agents and Heterogeneous Customers," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 28(4), pages 788-809, April.
    20. Barth, Wolfgang & Manitz, Michael & Stolletz, Raik, 2008. "Analysis of Two-Level Support Systems with Time-Dependent Overflow - A Banking Application," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-399, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.

    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:inm:ormnsc:v:54:y:2008:i:2:p:310-323. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.